Pale Spruce, LLC

This Sunday at 2PM, hear from 15 local authors at Douglas County Libraries in Castle Rock.

http://www.palespruce.com/dcl-author-showcase/

Douglas County Libraries Local Author Showcase Join me and fourteen other authors Sunday August 19th at 2:00 p.m. to hear about their books. Douglas County Libraries in Castle Rock, Philip S. Miller branch 100 S. Wilcox, Castle Rock, 80104 Jon Wolfe – The Domestic Dominion. An

Little green singlespeed - keep on doing what you do

http://www.palespruce.com/little-green-singlespeed/

Little Green Singlespeed. Oh, The Places You Will Go! Next week, my kids start a new school year. Way too early to start if you ask me, but they didn’t ask me. Not only do I have two boys going to school, but my dear little singlespeed will be

Bikepacking boiled down to 3 pictures and 82 words and a Hostess Fruit Pie.

http://www.palespruce.com/82-words/

A Bikepacking Trip In 82 Words

Wrapping and controlling the Eye of Sauron. No hobbits were harmed in the making of this hiking stick.

http://www.palespruce.com/sauron/

“Eye of Sauron” Paracord Hiking Stick It’s time for another paracord wrap. This time with some bright colors, a hole in the middle, and Hobbits. Ok, there are only Hobbit references. Not actual Hobbits The previous stick reminded me of a penguin. When looking at this

From dead branch to working hiking stick. The making of "The Penguin"

http://www.palespruce.com/the-making-of-the-penguin-hiking-stick/

The Making of “The Penguin” Hiking Stick

Wondering if anyone has ever made a breakfast concoction like the one mentioned here - brownie mix + instant carnation + oatmeal + coffee. Sounds kind of tasty, and who wouldn't want a breakfast of brownies and coffee

https://www.greenbelly.co/pages/5-day-ultralight-backpacking-meal-plan

5-Day Backpacking Meal Plan: Ultralight Food Breakdown High Calorie, High Nutrition, Ultralight, Ready-to-Eat Backpacking Meal Plan from the Appalachian Trail. The Best Backpacking Food for Ultralight Hiking.

How do you describe new products? I like to practice my counting, and reference both Cocker Spaniels and spy planes. Maybe that's what I never went into marketing.

http://www.palespruce.com/new-product-survival/

New products! Simple Surivial Kits

A follow-up post to our Colorado Trail Segment 1 trip. How do you carry food for hungry boys?

http://www.palespruce.com/food-kids-bikepacking/

Feeding Kids During a Bikepacking Trip Holy cow! Two boys can eat a lot of food. And, of course, dad has to carry most of it when we go bikepacking. While preparing for our Colorado Trail Segment 1 trip, food became the biggest obstacle. We had

Riding segment 1 of the Colorado Trail with kids. A great weekend.

http://www.palespruce.com/bikepacking-the-colorado-trail-with-kids/

Bikepacking the Colorado Trail with Kids

A brief view into a weekend bikepacking on the Colorado Trail with kids. Longer writeup coming on Monday.

https://youtu.be/Sg_k9tjwyXk

We talk bikes, business, and how they relate.

The Truth About Creating A Legacy - Doug Foley The story of a 2,745 mile journey, a book, and an online business. Episode #89 of The Happiness of Pursuit shares how to build a legacy with Andy Amick.

Well said -

"Camping doesn’t have to be intimidating or overwhelming. Start small with one planned weekend trip for this year and work your way up to bigger, longer trips."

5 Easy Ways to Try Camping for the First Time I myself didn’t grow up camping but have grown to love this popular summer activity over the past several years. I can assure you that every trip gets a little bit easier and that you’ll become a pro in no time. First though, you’ve got to get started.

Tomorrow, join me and Alpha Bikes in Centennial at 7PM for a book signing and to discuss the Tour Divide. Hope to see you there.

Wanna talks bikepacking and the Tour Divide? Join us on June 7th at Alpha Bicycle Company.

http://www.palespruce.com/book-signing/

Book Signing Join me and Alpha Bicycle Company on June 7th for an evening of Tour Divide talk. This is definitely one of those things in life I never imagined. Just like I never imagined myself writing and publishing a book. But

Thanks to everyone that waiting patiently for the paperback version. It's finally available on Amazon!

