Packing

Ryan's Gear

Atlantis Bicycle
1 Pair Super-C Carradice Rear Panniers
1 Baggins Boxy Handlebar Bag

Thermarest
Down sleeping bag
Tent Fly and Poles
Snowpeak Gigapower 100-A Stove

3 Canisters of fuel for stove
Maps
3 28oz. water bottles

Nikon 8008s Camera w/ Tokina 28-70m Zoom
Amy's Olympus Epic Camera
8 rolls of film (4 Fuji 200 / 4 Kodak 200)

3 pairs of light wool socks
1 pair of heavy wool socks (never used)
1 pair water proof socks (never used - ditched in Manton)
2 Pearl Izumi bicycling shorts
1 pair Pearl Izumi knee warmers
1 short sleeve Swobo wool bicycling jersey
1 long sleeve Bontager wool bicycling jersey (never used - ditched in Manton)
1 long sleeve wooly
1 Pearl Izumi wind breaker
1 Carradice waxed-cotton rain jacket (never used - ditched in Manton)
2 pairs of boxers
1 beige Ben Davis pants
1 pair Sidi biking shoes
1 pair Simple casual shoes
1 fisherman's hat
1 Atlantis biking cap (ditched in Maton)
1 pair bicycling gloves
1 helmet

An old Doc Marten shoelace (used to fix Amy's fender!)
Some Duct Tape
A roll of toilet paper
Some allen wrenchs
2 spare tubes
Tire patch kit & tire lever
Mini Maglite
Some band-aids
Tweezers
Generic Advil
Floss, toothpaste, toothbrush
Medium sized towel (Amy made fun of me for this, but, boy, did she use it!)
Small wash cloth (another favorite of Amy's, I don't think I used it once.)
Pad of paper & pens
Lighter (handy for when Amy dumps mashed potatoes on your auto-light stove)
4 spare AA batteries (for camera or flashlight)
Gaiman, Neil. "Neverwhere" paperback (finished and ditched in Manton)

12 Cliff Bars (Carrot Cake flavor)
1 lb. dried date pieces
1 lb. dried pineapple (never finished)

Amy's Gear

First of all I would like to say that I think I brought the perfect amount of stuff. Ryan clearly brought too much crap. I asked to use his duct tape and he pulls out an entire roll of duct tape! On the other hand, my friend Henry saw one of my pre-trip packing lists and said I was bringing too much. I would have been cold and unhappy had I listened to him.

I would also say that I liked my pannier set-up (medium sized, front and back) very much. I put lighter stuff in the front panniers and stacked big stuff on top of my rear rack (tent and sleeping bag). I secured these items with my trusty but much-mocked faux Blackburn Rackstrap. So much more graceful then a bungy. I often had trouble finding stuff but I didn't lose anything.

I have a Eureka! Backcountry 2 tent. I realize it is dorky by super-light camping standards. I like it because:

* It is a nice color.
* Ryan is totally picky and did not want a tent that is set up like a tunnel. This tent has a big door on the side, you don't have to shimmy out. It's way big inside.
* It actually only weighs like 5 or 6 pounds.
* It was pretty cheap. Didn't worry about abusing it.

All that said, and adding that it held up great, I wouldn't recommend it cause it's made in China.

I have the same sleeping bag as Ryan. It's fine, 30 degrees and lightweight. I got kinda cold sometimes. I don't like that it is blue.

My thermarest is blue too. It is the Ultralight Long. I know most bike campers get the ¾ length one, but I'm into cushy sleeping environments and plus I worry that my chronically cold feet will be even colder if the thermarest just ends at my knees. Here is a tip though: My friend Joel once borrowed my thermorest and lost it and got me a new one but with the slightly bigger little baggy (red) then it originally came with (blue). It's much less of a struggle now. Thanks Joel!

We used a camping pot with a lid and a frying pan that Henry loaned me. And two regular forks, two plastic cups for tea and a steak knife. This seemed like plenty of cookware and cutlery for pasta and salad and PB&Js.

I brought my Kryptonite mini lock and a cable. This was probably overkill and marked us as city people wherever we went, but we would have been so worried otherwise! Ryan brought a cable too. I told him that was overkill but he still brought it.

Here is what clothes I brought:

* Short sleeve wool jersey
* 2 long sleeve wool shirts, on for riding and one for socializing
* 2 pairs of bike shorts
* 1 pair bike tights
* 1 pair of regular pants
* 2 pairs of bike socks
* 1 pair of big heavy socks
* beanie
* jacket (which is also waterproof)
* regular shoes
* boxers
* sports bra and regular bra
* Tshirt (this is the one item that I didn't really need)
* rain pants (this is the one item that I never used, but I still think it was smart to bring them although it was nice that I didn't have to use them because bike touring already has plenty of built-in dweebiness without the addition of rain pants.)

In the way of tools I brought:

* this Park Tools multi-wretch thing. I love it. It is slow going but it takes care of almost everything. It's shaped roughly like a barbell.
* patchkit
* tire levers
* spare break pads (ok that was silly but they're really small)

Two totally obvious things that I should have brought but didn't were chain lube and a spare tube. I always think it's a good idea to bring a chain tool everywhere too, but I never have.

It felt like I brought a lot of toiletries but most of it was my glasses and my contact lens stuff. And my toothbrush and toothpaste. Ryan made fun of my big bag of toiletries but he used quite a few of them didn't he? Like my sunscreen and bug repellant and soap. That's pretty much everything.

Miscellanious items include my wallet, keys, little journal, pen. Usually about a third of my pannier space was taken up by food. I am very afraid of running out of energy because I haven't eaten enough. Luckily that never happened don't listen to Ryan on this matter.