Keeping Busy: Mountain Bike Bumming, Part 3

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Hanging out, reading a book in the park.  (From here.)

Mountain bike bumming is all about long, epic days in the saddle... repeated day after day after day.  The focus is definitely the riding. 

But in reality, you just can't ride every waking hour of the day for days on end.  Your body just cannot take it.  Since you are out there living a bum lifestyle for a week (or longer), you've got to do something to fill the extra time in the evenings, or during the blistering hot hours midday. 

The key to being a bum and saving money after you ride is really simple: don't spend your money on any sort of entertainment. You do have to do something though, right? Well, here are a number of absolutely free ideas:

• Chill out at one of the local parks. Parks are generally free for the public to use, and are great places to hang out.  Many of the other activities listed below can take place at one of these beautiful outdoor areas.  By far the coolest park I've ever hung out at while bike bumming was in Crested Butte, where they had recently installed a big, artificial textured boulder with a spongy crash pad built into the ground.  After a long day of riding, I'd head on over to the park, pull on my climbing shoes, strap on my chalk bag, and spend an hour or two working bouldering problems. 
• Bring books to read. Books are generally very cheap, and most people have a stack that they are meaning to read "sometime." Bring those books along with you and dig in!  It's relaxing, and takes up a lot of your time too. 
• Write. Writing takes a good deal of time and insightful thinking, and can be a very relaxing after-ride activity.  For the real "bum" feeling, be sure to use pen and paper... and maybe napkins from the local convenience store.
• Take pictures. As most of you probably will only be pretending to be bums, bring along your camera and shoot photos of the places you visit during your journey! They'll be great to look back on later.
• Leach free wireless internet. Again, if you're just pretending to be a bum, bring your laptop along and try to steal some free wireless internet by sitting in range of a local coffee shop or restaurant... without buying anything from them.  I would often drive my car around with my laptop in the passenger seat, searching for a wireless network to bum some bandwidth off of.  Come to think of it, I still do that.
• Walk/Ride around town, take in the sites and shops... but just don't buy anything.  Check out all of the interesting attractions, but don't get suckered into paying money.

There You Have It
Now you are all set to go and have a dirt-cheap mountain bike adventure!  I've given you a great kick start on finding places to sleep for free, spending as little money as possible on food, and chilling out after an epic day of singletrack without spending a cent.  Now, a budget of $200 can get you hundreds of miles from home, and at least a week or two of epic mountain biking in!  Whenever you get a week off, take your chance and get out and there and mountain bike bum it!

Your Turn: What else makes a great after ride activity? And/or do you have any more thoughts on bumming on a long mountain bike trip?

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