Mike, I read that fellows trip journal. I don't know the reasons, but it is no longer on cg anymore. I can't remember names for the life of me but his last name is a French name, remember the issues he had at the border because of the diff spelling on documents?
It was a well written piece, I sometimes wondered if part of it was fictional or at least embellished, I don't know, but the whole food caches and hoping/being certain that he would get food out of the blue along the way seemed a little too risky/hardass for my tastes.
I also seem to remember that when I was reading/following it, it was about a year after he did the trip, so he obviously took the time with it, he is a good writer. I only read it that once, but it was a neat combination of bike trip blog with the various feelings and thoughts of being on a very isolated bike trip, but also his writing touched on a lot more in life than just a bike trip.
Meant to write him to tell him these things, but by then it wasnt around anymore and I couldn't find hide nor hair of him, so that was that.
one thing I took from reading that is that the Surly Troll is a tough bike, he is a big guy and carried a crapload of stuff at times, and the bike handled it well. Was part of the germ of the idea to get a Troll because I had confidence that it would make a good tough tourer. Took me years to get one, but finally did.
cheers
David