A few weeks removed from the start of my big tour of the year, I’m beginning the ritual all bike tourists engage in: refining the packing list. Over the years I’ve learned what to pack on bike tour… there are a few things you absolutely want to bring, and a bunch of things that just take up space.

What to pack on bike tour: 3 things I take every time

Bandanas

I know, cotton – the dreaded fabric most experienced riders sneer at! Ordinarily, I agree, but when it comes to the versatile bandana, I make an exception. Whether a sweat rag, a pot holder, a dish towel, or a water filter, the humble bandana is the multitool that keeps giving back. Sure it’s cotton, but the bandana packs light, stays out of your way, and has so many uses you’ll want to bring a few.

Earplugs

This is a newer one for me because I never found a style that worked well. Now, I have a pair or two secreted in all of my bags just to be safe. How many campsites have you overnighted at that included 2am parties the locals forgot to invite you to or hourly freight trains? How about the less-than-quiet rain and wind rattling your tent in the middle of the night? Yeah, earplugs can mean the difference between a decent night’s sleep and a long groggy day in the saddle.

Large capacity rechargeable battery

A lot of people ride without technology. I don’t happen to be one of those types of riders. On this ride, I plan to bring several devices that will need to be replenished without benefit of a wall socket (they tend not to have those in the sides of mountains). As battery technology has improved, I’m finding 12,000 mAh batteries are dropping in price to the $50 range. How much juice is that? Depending on your device, a lot… I can recharge my iPhone 5 from single digits to 100% 5 times or more in one charge. That’s over a week of riding or more, depending on my use. Zero mile days let me recharge everything, and I don’t usually have to think about losing power at all.

Three things I leave behind on every bike tour

Sometimes the best way to answer, “what to pack on bike tour” is to list what you probably shouldn’t bring.

Camp shoes

I finally let go of the extra pair of shoes a few years ago. I try to wear “normal” clothes when I tour so I can hop off my bike and fit in somewhat in towns along the way. I used to haul a pair of sneakers specifically for walking around town until I found I tended to walk around in the same biking sandals most of the time anyways. I swapped those sneakers out for a pair of inexpensive flip flops and haven’t looked back.

Spare tire

I’ll change my mind on this one someday, but only on a long trip with poor access to replacements. Despite my experience with sidewall blowouts, I still don’t think carrying a spare tire is worth the weight or space on most tours. You can boot most issues and get yourself to a place where you can get a spare, plus if you invest in higher end tires, you can reduce the likelihood of needing a new one.

Physical books

Ok, ok hear me out… we already established I lean more towards technology, right? I tend to bring along audiobooks, podcasts and ebooks in my device. I used to bring along a physical book for reading at camp but found I rarely opened it. Usually it was stuffed deeply inside a pannier, and my phone was right next to me, so I reached for it every time. Maybe I should have brought a book I really wanted to read more than anything in my phone, but when all is said and done, I can bring dozens of books electronically in the same device I’m going to bring no matter what. These days, I leave the physical book at home and read it when I get back.

What’s on your list of haves and have nots?

As the season kicks into high gear, I’m constantly looking for new ways to improve my camping experience. This year, I’m focusing on going as ultrlight as possible, and that’s extending to my meals. After a bit of research, some experiments (including some failed ones) I’ve got a quick and easy solution to dehydrate meals without a dehydrator.

Dehydrating is a great way to make ultralight meals for bike tours

File this under “duh.” Take out the water weight, and your food transports in a smaller, flatter space. As I mentioned in a previous post on freezer bag cooking, that translates to better eating on tour. Not only are things lighter and easier to pack, but it also helps preserve things like meat… something you certainly wouldn’t be hauling around in a pannier for very long without spoiling. But wait… there’s more! If you’re conscious about the amount of junk (particularly sugars) that end up in a lot of processed foods, making your own ultralight meals by dehydrating fruits, veggies and meats can be a big plus. You know exactly what’s going into your preparations.

I’m not anti-dehydrator

I think they’re great tools and if I end up doing more dehydrating, I can absolutely see myself investing in a nice one. I know a few people who jumped right into the dehydrating thing, and ended up spending a fair amount of money on a device that got used once, maybe twice, and now collects dust in the basement someplace. That’s not for me, so I want to be sure I want to get into this before I invest in the gear. Dehydrating ultralight meals without a dehydrator is actually easy if you have (wait for it…) an oven!

The secret: low heat and air flow

Dehydrators work by streaming warm air over your food – it’s not really rocket science. Over time, that warm air pulls out the moisture without really cooking the food. If you’ve ever wondered how raw food folks eat, they live on dehydrators – it preserves food, gives it new textures, and most importantly stops short of cooking out the nutrients. Dehydrators work well, but so can your oven so long as you do a couple of things…

Step 1: Get a good rack

Wire racks are the best way to promote good air flow around your food. Remember, we want to maximize the movement of warm air so the food gives up its moisture. You don’t need to get fancy… I got a pair of wire racks for seven bucks. You might even have a few in your cupboard someplace.

