bike packing – averagejackandjill

The trip out to Colorado

August 17, 2016August 17, 2016bikerjohnnyd

So this whole Colorado trip sounded great!!! You ride from hut to hut, they provide food and water and you pedal through the most beautiful state I have ever seen thus far. Sorry if I offend anyone who lives somewhere I have not traveled to yet. It’s not my fault, going with the modern trend, I will blame my parents…… You see they took us on vacation every year, to the UP, if your not from Michigan that is the Upper Peninsula. Michigan is a great state, we have two Peninsulas joined by a bridge and a ton of water that is spectacular. What Michigan doesn’t have is mountains. The kind of mountains where everything can kill you, but I am digressing.

Driving to Colorado was going to be a 20 plus hour drive that I knew would be tough. Driving that long in a vehicle will test people and make them edgy. Luckily, we were an amazing group of people that got along well and worked together in a manner that didn’t piss anyone off. One the way out we stopped often for gas and food. This allowed us to stretch our legs and get out of what we affectionally called the “creeper van” Scooby Doo had the Mystery Machine, we could name our van something cool, I thought it looked like a white rhino but creeper van stuck. A large white van with dark tinted windows is normal right? Want some candy?……..

Along the way we stopped for meals, and we stopped for gas and we stopped for breakfast the next day. We saw some crazy things. Like somewhere in Nebraska I think we saw some very large girl draped over the hood of a redneck ford. You can’t unseen that. This was the kind of gas station where you try not to touch anything, especially the toilet that was rotated clockwise a few degrees.

Food, Booze, Gear and a Girl

August 13, 2015August 16, 2016bikerjohnnydLeave a comment

So we did over pack a bit but you never know……When you are on your first real bike packing adventure you surly don’t want to run out. Sunscreen is a must along with rum!!!

We also grabbed a bunch of miscellaneous stuff that we would end up not needing. I say this because the trail we were taking is the Whitepine trail that runs through many towns. We would be able to get supplies along the way.

I didn’t take any photos of the drive up to Cadillac but the weather turned dark! We spend the night camping in Mitchell State Park in Cadillac. The first night roughing it we want across the road to eat pizza. Then hung out in our tent to drink rum and cokes while waiting for the rain.

Rental car

August 13, 2015July 25, 2016bikerjohnnydLeave a comment

So our original plan was to bike from Grand Rapids to my parents house. Those plans didn’t materialize the way we thought sooooooooo rent a van one way. I wanted to save money and nobody was around to give me a ride so I rode my bike to the airport. The bike is cool, minivans are useful.

This allowed me to get the van packed up and ready to go to save time and money!!!

Gotta love minivans, well actually you don’t but this makes life so easy to haul bikes. I was able to load both bikes from the front fully loaded and tie them down to the floor anchors.

With all that done, we are ready to go.

Prepping, prepping and more prepping!!!

August 12, 2015July 25, 2016bikerjohnnydLeave a comment

The one thing I hear over and over in different blogs or forums is make sure you try all your gear ahead of time.

We have tried out all our gear in various ways but the biggest help to me is loading the bikes over and over. I have purchased extra straps to help secure our gear to the handlebars. I really don’t like feeling my bags move around and by pre-riding the setups, we have been able to come up with a good system. Here are a few pics to show our setup. I will create an actual gear page when I get time to figure out this blog setup.

Why the name????

August 11, 2015July 25, 2016bikerjohnnydLeave a comment

So this name has evolved from several things I like and ideas I have had over the last year or so. I wanted to blog to help pass along info that has helped me purchase the things I did for bikepacking and cycling in general. I love stupid comedy and Dodgeball is one of my favorite stupid comedy movies. When it comes to all things cycling, being a husband, father, hard worker I hope I can relate to the “average joe”. Which relates back to Dodgeball since that is the name of the gym in the movie. We aren’t there yet, hold on. I am very family centered. I have my dad and my grandpa’s name. My grandpa died at a very young age and he went by Jack, so I thought I would call this blog average Jack n Jill in hopes my wife will also post and to carry on his name. I love to bike and ride with my wife and kids, hopefully this blog will be interesting to other “average joe’s” out there.

Some days I feel like this :