Paperback versions of my book are now available! http://www.palespruce.com/paperback-is-now-available/

Paperback is now available! You can now buy the paperback version of A Dream Worth Living directly from Amazon for the low, low price of $11.99. The book is available for free Prime shipping, but there is some additional time required for the on-demand printing

So...the paperback version is available (kind of). Amazon takes a few days to add the book to their site, but you can buy it directly from CreateSpace which is the arm of Amazon that actually prints the book.

https://www.createspace.com/6602675

"A Dream Worth Living" by Andy Amick "This is why we ride the Tour Divide. In the span of a few hours, you can go from the brink of exhaustion in the worst possible conditions to an explosion of sunshine, amazing people, and breathtaking scenery." On Friday the 13th, under a full moon and falling rain, Andy Amick completed the first da...

Here's your chance to get a free book. Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win a Kindle version.

http://www.palespruce.com/free-kindle-copy/

Win a free copy of “A Dream Worth Living” What could be better than my book? Other than sunsets in the mountains, a new bike, clearing a technical section of trail for the first time. I better stop listing typing before I put my book at position 10,047,874. But

Today is the day. The book is finally available!

http://www.palespruce.com/a-dream-worth-living/

A Dream Worth Living The book, A Dream Worth Living, is now available in Kindle format at Amazon.com. It’s only $0.99 for the first two weeks. Stay tuned for updates about the paperback release in late April. In the meantime, if you’re so inclined to

Two sample chapters from my new book about the 2014 Tour Divide race that comes out later this week!

http://www.palespruce.com/book-launch-week/

Book Launch Week! The book is coming. The book is coming. I think it was Paul Revere who said this first. Although maybe he said something slightly different. I can’t believe it’s here! After more than two years of work, my Tour Divide book

Writing the book was almost as hard as the race itself.

How I Wrote a Book (While Working Full-Time and Being a Parent) It was hard. It was also completely worth the effort. As an engineer, sitting down to write 50,000+ words seemed overwhelming. I’d never written more than 10 or 20 pages for a project, and most of that came in the form

Lots of climbing but oh the wonderful views and the long downhills.

Torino-Nice Rally, The Film - BIKEPACKING.com The Torino-Nice Rally film follows Joachim Rosenlund over 700km of old military Cols & scenic trade routes from the Italian Alps to the coast of France...

Looking for feedback on cover ideas for my 2014 Tour Divide book that's getting closer to completely.

http://www.palespruce.com/book-cover/

Tour Divide Book Cover Ideas

Watching your kids overcome their limits goes something like this:

"No, I can't"
"Yes, you can!"

See you just did it!

http://www.palespruce.com/limits/

Watching Your Kids Push Their Limits One of the best things in life is watching your child accomplish a task they deem impossible. Of course, it’s even better when that something involves a bike. Earlier this summer, my 12 year old son and I headed out for

Creating a bikepacking gear system without spending hours of research - http://www.palespruce.com/three-companies/

A Bikepacking System Built From Three Companies No, this is not about the 70’s show “Three’s Company”. It’s about building a bikepacking system – one using gear from only three different companies. Bikepacking allows riders the freedom to explore new areas and go deeper into trail systems.

Convenient way to get coffee on the trail.

Bikepacking With Coffee - An AeroPress Experience - Bikepackers Magazine Coffee. What is life without it? Coffee begins it’s life as a green cherry-like seed. These seeds are roasted to perfection using various methodologies to create the bean which makes the drink…

Another great product from J. Paks

First Look JPaks GravelPak - Bikepackers Magazine The GravelPak from JPaks is a small saddlebag that is perfect for long day rides, bikes with minimal clearance, small frames, gravel grinder races, or even ultralight bikepacking. The bag’s simple…

5 UK bikepacking trips

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/bikepacking-mountain-biking-cycling-wild-camping-uk-britain-england-wales-scotland-laurence-mcjannet-a7067266.html

5 great bikepacking rides in the UK Bikepacking is where mountain biking meets lightweight camping; it was inspired by the original spirit of the first off-road adventure riders in 1970s California. Bikepacking adventures are self-supported, two-wheeled, overnight forays, off the Tarmac roads and into the countryside or wilderness on…

Having a little fun with data analysis and the Tour Divide.

Generating a weather map along the route plus discovering a correlation between distance and elevation gain.

http://www.palespruce.com/visualizing-the-tour-divide/

Visualizing the Tour Divide In my quest to learn Apache Spark to support my day job as a software developer, I decided to analyze my 2014 Tour Divide GPS data. Working with an interesting data set always helps the learning process. Plus, I had

Finding the silver lining in a year with a huge reduction in riding time.

http://www.palespruce.com/reduce/

Three Benefits Of Reducing Your Riding By 90% While out on a ride the other week, it hit me that 2015 saw my riding reduced by 90% over the 2014 levels. Initially, I was a bit disturbed by that realization. However, I kept pedaling and found three positive