Touring Gear Upgrades.

Trailer with 75 lbs of gear I carted through Mexico in 2007

Although I've done 2 tours in the US, most of my previous tours have been in foreign countries. I camped a lot on my first tour in 2007 riding down the Pacific Coast but since then, not so much. My imagination always got the best of me and I never slept well. I've been analyzing why camping has been so uncomfortable.

Even though I haven't often camped over the last few years, I always carry camping gear. I need to be prepared for areas where camping might be the only option at the end of the day.  And I have used my camping gear surprisingly often - just not usually in campgrounds.  Sometimes, especially in Asia, hotel beds can be nothing more than a very thin mattress on a thick concrete slab. This is where an air mattress is indispensable.  In every country, I've found myself in poorer villages where hotel rooms were sketchy. Sometimes the beds are downright creepy. Often, I use my sleeping bag when I don't have the courage to get into the sheets. Having a sleeping bag on tour is important for a good night's sleep. Even in SE Asia, where the weather was too hot for a sleeping bag, I often used a bag liner for peace of mind. 

On my upcoming tour, I've decided to stay in the US where I'll be riding through Oregon, Idaho and Utah on my way to the Southern Tier. There are beautiful national parks throughout the route with great camping opportunities. For this tour, I'll be camping much more often. With this in mind, I looked over my gear to see if upgrades could make camping more comfortable. I ended up doing a complete overhaul.  

For the last 5 years, I've been using a Big Agnes Copper Spur 1 person tent. It's a great, ultralight tent and super easy to set up but too small to keep all my gear inside while I sleep. I spent some time going over gear lists from long distance cyclists and noticed using a 2 person tent is popular. REI had a sale at the beginning of summer and I picked up a Copper Spur 2 person at a good price.  At first, I bought the Mountain Glow version which comes with LED lights built into the tent but I ended up returning that for the standard 2 person tent. 

2 person Mountain Glow (left)  next to 1 person Copper Spur

My air mattress also had comfort issues. Even though it is a full size Exped 20"x72", it isn't wide enough to lay with my arms at my side. I typically sleep on my back and my arms are always laying on the tent floor. Not so comfortable. While I was at REI, I found an Thermarest Xtherm Neo Air pad that is 25" wide. The R-rating is 5.7 which may be the warmest pad on the market.  I did a short video showing the difference between the 2 pads:

I also really like to cook. During my summers in Portland I rarely eat in restaurants. I'm not a fancy chef but I enjoy eating good, simple, healthy and tasty food. Over the years, I've discovered my body is more comfortable eating a diet rich in plant foods with only a little meat. I don't eat meat every day. Last summer I learned that eliminating nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, eggplant, all peppers, artichokes ...) cured chronic low back pain and stiffness. It was impressive that diet had such a huge impact on my health.  The way my eating has changed is far from the usual American diet. I want to cook more on tour to eat healthier meals than what I would find in diners.  The challenge is also appealing.

In the past, I've carried a canister stove with a pot mostly to boil water for coffee and make oatmeal in the morning.  My canister stove is a Snow Peak and doesn't work with canisters offered in Europe, Morocco or Turkey. Since I was only boiling water it made sense to switch to a simpler alcohol stove on those tours. The biggest difference in performance between the stoves is canister stoves offer flame control and simmering is possible. Alcohol stoves don't have flame adjustment.

For my next tour, I'll expand the kitchen to include both canister and alcohol stoves with a lightweight (7 oz) 8" MSR frying pan. This way I can cook pasta, rice or boil potatoes in the pot while frying up or steaming veggies. Not only will I be carrying more cooking gear but I'll also be packing more condiments such as olive oil, vinegar, honey and tamari with various spices.  In a previous post, I showed how to make hummus on the road and look forward to trying out that recipe while camping too.

New kitchen

I have always carried a can opener with cutlery, a tupperware container for leftovers and my Planetary Designs french press cup. This french press makes such a good cup of coffee I use it even when I'm not touring. 

Planetary Designs french press mug

Western Mountaineering Alpinlite bag

I'm happy with these changes but my biggest upgrade is to my sleeping bag. For the last 8 years I've used a Feathered Friends 30 degree bag. It was a very nice bag but I made a big mistake by keeping it stored in the stuff sack too long.  After so many years of being compressed for months at a time, the down got clumped up to the point it wouldn't fluff up anymore. Lesson learned. I splurged for a really nice and plush 20 degree Western Mountaineering Alpinlite bag. I went with the 5' 6" woman's bag which fit me perfectly. This sleeping bag is very expensive but I expect to get my money's worth especially after having the last bag for 8 years while not knowing how to care for it. 

My kitchen equipment has added about 1.5 lbs of weight. The extra food for cooking will add much more weight.  My camping gear upgrades have added 2 lbs to what I previously carried. My new Olympus OMD M5 Mark ii camera with 12-40mm lens,  Arkel handlebar bag and tripod has added 4 lbs from the little Panasonic Lumix p&s I used for my last few tours. The last upgrade I made is to replace my stolen MacAir with a MacBook pro. This has added an additional .5 lb. 

Over the last few tours, I had gradually whittled my gear weight down to around 35 lbs. On my last flight I strapped the panniers together and they weighed in at 23 lbs. This is a long way from the 75 lbs I trailered through Mexico on my first tour in 2007.  Even still, I think I'll be approaching 50 lbs for this upcoming tour. It's a lot of weight but not unusual for fully loaded touring. (I also have to add that I've lost about 75 lbs off my body since that 1st tour. I've still got another 15 to go and that will more than make up for the weight I've added to my bags.)

Tour with Barbara

Last weekend I had a chance to put my new gear to the test. With my friend Barbara, we did a 2 day ride to the annual Recumbent Retreat. This was my 11th year attending and I've always ridden there. We camped out at Big Eddy county park outside Vernonia over night on the way to the Oregon coast.  Then we camped at Ft. Stevens for the weekend with over a hundred other recumbent riders. 

It was so nice having a bigger tent. The tent has 2 doors which made getting the gear in and out a lot easier.  Even with all the bags in the tent, I still had extra room and didn't feel cramped. The new sleeping bag was very plush and it has more room in the feet. Meow! The new pad was the biggest improvement. Having a wider pad made all the difference. The Thermarest pad is the most comfortable pad I've used so far. I was concerned that the mylar insulation would be too crinkly but it was fine. For the first time while camping, I slept really well. What a relief! 

Camping at Big Eddy on the way to the Recumbent Retreat.

After this weekend's successful camping, I'm ready and looking forward to my next tour.