Hey Jim, the tour my friend and I are doing is based on this Alex Wetmore's tour from 2007:
http://blogs.phred.org/blogs/alex_wetmore/archive/2007/07/27/5-days-and-200-miles-in-the-gifford-pinchot-national-forest.aspx It looks great. We'll be camping although it looks we'll have some opportunity to pick up supplies at a couple of spots. My friend is a more experienced tourer and outdoorsman than I and I'm following his lead with this. I'm confident I can keep the weight down. But if it appears I'll have more stuff than the Hilsen can handle I'll just deal with changing up the Surly to a geared machine. I have the parts, I just need to deal with it. I'll do some kind of shake-down ride within the next 2 weeks on the Hilsen to decide if that's the bike I want to roll with. I'm prepared to face the reality that this might require more stuff (40lbs?). My friend an I did a 235 mile overnight tour in 2007 where we just camped out at a picnic area. I had everything in a Carradice bag and a sleeping bag mounted on my Mark's rack. I felt I had too much stuff then. Obviously this is different. I'm hoping to not bring a tent and just bag and pad. My buddy has some kind of tarp shelter we can make due with should it rain. As it gets closer to the take off date we'll decide about a tent. Believe me, I'm good at roughing it and don't require much in the way of creature comforts. Kent P has an impressive piece on how and what he packs that is inspiring for going light: http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/05/closer-to-fine.html --Mike --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
