One Month From Departure!
Whoa man. Time has flown by, but here we are with one month left before departure. Crazy. Here's some quick updates to keep everyone on track.
Test Pack: We're planning a full test pack for this weekend. This is meant to be a full-scale loadout that is 98-100% representative of the gear and contents that will be going on the trip with us. We expect to gain a solid understanding of how much space we have, or don't have, as well as a better feel for total weight and handling of the bikes while fully loaded.
Additionally, Goda will be setting his bike up to ship next week. Once its loaded and underway he'll have no contact with the bike until the night before departure. I'll be giving it a final check once it arrives on the west coast and from there on it will remain dormant… The calm before the storm?
Hopefully it’s the calm before the highly fulfilling and extremely fun adventure…
Final Bike Mods: As I type this, I'm waiting on one last mod to ship. With any luck, by this time next week my bike will be fully upgraded and ready to ride. The KLR will be receiving two electrical mods, one to hardwire the GPS unit, and one for accessories, as well as a center stand to help make general maintenance and trail repairs easy. See the bikes page for full details in a few days.
GPS DATA: We're beginning to tackle the GPS data this week. Our goals are to:
- Create a complete route map, including waypoints and tracks, that will fit within the 4GB limit of our Garmin Devices.
- Create North-to-South as well as South-to-North versions of that data and make them freely available. (see the planning page for details and links to maps and files)
- Post interactive Google maps that are publicly available using the data.
- Post Updated Overall GPS Data after we wrap up the trip.
Having accurate and up to date GPS data is an enormously important part of doing this trip for us. As we've mentioned, we are using data that comes from Big Dogg and Jammin with Jay, two other dual sport riders who have done the CDR before. Their trip reports and GPS data have been a huge help to our planning efforts. Our contribution will be to update that data with the latest waypoints and tracks in case of any modifications to the route, as well as provide the reciprocal routes that show north to south and south to north routes in files that are small enough to easily import to a mobile GPS device, but detailed enough to get you outta the woods. If we can manage all that, we'll be happy campers and hopefully it will help others to be the same!
That's it for now, stay tuned for more.
