thinking of bike camping

This may be a totally half baked idea, but I started looking at the light camping gear I have collected, and my bike with all the pannier racks on it. Hmmmm……

Seems to me that it would not be that hard to strip my camping gear down to the bare essentials, strap it to my bike and ride off to Lake Chabot or something for an overnight. See how it goes. If I work my system out well enough, I can try taking BART (the local commuter train) to San Francisco, ride across the Golden Gate bridge to Marin, and ride out to West Marin and camp out there. I figure it would be around 40 miles of actual riding, and would probably take me a good 6 hours of riding time. Camp, and come back the next day.

So here is my gear list so far:

Bike – my Giant Yukon with a rigid fork. Currently has slicks, but would need bigger mountain tires. V-brakes will be scary with a heavy load down a steep descent, but I’m not going for speed.

Water bottles

Saddle bag

Helmet

Gloves

Gear straps

Bike tools

Duct tape

Multitool

Tire repair stuff

Pocket knife

Sleeping bag

Sleep pad

Tent

Tent stakes

Stake hammer

Camping saw

Cookware

Stove

Fuel

Spark/lighter

Pots, pans, bowls

Utensils

Camp soap, brush

Water filter

Toiletries

TP

Tooth brush

Tooth paste

Deodorant?

First aid kit

Clothes

Shorts

Jersey

Socks

Long sleeve shirt

Warm pants

Jacket

Knit cap

Again, this is pretty half baked. I already started to strap stuff to the racks to see if it will fit, get an idea of my load balance, like that. So far, I got my tiny sleeping bag and a foam pad strapped to my front racks, the pannier bags in back, my tent on top of the rear rack, one pannier half full with the cookware and jacket. I still have one and a half rear pannier bags to fill, plus I’ll probably take either my Camelbak for some more space, or a bigger backpack, and put a Camelbak bladder in there. I might take it out for a few local light rides, say at China Camp or Lake Chabot to see how it handles, see if stuff shakes off the racks, shifts, check for foot, heel, leg and hand clearance. that sort of thing.

Just out of curiosity, I checked with the rangers at China Camp today about camping fees. They charge $25 a night if you drive in, but $3 a night if you walk or bike in. Sweet!

While thinking about this, I was getting all ready to make a penny stove. This guy came up with a way to cut up a couple of Heineken beer cans (the ones that look like little kegs) to make a small compact lightweight stove that can boil a few cups of water in 5 minutes. It can run on Everclear grain alcohol, which can also serve as a disinfectant if I cut myself badly… and of course, get a bit drunk on it (that is, if I can tolerate drinking what tastes like camping stove fuel).

Alternatively, the penny stove can run on 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol, but that makes an invisible flame, which is kind of dangerous.

It’s a very elegant design. Cheap, weighs nothing, takes 20 minutes to make one… plus you have to drink beer to get the empty cans. Downside is Heineken is kinda watery beer… the Budweiser of Europe.

Then, I remembered that my mom gave me all of her camping gear. I went through that and found a sweet compact white gas stove that includes pots and pans, all in a tiny kit. Sweet! Also in there was a pump water filter and other goodies.

This may never actually happen, but it would be great if I could pull it off.