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Plan your first tour: Overnight Camping

Posted: December 2, 2009 at 5:18 pm

While I tend to enjoy any activity on two wheels, long distance cycling holds a special appeal for me.  While my first brevet is a little over a month away, light touring is something I’ve had the chance to enjoy a few times already.

There are some tour logs spanning years and covering multiple continents.  Most of these brave souls started out very humbly, by loading up a little camping gear and heading to a nearby campground.

A bicycle camping trip can be easily planned and can be a lot of fun.  Here are some tips for planning your first trip.

Keep it short

Remember here that the primary goal is fun.  If you choose a route that is beyond your current fitness level, you will arrive late and tired.  Doing this will kill a lot of the fun.  The first camping trip I went on was a route that I knew little about, was far too long, and we ended up getting to camp well after dark and in double the time we expected.  If you are new to riding, pick a campground 10-20 miles away at most.  It won’t hurt to scout out the route with a car first also to get a feel for the terrain.  You may arrive and find it took less than expected.  If this happens, just know that next time you can plan a more ambitious route and enjoy the extra time to relax at camp.

Where to go

There are usually many spots close by that offer camping.  A quick Google search of “Yourcity campgrounds” is a great place to start.  For your initial trips, I would recommend sticking with developed campsites.  You may want to choose something a little more adventurous, but getting there by bike is already a big accomplishment, don’t risk going to a site that may not be suitable and complicate the trip.  National Parks are great if you have them nearby, even R.V. specific campgrounds will usually have a primitive camping section for tents.  Kampgrounds of America would not be a bad resource to check.  Their campgrounds are a little pricey compared to most, but they offer better facilities and are located all over America.

What to bring

For gear, there are three main areas you need to cover:  Sleeping, Cooking, and bike repair.

Sleeping – Most people choose to camp in a tent, although this is certainly not a must.  I personally prefer to sleep “under the stars”.  I find that it not only decreases the amount of gear I have to haul, but makes me feel more like I am part of the outdoors.  You will want to select a tent which is small enough to carry on a bike.  Thankfully these are easy to find and generally labeled as backpacking tents. A few of these to consider:

• Columbia Mt. Logan 7-Foot by 5-Foot Two Person Backpacking Tent
• Appy Trails 1lb Backpacking Tent
• Eureka Timberline 2 XT

When it’s time to get some rest, a sleeping bag is needed.  Living in the deep south, I can get away with a pretty basic bag as it never gets too cold here.  In the near future however, I plan to upgrade to a bivy sack, sort of a sleeping back/single person tent combo.  The additional cover will help keep out the bugs while still letting me travel light.  What bag you pick will depend mainly on how cold it will be where you camp, and how small you want it to be.  A large, cold-weather sleeping bag, as well as a small, warm-weather bag can be had at a reasonable cost.  However, if you want a small bag which will handle very low temperatures, you may need to prepare to spend a bit more.  Unlike backpacking however, you will have the option to carry this on your bike, so size may not be as much of a factor.

Cooking – One of the most enjoyable aspects of camping is cooking.  With this, you have two options, bring along a camp stove or cook over the fire.  I prefer the open fire, but also bring a stove.  I have an MSR Pocket Rocket which I can’t go camping without.  It’s amazingly tiny and uses the fuel can as its base which provides a stable surface for setting a pot or pan.  Aside from being able to heat up beans while cooking hotdogs, it saved me once when I went camping a week after a bad storm.  When I got to the site, I found that it was still pretty damp and it was impossible to start a fire.  Without my stove, we would have been unable to cook.

As for cookware, I have an MSR Stowaway Pot which has a locking lid and makes great storage, I normally keep the Pocket Rocket Stove in the pot while riding.  This is compact enough to carry on a bike, but big enough to eat up a lot of food, I could not be more pleased with it.

And finally, to start a fire, I like to keep things simple… i carry a lighter.  Carrying some sort of kindling is a good idea also, just anything dry which will catch fire easily will be needed when you first start your fire.  I save a little bit of dryer lint as it does this well and is also free.  It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan, and lighters can fail, run out of fuel, and get lost.  A Sweedish Firesteel is an excellent tool which can get a fire going quickly even when it is wet.  The steel is nothing more than a piece of flint and a metal tab to strike on it.  The resulting sparks will catch fire to kindling almost as fast as a lighter.

Bike Repair - A camping trip is often the first time anyone takes their bike far enough from home to really consider what happens if your bike breaks down while you are out.  If you are far enough from home, or in an area with no cell phone reception, you will need to perform certain repairs to keep going.  The first step should be to make sure your bike is in good shape before setting out.  If you have any doubts, it might be worth it to take it by the local bike shop for a checkup.  You can of course do this on your own if you’d like, refer to an earlier post about bike maintenance for more information.

I would recommend carrying a couple extra tubes and tire levers.  Make sure you also have a pump or CO2 inflation device.  Flats are the most common problem  you will have, so its good to be prepared.  The post I linked above also lists a few great portable multi-tools which can save your in the event you have a minor repair you have to do road-side.

How to carry everything

The first camping trip I took on bike, my friend and I carried everything on our backs… big mistake!  With the amount of gear you will need to carry, that weight on your back will cause fatigue and soreness.  This will end up making the ride miserable.  How to carry gear depends on how much you plan to bring.

I would consider a rear rack a must.  They are very versatile and can carry the majority of your gear.  I have a basic Avenir Rear Rack.  It’s inexpensive yet quite sturdy, Ive even strapped down another bike to it once.  I’ve used this daily for over a  year and on two different bikes.  You can get them beefier, but so far I’ve not needed to.  A rear rack can sometimes be tricky to install depending on the bike, so one option is a rack that clamps to the seatpost such as this Bell Ride and Haul.  I used one of these for a while but found it did not do well with more than a trivial amount of weight.  I did use one on my first camping trip and was only able to carry my sleeping bag on it,  without the side braces, it is limited in what it can hold.

A rear rack is great, but panniers will make you wonder how you ever lived without them.  I have a set of the Nashbar Day Trekker bags, which are similar in size to these by Eleven81.  For an overnight trip, you really don’t need a large set of bags.  The small set I have was more than enough.

A handlebar bag is also good to have,  I use an inexpensive Bell Bag I bought forever ago at Wal-Mart.  It has held up very well considering the price.  This is great for keeping snacks, phone, or any other small items.

With the right gear, you should be able to keep everything on your bike.  Larger items such as the tent and sleeping bag can be bungied down to the rack, while food, flashlights, and other gear can ride in the panniers.

Other tips

Go with a group,  aside from experience of camping with friends and family,  you can also spread the load around so everyone is carrying and even, and overall smaller amount of weight.  On my last trip two of us had proper cargo setups, and one was on a full carbon road bike.  Even though he couldn’t carry anything, we had no problem distributing the gear between the other two bikes.

Be sure to give yourself extra time, it often takes longer than expected.  One trip took a very long time because the route was hilly.  Even though we had both ridden that same distance with ease, we were not used to hills.  Again, its better to arrive early and relax more!

Have enough food and water for the trip itself.  You will be carrying more weight than on a normal ride, so you will need to be sure and keep your energy up.  Keep in mind if you are going to be on a route with stores or water fountains or not.  One trip we rode for hours after we ran out of water on a hot day, not fun!

Most of all just have fun.  Once you complete that first trip you will be well on your way to being a bicycle tourist.  Enjoy the ride!