So in addition to the questions on the about page, I thought I’d talk about what gear I’m taking.

The bike:

A Surly Long Haul Trucker, with an XtraCycle attachment. After much consideration, I bought the Long Haul Trucker from Sabino Cycles because it seems to be one of the best touring bikes available at the moment. Other bikes I seriously considered were the Surly Big Dummy and the Trek 520. I didn’t want fat tires and so I decided against the Big Dummy. The Trek 520 was probably the opposite: a little too road bikey. They are all good bikes, but I’m very happy with my Long Haul Trucker.

The XtraCycle is pretty amazing. Everyone who has one becomes an evangelist for them. Its pretty easy to see why: Great stability, smooth handling, super capacity.

Solio Solar Charger

The other item I’m asked the most about is the weird little fan thing on the back of my bike. This is my Solio solar charger. Before this I owned a Burton solar panel. It sucked. This is vastly superior. If you’re interested in trying a solar charger, I would recommend this one as a start. Its comparatively cheap, pretty user-friendly, and provides great charging capacity.

The Rest

There’s a lot of other items I am taking that are less interesting:

• 2-person Mountain Hardwear Lightwedge 2 tent
• self-inflatable ThermaRest mattress
• Therma Lounge chair attachment for the mattress.
• sleeping bag/liner
• various tools and spare parts
• MSR Dragonfly stove, cooking supplies
• food
• soap, cleaning supplies
• first aid kit
• clothes
• sun block, chapstick
• sketchbook/diary