Home Sweet Home

A primary concern for my pre-tour planning was to get the accommodations figured out as soon as possible. Considering I'll be spending 97% of my nights in this thing (Motels are for sissies) I figured I'd better put some thought into this one.

And think I did! There's no shortage of lodging options for the discerning camper. I considered the following possibilities: (click for bigger pictures)

Bivy Sack:



Pros: Super duper lightweight. Wicked easy to set up.
Cons: No room for changing in, or to invite foxy ladies over that you met at the local farmer's market. Can't spend a rainy night in there reading or whatever either
Reason ruled out: I'm not a filthy hippy lunatic.

Ultralight tarp:



Pros: Evener light than a bivy sack (At least this one seemed to be). Plenty of room.
Cons: No floor or walls. Needs poles.
Reason ruled out: I actually considered this, as it's SO much lighter than a real tent. The problem is those poles are hiking poles. So it'd be great if you're an ultralight backpacker, but hiking poles aren't much use on a bike. Also keeping dry in the rain involves luck, and digging a trench to avoid water runoff, a big environmental no-no.

Hammock:



Pros: Lightweight, very comfy, appeals to my intrinsic laziness
Cons: Needs trees, makes stealth camping tricky
Reason ruled out: I was seriously, 100% going to do it this way. It's got the same no walls problem that the tarp did, but any decent backpacking one has the tarp and a mosquito net included, so you're more protected from the elements than it might seem. A tent has no real insulation value for heat, and the lack of a tent actually keeps you DRIER by eliminating condensation issues. The problem? A lot of my route goes through some very tree-challenged areas.

A Normal Boring Tent:



Pros: Has walls and a floor. Plenty of room inside. Vestibule to keep my bike under.
Cons: Heavy. Interior condensation can be a problem. Not very "edgy".

It's not exciting, interesting, or apt to impress anyone, but let's face it neither am I. In the end, people usually camp in tents for a reason. Although I haven't come up with a firm packing weight, it's going to be somewhere between 30-40 pounds, and putting together enough stuff to keep you alive for 2 months isn't easy when you've got that little wiggle room. The tent pictured above is the actual one I'll be using (the other pictures are random stuff I found [Except the green tarp, my roomate made that herself and was showing it off] via a Google Images search, and holy shit does some weird stuff come up when you turn SafeSearch off. So basically half the photos were randomly picked. Except not really the bivy sack one, I found the girl in it to be oddly attractive.)

This tent weighs basically 5 pounds when you throw in the footprint. 5 pounds is pretty heavy. Apparently when it comes to tents, from my research, you get to choose two of the three following qualities:

1. Cheap
2. Durable
3. Light

I wasn't terribly interested in spending 500 dollars on a tent, and this tent will suffer some pretty serious pounding over the course of two months, so I ended up having to forgo a light tent. The tent I ended up with a Mountain Hardwear Meridian 2. Mountain Hardwear apparently makes VERY high quality stuff, so this baby should serve me just fine in the durability department, and it's a 2008 model so I got it for a good price on clearance. I chose this model because it's got some good features, especially for someone who is just barely mentally competent on a good day.



You can see the opening above the little window, it lets a lot of air in, which should minimize condensation issues.



There's exactly ONE pole, and it doesn't need to go through those infernal sleeves, the tent just clips to the pole. Pretty sweet, right? Makes it set up in like 3 seconds, and the process is...well, not idiot-proof, we'll say idiot-retardant. (Tee hee!)

In other news, I elected this weekend to rock back and forth enough to heave myself off my pudding-stained couch and actually do one of my "serious" rides. I didn't do it today, because, well, I just didn't feel like it. I can't do it tomorrow because TNT is showing the three Lord of The Rings movies back-to-back-to-back in HD so I'll be stuck inside for about 12 hours*. So I decided to take a day off work on Monday and go do it then. Look forward to my wheezing, out of breath report!








* OH MY GOD just reading that I want to punch myself in the face.