My First Successful S24O

What is an S24O?  It is an acronym that stands for Sub 24-hour Overnight bicycle camping trip, coined by Rivendell Bicycle Works!  I say that this was my first successful S24O because, last year, I attempted one with a couple of friends and we made some poor decisions.  I’ll leave it at that for now.  :-)

Anyway, my friend Travis Poppe and I decided to give it another shot this year and this time we were going to keep it simple, easy, and fun.   We decided to camp at the Goodenough camp grounds near McCammon, Idaho and just bring along the bare minimums.  Ok, actually, I went a little crazy and also packed 6 cans of beer as well.  After all, the destination was only about 30 miles away.

We set out after work on Friday, August 29 at around 6:30 pm.  We met up at Travis’ apartment and we lifted each other’s bikes to compare packing weights; both bikes felt very heavy even though we really didn’t pack a ton of stuff.  Cycling toward McCammon felt very easy to us, however; we thought it may be due to the fact that our momentum was enhanced by our mass.  By the time we began cycling up Goodenough Road in McCammon, darkness had fallen and we were very glad for Travis’ hub dynamo and uber-bright headlight on his Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bicycle to light the way.  Upon reaching the campsite, we used Travis’ little flashlight to set up the tent, drink our much-welcomed beer, and eat our dinner.  As we ate we called a friend and chatted with them about our experience so far.

During the night we heard an owl constantly as well as the occasional yapping of some coyotes in the nearby hills.  I slept very well, but Travis didn’t fare so well.  Between his insomnia and the owl, he only got about 4 hours.

The next morning we walked around the area a bit and Travis shot a short movie with his camera.   We took everything down, packed up, and cycled further up Goodenough Road to check out the other camping areas.  Then we cycled into McCammon to get some much needed coffee!  After that we were off back to Pocatello.  Again and again we exclaimed about how much of a perfect success this S24O was.  Especially compared to last years.  But that is for another blog entry sometime… :-p

Here is the photo gallery of this expedition as well as a movie that Travis made at the camp site!