Roadside Mysteries

The Mini-Bicycle Touring Adventure!

Just how scary is it to go bicycle touring? I don’t know for sure. I’ve done multi-day trips camping out with my bike on jaunts like the Ragbrai and Grabaawr but bicycle touring is a different animal. On those big organized bike trips all of your camping equipment and whatever baggage you might have on the trip is conveniently schlepped over to your next overnight destination by trained gorillas who are aware of the fact that you signed a waiver before the trip.

But bicycle touring is not like that. True Bicycle Touring means YOU take all of your crap with you ON your bike! You ARE the gorilla on a bike! You don’t need no stinking waiver! You are a different animal. You are crazy!

No, I don’t think I want to do this, but recently I found a way to emulate the touring experience by 1) not riding too far away from home, and 2) camping for only one night. Sure, it’s October in the Front Range of Northern Colorado; It will be cold at night and it might snow. But for just one day, how hard could it be?

Happy Holler!ween

I happened to come across a notice about a music / costume party being held on some farmland northwest of the town of Wellington, Colorado.  Camping was encouraged and it was only 22 miles from home.

Michael (dressed as a skunk) with Bourbon Toothpaste

Michael produces a ‘happening’ called Holler!ween each year to benefit various organizations in the FoCo community; this time it was at Grant Farms near Wellington. We saw Michael and Bourbon Toothpaste at the Catalyst at the first FoCoMX back in April of 2009.

This event looked like the perfect way to try a little bike-tent camping so I made an advanced donation on-line and I packed my tent and costume and maybe a few other things I thought I might need and  headed off to the farm. I made it there around 4:30 in the afternoon.

The Hippie Bus

The route to Grant Farms was fairly easy from Fort Collins via Taft Hill Road. The last bit was a dusty farm road that (due to all the dust) made me miss the main entrance to the farm. I rolled in via a back road where I saw two of these hippie buses blocking the back back entrance. I had arrived.

Black Sheep with tent and equipment cart

I set up my tent (note three other tents in the background) and since I was early I left the tent and trailer and took a bike trip into Wellington to 1) have dinner and 2) find a flashlight! Damn, I knew it would get dark! And walking on a farmer’s field at night could be interesting if you can’t see where you are going! Duh!

Other Bike Campers were there!

It was very nice to see that I was not the only cyclist at the event. The first inhabitants to arrive at the farm were in SUV’s and camper vans; I thought I was the only one there with a bike at first, but these guys must have come in while I was in Wellington. I took this picture the morning after the event– they were all sleeping; I didn’t want to wake them.

Hay bales and pumpkins

The party was happening in a large tent located on the farmland east of the camping area. There seemed to be enough beer and treats to satisfy the 250 or so people who attended the party. And everyone there was  ready to party!

Even Frylock was there!

It was hard getting good party pictures. There were some great costumes but most of the pictures were way too dark except this one of a guy dressed as the Aqua Teen Hunger Force character known as Frylock. I’m sure the guy standing next to him is not  Meatwad nor Master Shake. Note: The Aqua Teen Hunger Force is now called the Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1; I don’t know why.

YetiCon?

Apparently I was not alone as far as your typical Yeti costume is concerned. I found another Yeti and we posed for a picture outside the party tent where there happened to be a few stage lights set up. I’m the one on the left in case you were wondering.

Yeti on a Black Sheep Bike

Somehow I survived the party and the camping experience (NO HOT TUB? WTF?) and was up the next morning to take a final pass on the bike while in costume (not recommended) before riding home.

Total miles: 64

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.