My big worry about my camping trip was that I’d hate it.

I didn’t. I loved it.

That isn’t to say I loved every bit of it or that nothing went wrong, but the big stuff worked well. The details…well there are always things that can be improved.

What worked…

My bike! It managed to carry a huge amount of stuff, more than I needed when you get right down to it. But since it was only an eight mile journey…

My Hennessy Hammock! This is a seriously comfortable piece of equipment. It took a few more minutes to set up than it should, but since this was exactly the second time I’ve tried to do it I think ten minutes is fine. Here’s the thing with the hammock though – the bug netting works well unless you manage to sleep with your arm up against it. It seems ants, or something else, had at my arm at some point and my left arm is covered in bites. The rest of me is fine which leads me to believe it must have been from putting my arm against the netting while sleeping.

Insect Bitten Arm (iPhone image)

My stove! My stove works well. The ancillary equipment less so I’m afraid. The stand I built wasn’t sturdy enough and fell over more than once causing me to lose my hot water. That meant I had to reheat more water ultimately costing me more fuel. I finally fixed the stand with soda cans I found in the garbage at the site and all was well, but by then I was mostly out of fuel. Next time – more fuel.

My Asus Eee PC! This worked great and I managed to do site updates for a site I manage while camping. This gives me hope that I’ll be able to blog while traveling with the bike in the future. I do want to look into a solar panel for charging it though. Still there was enough juice to use it every day, if for limited periods – and limited periods are what you want to doing anyway, otherwise you might as well stay in your office!

Then there’s the stuff that didn’t work too well and will need to be improved upon in the future…

My camera. I brought along my new Canon A590IS. The camera itself is fine but…unfortunately I discovered that it came with dust on the sensor and in most images it looks like I either have a log on the image or an out of focus log on the image. I’m sending it back. This isn’t a complaint about the camera per se, but about the quality control at some point from the factory to me.

My cooler. Don’t bother, gel ice packs don’t really stay cold long enough when you can’t use enough of them. I think on an extended journey simply buying fresh food for the day will have to do. Besides too much of the cooler is insulation which adds space with, as it turns out, not much value. Still it was nice to have cool drink when I arrived. That was about it though. You could make your own though if you were up it, check it out!

All in all it was a great success and I will be doing this again, but with some refinements.

Aloha!

I’m going through the list of stuff I need to find around the house, buy, or otherwise acquire for my two nights and it’s beginning to look like I’ll be away from home for…well a long time.

worldwidewandering's bike loaded for a trek, Florida to Alaska©

That is not my bike, my photo, or my plan. It sounds like a heck of a trip though and I suggest you read about it! It’s a great story so far and I’m learning a lot.

As for my ride, let’s take food.

It seems I’ve got enough planned for three meals a day and snacks for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sensible, yes? No. You see I’m only going to be there Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning. So of nine possible meals, I’ll be there for five at the most. In addition, I generally, even when active, only eat two meals a day – especially after all the feeding I did at my folks on the Big Island last weekend. Yeesh!

Narrowing it down I figure I’ll take some eggs, cheese, an onion, and bread – omelets for breakfast or dinner. Some instant oatmeal and raisins for breakfast or if I get really hungry. A couple of bananas because I like them. And, of course, coffee supplies and tea supplies which don’t amount to much in size.

Okay, that’s more realistic.

Of course I like sausage and crackers, which goes well with cheese. Sigh…and so it starts again.

Seriously I figure I buy a bunch of stuff and pack what I can. If I can’t pack it, I’ll eat it later. Or earlier.

The rest of my equipment could also mostly be done away with – I’m taking a computer, my 10″ Eee PC, because, well because. I’ll have my Kindle along for reading, which necessitates a little light. And naturally I’ll want to document it all, so a camera. I’d bring my ukulele if I could, but it’s too nice and too fragile. I really should get one of those cute plastic ukes…a Flea. Or I could just buy a cheap wood soprano across the street at Easy Music.

No, no ukes this trip. I’ve got enough junk and I don’t play well enough to make it more than mildly amusing and certainly not at all amusing for my neighbors.

So far I think everything should fit in my panniers and rack trunk, I shouldn’t need a backpack which is great because they are uncomfortable and sweaty.

That’s about it for the moment, I’m making my list and checking it twice. I’m gonna find out if this is nasty or nice. I suspect nice, I want nice, nice is good, but we’ll see.

Aloha!