All Tales From The Road since the beginning of times:
2021:
What’s new this month on FarOutRide.com?
1- Partial Shading
We deep-dived into the subject and updated our Electrical System Design Guide. The idea is to grasp how important it is to locate the panels out of the shade of the other equipment (fan, A/C, etc.) and how to mitigate the effects of partial shading.
faroutride.com/electrical-system#shade
2- Tales from the Road
This month we’re trying a new format for our Tales from the Road; instead of posting only our “Best Pictures”, we’re posting a little something everyday (well, almost). In the same fashion as Instagram Stories, except the stories posted here won’t disappear after 24 hours… please let us know what you think! What do you like better??
Vanlife Actual Cost
| VanLife Actual Cost |
|
| October 2018 | |
| Auto Insurance | $133 |
| Gas & Fuel | $596 |
| Alcohol & Bars | $313 |
| Groceries | $851 |
| Restaurants | $383 |
| Travel Medical Insurance (complementary to free Canadian medicare) | $182 |
| Activities | $258 |
| Campground | $0 |
| Everything Else
(cell, internet, Netflix, pharmacy, etc) |
$249 |
|
TOTAL (2 people) (excluding mtb gear/maintenance) |
$2965 (USD) |
Previous months here: faroutride.com/vanlife-actual-cost
Tales from the Road
October 2018 Interactive Map:
🗓️: October 2nd 2018
🌎: Paulina Lake Hot Springs, Oregon. (Google Maps)
Drove up Paulina Lake Hot Springs today. The Hot Springs are about 30 minutes hike and won’t make it into our “Best Of”, but whatever it was fun getting there and discovering that place!
🏕️: We camped 15 minutes from the Hot Springs (Ioverlander.com); very quiet spot, in-the-middle-of-nowhere feeling, except there is good Verizon signal if that matters to you.
🗓️: October 3rd 2018
🌎: Umpqua Hot Springs, Oregon. (Google Maps)
Crater Lake was foggy today, we had to find a plan B! Great Hot Springs with many pools and hippy vibe (clothing optional).
🏕️: Like yesterday, we found a nice place to camp in the middle of nowhere (iOverlander.com) and we encountered this WilD KiLLiNg MaCHinE:
🗓️: October 4th 2018: Crater Lake (Oregon)
🌎: Crater Lake, Oregon. (Google Maps)
Hiked Crater Lake today:
🚵: Then we drove to Spence Mountain to ride our bikes; North Ridge trail was one of our favorite ride in Oregon! Finally some technical and steeper lines, it’s been a while…
no pic sorry; we were on a mission to make it back “home” before dark; it got suuuuuuper cold and Antoine left some rubber (and some air) on a sharp rock on the way down…
🏕️: There’s a campsite near the trailhead (iOverlander.com)
🗓️: October 6th 2018
🌎: Mount Shasta, California. (Google Maps)
🏕️: We found a place to camp on a back road (Google Maps) and SquatVan joined us for the evening 🙂
🚵: “Bonecrusher/8 Mile/Lower Cliffhanger” was one of the best ride we had for a long time!! Yesterday’s rain really made the soil “loamy” (aw yes!) and the trail is technical and steep enough. Highly recommended!
🚵: We then drove to Redding and rode French Fry trail. Redding recently had a massive forest fire and everything is burnt out: houses, cars, trees, etc. It kind of look like a war zone 🙁 And the burnt smell is omnipresent. Weird.
🗓️: October 7th 2018
🌎: Redding, CA. (Google Maps)
🚵: Today we met Mike and Sandrine, a very nice couple living in Chico. They showed us Snail and Enticer trail in Redding (and the brewery too!). We really connected with them and we’ll make sure to see them again soon 🙂
🗓️: October 8th 2018
🌎: Avenue of the Giants (Google Maps)
I’ve come to the conclusion that humans among giant trees = cats among cardboard boxes…
🗓️: October 9th 2018
🌎: Paradise Royal Trail System, CA. (Google Maps)
🏕️: At the Trailhead!
🚵: Paradise Royal is a nice easy loop, in the middle of nowhere:
🗓️: October 10th 2018
🌎: San Francisco, CA. (Google Maps)
🏕️: Residential street near the airport. New addition to the list of “Banned Overnight Spots”: AIRPORTS.
🗓️: October 12th 2018
🌎: Sonoma Valley, CA. (Google Maps)
Even though we love beer, it’s always pleasant to share a good glass of wine with friends! Note to self, never go again to a wine tasting before lunch… Getting drunk before noon ruins the day! Cheers 🍷
🗓️: October 14th 2018
🚵: Hay Flat DH
This trail feels like going down through bowling balls that were randomly dropped there. It’s too slow, not steep as the description suggest and lack the fun factor; not recommended sorry.
🗓️: October 15th 2018
🚵: Thunder Mountain DH trail
🗓️: October 17th 2018
🌎: South Lake Tahoe. (Google Maps)
🏕️: In the National Forest back road near this spot: iOverlander.com
🚵: Armstrong Connector + Upper/Lower Corral
Today was a good day to be alive! 🤩
Blue sky, no wind, mild temps… and we absolutely loved Armstrong Connector + Corral trails loop in South Lake Tahoe! There’s a good balance between technical/flow that make Armstrong + Upper Corral super playful. Then, getting into Lower Corral, it’s time to ice the cake on the jump line (mostly tabletops, which are very well built)! 🙃
🗓️: October 19th 2018
🌎: South Lake Tahoe. (Google Maps)
🏕️: Same as yesterday.
