We as a society love our abbreviations and acronyms, they often get so ingrained that the meaning of the acronym or abbreviation is unknown to most people. Anyone know what the acronyms in the title stand for, without looking? WD40 = Water Displacement 40, because it took the Rocket Chemical Company 40 attempt to get the formula just right. UB40 the popular 80s pop band stood for unemployment benefit form 40 after the form you'd fill out in the UK to receive unemployement benefits... which as a band trying to make it you'd probably be familar with and probably need it. S24O stands for sub 24 hour overnight camping and the one we will focus on here in the blog, although all three could have been in use this weekend. Oddly enough bikepacking seems to be a topic of some discussion on the interweb blogs, maybe because it's getting to be summer and the season of the S24O. If you're into that sort of thing, NY Roll and Guitar Ted did a two part series where they discussed their preferences when it comes to bikepacking. Those can be heard HERE.
Saturday a few of us met at Cycle Works and rolled out to Conestoga Lake for a S24O, this was my second S24O and would be the first time trying out the new Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 bikepacking specific tent. Intially we had gotten it for the Flint Hills bikepacking adventure but with the temps being colder than what we wanted to deal with the camping never happened.
Tents went up fairly quickly and the chairs came out for a day of relaxing, cooking out and conversation. There wasn't a huge turn out but I feel like some of that was that it was Mother's Day weekend and some of it was the weather, we had several days of rain leading up to the trip and there was still chances of rain on the day and the next day. It's too bad really because it ended up being near perfect, temps were in the 70° range with a slight breeze and lots of cloud cover. I'm not a big fan of tent camping in the heat of summer so this was nice, even needed to pull the sleeping bag up over me in the middle of the night it got that chilly.
The 1120s performed great again for the trip, if I have one thing I'd do different it would be that the rear bags need to be a little larger. That is my personal opinion or course, I could just learn to pack less and smarter. Other than that I have loved everything else about the bike.
Food cooked over an open flame just seems to taste better and Saturday was no exception, we even had a bit of the perfect marshmallow toasting competition. Even if you don't win, eating the losing marshmallow is still a pretty good conselation prize.
Woke up Sunday mornging to cooler temps and a bit of fog. As is the usual when sleeping in a tent, at least for me, everyone was up and at 'em super early. Some packed up right away and got headed back but we still managed a small group heading back to town.
On the way back into town we decided to make a stop at Cultiva for some coffee and breakfast, it was a great decision. I ordered The Dude, one of my favorites, and it hit the spot.
The Mother's Day call came it before we made it back home and an impomptu stop was necessary before making it back to our borrowed driveway parking spot and then the drive home. Great weekend, great temperatures and great group for the first S24O. There is another one in the plans for late September when temps start to cool down again, looking forward to it.
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