TomM

Commute to work by bike to work out the kinks encountered by new equipment.

Baz

I don't know, Mr. Super Socks, I was always told that "If you shake more than twice you're playing with it..."

My other, super-secret tip:

Any piece of gear that's easily lost or forgotten, mark with reflective tape. Before you leave camp scan around with a headlamp or a blinky held near your eyes and it just jumps out at you.

Machka 

I think that's an excellent idea ....


Who can create stickies around here? Koffee?? Anyone else???

chipcom 

Which brings up another very important tip - don't eat yellow snow!

NoReg

Peneten cream, nice package, great for any diaper heat you might encounter. A bllion babies can't be wrong.

Bekologist

you don't have to sleep in a hammock to pee out the tent door, people!

And sleeping with a cooking pot as a pillow is inviting a bear to play paddycakes with your noggin mid-sleep.

You don't put food or cookstuff in your tent.

Bear, mice and other critters love those types of nocturnal challenges.

vosyer

I get mine for a buck as well they come in yellow or blue - I buy 10 at a time - many many uses. I also carry a fair selection of electical ties and I wrap electical tape around one of my tubes. Also probably everyone carries a chain tools and extra pieces of chain and a quick link. My parnter has to have a tube of - pardon my language but "butt Butter". Swears by it - just need a good broken in saddle and the right shorts.

David in PA

A couple of quick ones:

* Don't use bungee cords to secure stuff on your rear rack. Instead, use a bungee web. It's many times more versatile. You can always secure "one more thing" under it. Bungee webs are available from REI and other stores/websites. About eight bucks.

* When touring in out of the way places (which is just about everywhere on the TransAm), don't assume that the local bike shop has the item you need in stock, including common items. Call first. One shop I visited didn't have Halt! dog spray; another didn't have my tire tube! I wasted about twelve cycling miles to get to those places.

sydney_b

Fabulous idea, Machka! I wouldn't have thought of this.

BTW, men wear sarongs too, just differently.

If you want to learn how to tie one:
https://www.tropicalhulahut.com/pilot.asp?pg=video

Mr_Super_Socks

+1

paul2

Unless you are in New Zealand.

gnz

...AND you don't mind opossums roaming around your tent at night!

akarius

One thing I always bring with me if I am going to carry food is Pita bread. I do not have to worry about it getting squashed. Actually any flat bread if good.

If you find you are being too picky about camp sites, wait until you are too tierd or it is too dark and then you may not bee so picky.

Always hang your food in trees if there is the remotest possibilty of bears in the area, and especially if is raining. Animals tend to have a keener sense of smell when it rains.

supcom

Four tortillas also pack well.

Machka 

A task which is not as easy as it sounds!!

stokell

I'll also add that I find it easier to mount the web under the pannier rack with the bungee clips facing up. When it comes to doing up and undoing it is much faster and much easier to remove a single item from the web when it is done from the top.

Mr_Super_Socks

put food in a sack. tie long string to sack. tie rock to other end of string. throw rock over a tree branch. fetch rock from the ground. pull the rock end of the string until food bag is dangly safely out of reach of critters. tie string to a low branch. sleep deeply, confident that your food will be there in the morning and so will all your limbs.

(b/t/w - was the NZ point that there are tree dwelling critters who will steal your food? if so, i think the bag on a string may work, but more importantly, it's only partly to protect the food - mostly it's to protect you from getting attacked by jackals, bears, etc.

paul2

The New Zealand point is that there are no large predators in New Zealand. So the goverment pamphets recommend keeping your food inside your tent to keep it away from the small predators, such as the Weka; a small flightless bird that made a mess of our bag of garbage.

Matthew A Brown

....

supcom

Putting the rock in a small stuff sack makes it much easier to tie to the end of the rope. Also, the PCT method of bear bagging will prevent a smarter than average bear from chewing through your rope to get your food. https://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...technique.html

Mr_Super_Socks

wow. I (obviously) know extraordinarily little about NZ. I just know I enjoyed whale rider and intend to visit one day. thx for the info.

Mr_Super_Socks

yeah - better than tying to a tree. obnoxious article, though. the only real difference of the PCT system is in the tie-off step - i.e. fixing it to itself rather than tying to a tree.

also - you don't need a carabiner for this. just a loop tied in the rope small enough to catch the twig. and you could use sand, dirt, etc. instead of a rock with the bag.

akarius

No, but as a fellow Canadian you should know that it is essential, and worth the effort. I had a very scary expirience with a bear one night and was thankful that the food was high up in a tree.

There are little pullies that take up almost no room that work great. I tie the rope to a full water bottle and throw it over a branch. I am very paranoid about bears I have had too many encounters with them. Heck in the city of Ottawa we have had moose come into the city.

Machka 

Have you ever actually tried this? I have read similar instructions and thought to myself, OK, that's simple ... and then this year I actually tried it. Here's how it really goes ...

-- Attach something heavy to one end of the rope (i.e. rock, lock, etc.).
-- Look for suitable branch.
-- Discover that the pine trees around your campground all have short, spindly little branches about 20-30 ft above the ground.
-- Knowing that you not only have to have your food in the air to keep it away from the bears, but also away from any surrounding trees because black bears will climb trees and will try to reach the cache, choose the longest, most substantial branch you can find.
-- Lob the heavy end of the rope toward the branch. Miss.
-- Lob the heavy end of the rope toward the branch. Miss badly.
-- Lob the heavy end of the rope toward the branch. Get it caught another branch. Struggle to retrieve it.
-- Lob the heavy end of the rope toward the branch. Miss, again .......... and repeat. Get everyone in the camp to give it a go. Eventually someone will get it over the branch ... but it will be too close to the tree. Pull it down.
-- Lob the heavy end of rope toward the branch .....
-- When you finally get the rope over the most suitable part of the branch - high enough and far enough out from all surrounding trees ...
-- Tie the bag full of food, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, gatorade, and anything that remotely has a "nice" smell to it to the other end of the rope.
-- Start to haul it up.
-- Leap out of the way when the branch breaks because it was too spindly, or the bag of stuff was too heavy, or both.
-- Divide the stuff up into two bags.
-- Find a second rope.
-- Repeat from beginning, hoping that this time the branches you have chosen will hold.

This can be an entire evening's entertainment!!

Bekologist

I hang my food every time i camp, machka, and have done it every time for the last three decades. There's a happy medium to hanging food. its still a pain in the ass. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes to find the right tree branch or trees and do it right if you're camping in grizzly country.

No offense, but I'm shocked a Canadian would have such little woods sense.