Monumentally Afflicted

So, I had a great time on the Ring the Peak Plus trip. Nick and I rode over 82 miles and climbed more than 13,000 feet. The first day was brutal, with over 7000 feet of climbing. I didn't realize how heinous the climbing was 'til I saw my GPS capture of the climb. No wonder I was soooo spent at camp that night. We found a perfect campsite, with a view of the lower slopes of Pikes Peak. My Golite Shangri La performed flawlessly during the crazy overnight thunder and lightning storm. No bears pillaged our food, which was a concern of mine after Nick's bear encounter from 2 weeks ago. We woke up to a beautiful day and got off to an early start. After about an hour of spinning up hill, we encountered some guys doing the RTP trail in a day. We let them pass and shortly thereafter I was surprised to catch back up to one of them. Unfortunately, my bike started acting funky. I thought it was chainsuck, but it was much more. A broken chain and twisted derailleur hanger.

Getting ready to Ring the Peak with Nick. We plan to take a fairly casual 3 days to complete the trip. I've done a few bikepacking trips in the past, but used old school racks and panniers. For this trip, I've significantly updated my setup. I have an F3 Designs seatbag, a Revelate Designs Tangle bag , a Revelate Designs Sling and drybag, and two Salsa Anything Cages with dry bags attached. In addition, I'm carrying a Wingnut Hydration pack . I've tried to keep the amount of gear on my back to a minimum and I think this configuration will do that. My Wingnut only contains the things I'd take on a normal ride (water, snacks, tools, rain jacket, etc). I've had the bike out for a couple test rides, including a decent amount of singletrack while fully loaded at lunch today. The setup seems very nice. Certainly way nicer than a rack and panniers. The bike behaves in a very normal, unloaded fashion, only requiring a slight bit more input for small direction