Bekologist

Allright, I just loaded up the Long Haul Trucker and did a dry run with a winter gear compliment for touring out on the Olympic Peninsula this weekend.

In the front panniers are a 5#14 oz Antarctic proven tent (issued as standard survival tent for sledge crews at Antarctic stations, the North Face Westwind), sub 0c down sleeping bag, thermarest sleeping pad, and some small stuff.

In back,the rest of the full monty. Warm clothes, kitchen, food, survival equip, night lighting equipment, the entire rest of the kit.

I've added a climber's chalk bag to hang off the back of my saddle, it works GREAT as a 'quick grab' pocket for snacks, digital camera or hat-n-gloves.

I had to strap the westwind tent poles on the back but I prefer to have poles inside one of the rear panniers, to lessen the possibility of loosing them. Some of my tents have poles with shorter sections to make this easier. In the summer I've been using a Black Diamond lighthouse tent, very close to the seatbag sized Black Diamond firstlight Bearlite just mentioned.

If the back view comes out okay, note the wide profile of the rear lights. I took the idea from MechBgon's visibility pages. I want to add some amber 'running lights' to the front panniers. *To anwser Jharte below without adding another post, edited to add * it's been so long I can't remember where I got that old safety triangle.