🚵: Toad’s Wild Ride
The climb.
While it can be done partly as a shuttle, we went for the big climb: that’s 1065m of climb on 12.3km. It seemed OK on paper, we’ve done more than that before… except, again, the elevation took its toll on us! Indeed, the summit is at 9400ft and it took us muuuuuuch longer than we expected to complete the last leg of the climb. Very happy we did it though, but we want more laps and next time we’ll be shuttling it 🙂
The descent.
Definitely one of the best descent we had in a while! We loved the upper section as it’s fast, technical and moderately steep; it deserves it’s black diamond rating! The grade lowers for the last section and the trail gets super fast and flowy, with nice berms and obstacles to keep things interesting. We like to see a mix of technical/flow in the same descent and with what we’ve seen so far in South Tahoe, it looks like the trailbuilders here think the same 🙂
No doubt, it’s a classic!
🗓️: October 20th 2018
🌎: Tahoe City. (Google Maps)
🚵: Painted Rock
A network of XC-oriented trails located within a XC skiing area. Highlight: Painted Rock. Special mention to Fast Eddies: stay focused, push hard and you will find some flow!! Thanks to Dave for the ride, we had a good time 🙂
Dave also recommended to get some pastries at the Sugar Pine Cakery. The Orange Morning Bun is a must-try!
🗓️: October 22th 2018
🌎: Truckee. (Google Maps)
This morning we climbed on the roof to clean the solar panels, and we messed around with partial shading (we told you we’re fun people!). It’s a phenomenon we considered while designing our roof layout, but it was interesting to observe it live!
Did you know that MORE panels could result in LESS total power?
We deep-dived into the subject and updated our Electrical System Design Guide. The idea is to grasp how important it is to locate the panels out of the shade of the other equipment (fan, A/C, etc.) and how to mitigate the effects of partial shading.
faroutride.com/electrical-system#shade
🗓️: October 22th 2018
🌎: Truckee
Swivel Seats Battle!
Everyone’s is going nuts about the Scopema swivel these days and we wanted to know what’s the deal with it… The folks from Travois.ca were kind enough to provide us with a Scopema and Swisstech swivels, so we could try them out:
🗓️: October 23th 2018
🌎: Truckee
Rotating the tires to squeeze a few more miles out of them…
🗓️: October 24th 2018
🌎: Truckee
🚵: Big Chief Trail
One of the newest addition in town. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about that trail, but we probably set our expectations too high. Don’t get us wrong it’s a great trail, but it will get better after the features and flow is fixed a little. Still recommended!
🗓️: October 26th 2018
🌎: Downieville. (Google Maps)
🚵: Gold Valley Rim, Big Boulder, Second Divide, First Divide
Downieville needs no introduction. It’s a must-go destination. With humongous elevation loss (2,000m in the ride shown below) and great shuttle service, don’t bother pedaling up…
To minimize pedaling, ride Butcher Ranch + Third Divide + First Divide. We did it a few years ago, so we opted to ride Gold Valley Rim + Big Boulder + Second Divide + First Divide; there’s more climb involved but it was sweet:
Yuba Expeditions is in charge here in Downieville. It’s a non-profit organisation; all profit is re-invested in trails maintenance and development!! They rock, seriously: www.yubaexpeditions.com/
🗓️: October 27th 2018
🌎: . (Google Maps)
🚵: Mills Peak
Going to Downieville? Why not add Mills Creek to your itinerary? It’s easy to shuttle and it will take you down 900m elevation, sweeet! It’s somewhat technical, but not too much.
🚵: Mt. Hough
And don’t forget Mt. Hough. It will take you down 1,200m at WARP SPEED. There’s no rocks or roots to slow you down here, just pure speed. Bring goggles or the wind will erode your eyes.
🗓️: October 28th 2018
🌎: Brewing Lair (Google Maps) & Reno. (Google Maps)
🏕️: Downtown!
🗓️: October 29th 2018
🌎: Incline Village (Google Maps) & Zephyr Cove. (Google Maps)
🚵: Tyrolean DH
We’re surprised no one recommended that one. It’s not a destination in itself because it’s a bit short, but don’t miss it if you’re in the area! It’s not as good as Corral, but it’s a similar style. And it’s easy to shuttle it, so we like 🙂
🚵: Kingsbury Stinger
Rated as a green trail, feels more like a blue one with couple of optional rock lines. Better be ridden after some rain.
🗓️: October 30th 2018
🌎: Stateline, NV. (Google Maps)
🚵: Van Sickle
Pretty cool trail! It’s rated “blue” so we didn’t expect any technical, but there was some rocks here and there to keep things interesting. Recommended!
🗓️: October 31th 2018
🌎: South Lake Tahoe. (Google Maps)
🚵: Christmas Valley Trail
Nice loop. We liked the technical climb. The descent is not as fast as we hoped, but if you push hard you can find your flow in the rock-gardens. The detour to Dardanelle’s Lake is worth it!
TO BE CONTINUED…
All Tales From The Road since the beginning of times:
2021:
