Year in Review: Mileage and Elevation
- nocellajoe
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
718 Outdoors is a 1-person operation that has remained small, local and independent by design since 2008. If this resonates with you, your support is welcome and greatly appreciated! If not, that's cool too.
My mileage Year-in-Review is completed. I know there are a few weeks left in the year, but I am beginning to take my bike apart to overhaul it over my offseason.
I use RideWithGPS for navigational and data tracking. The info then gets spit out into Strava.
Distance: 4,380 Miles
These are all (99%) loaded touring miles. The only time I can remember NOT having bags on the bike in 2025 was Day 4 of our Finger Lakes Tour where we spin 45 miles around Keuka Lake, Seriously, that's it! Even when I ride down to Breakfast Outside, the bike is loaded up.
I just don't have a lifestyle where I am commuting to work or running errands on my bike (my whole life is very walkable here in Park Slope, Brooklyn).
How does a loaded bikepacking mile compare to a regular mile ridden on an unloaded bike? I don't know, maybe its twice as hard? What I do know is that it is harder on the rider and the bike.
Also, folks find it interesting that I only own one bike. My bike sits in my house in a packed state year-round as I work on gear and packing ideas. Once in-season, the bike stays perpetually "ready to go". I unpack/repack it upon each tour's return to to check the status of gear and replace consumables.
Elevation: 174,401'
Mount Everest is 29,032′, so my elevation on the year represents about 6 (6.01 actually) climbs up the world's tallest mountain. This number resonates with me more than the mileage number, as there is a lot of climbing here in the Northeast of the United States.
Notes:
This was a crazy year (see our "Year in Review" video), designed to find my physical, psychological and logistical limits to the number of trips I could lead, this being the first full season without the retail shop. Let's just say I found my limit.
Registration opens for our 2026 Season on January 2, 9am EST.
Final Note:
For better or worse, I do not use AI to create my posts. This is all me, with my misspellings, questionable grammar and tangential thoughts. I didn't get into this line of work to hand over my thoughts, expertise and experience to AI to spit out blog posts.
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