Step 2: Cut thin

Whether it’s meat, vegetables or fruit, cut it up in slices or small pieces… you’ll be rewarded with a shorter dehydration time.

Step 3: Choose your oven wisely

The first few batches I tried were in my big convection oven. Convection ovens are fancy because they move air around with a fan… almost like a dehydrator. It worked well, but even at low temperatures (more on that in a second) it really felt like a lot of energy being wasted, particularly with it being on for hours. Instead, I moved to my favorite kitchen appliance, the humble toaster oven. Because it’s smaller, I have to do smaller batches, but because its more efficient, my turnover is about equal. I probably don’t have to convince you toaster ovens use half the energy of a range oven, right?

Step 4: Stick a wooden spoon in it and keep the heat low

It helps with the air flow. Remember, we like air flow. Temp setting should be as low as you can go and still be technically on. Usually it’s 150-200 degrees Farenheit. If you’re a Celsius person, that number will be much lower. <– metric system humor.

Step 5: Go do something. For a while.

I found making your own beef jerky takes a lot less time than drying out a strawberry. By a lot. Keep checking to see how things are going, maybe turn stuff over. This will take hours. Oh, and on behalf of your local fire department, it’s *not* ok to leave this unattended, so no leaving the house during this process, m’kay?

Successes and failures

Here’s a sample of what success looks like:

That’s a sugar free batch of beef jerky, plus dried tomatoes and dried strawberries. One other huge benefit is how this can save you from the dreaded spoiled fruits and veggie plague of spring and summer… the tomato I used was just about ready to be tossed. Ditto with the strawberries… not spoiled, but past the point of ideal freshness. Thanks to dehydrating without a dehydrator, they were rescued for a future snack.

I mentioned successes, so how about failures: eggs. I read someplace (and I won’t link-shame you my friend…) that you can dehydrate scrambled eggs and they rehydrate well. All I can say is, not in my experience! I’ll be sticking with fruits, veggies and meats.

If you’re interested in a jerky recipe, check out this one… it was my starting point. I went with sriracha and Worcestershire sauce as my marinade and put on a healthy dose of coarsely ground black pepper. A+ jerky, and the best part is you can use “lesser” cuts like flank steak.

I’ll be taking some of these ultralight meals with me this weekend on a short tour… more to come!

Hopefully your bike tour will never include a story about being caught in a flood. If fortune doesn’t smile upon your tour, here are 3 tips on how I handled being caught in the Potomac River flooding on my latest bike tour.

First, the background

I’m not saying my bike tours are cursed this spring, but given the catastrophic endings both have had, I might be convinced someone up there, down there, or over there is not interested in having me complete a tour as planned. The day before I left the mid-Atlantic and Appalachian region got hit with a deluge of rain – up to 5 or 6 inches within 24 hours fell on the tributaries of the major rivers in the region, and that meant a flood was coming. Although I knew there was a possibility – even a likelihood – of a flood on the Potomac, I noticed that the US Park Service had only closed boat ramps and side hiking trails as of Friday. Because there were no warnings that the C+O towpath (my bike route of choice) was directly impacted, it seemed safe to go with my plan to bike from DC to Harpers Ferry and back, camping on the hiker/biker campgrounds along the way.

Tip #1 – get the facts

The night I arrived, I noticed most of the hiker/biker campsites were feeling the effects of the surging river already. I checked the NPS website, Twitter feed and the NOAA flooding info pages for more. That gave me enough info to know the water was only going to rise through the night. River levels were to go up two feet more, and it seemed my tent and location was more than two feet higher than the water levels.

Tip #2 – trust your instincts over the facts… sometimes

At midnight, I read in Twitter that the Harpers Ferry NHP was packing up and evacuating upriver:

At that point, I knew 30 miles downriver from there, it was likely that same rise rate would be where I was within a few hours. I nearly started packing up in the dark, but I didn’t. Why? Because there were two enormous bulldozers at my campsite, and I was absolutely positive the Park Service wouldn’t risk equipment like that on land they thought might flood. My first instinct was correct… my second? Not so much. So, trust your instincts… just not all the time.

Tip #3 – don’t panic

I’ve written about touring through adverse conditions, and this certainly qualified!

When I woke up after sunrise I noticed far more insects between my tent and my fly than I would normally expect. Hmm, weird. I put my hand down on the tent floor… bone dry… but something was amiss. As I put more weight down, I felt a sensation not unlike being on a bad water bed. My tent bottom had several inches of water under it.

As I slowly sat up I noticed my vestibules were covered in 3-4 inches of water and my panniers, dry bag and sandals were floating.

I unzipped the fly and saw the water was all around me. I was on the only spot of “land” I could see in any direction.

It would have been easy, maybe even natural, to panic. But I didn’t. I knew I had dry things and I could hang my panniers on my bike and get my tent rolled up and strapped to my bike within 20-minutes… sooner if things degraded. I also could see that the water was flowing, but not fast. It was covering the trails, but only to ankle or knee height. This is not ideal, but it was escapable. I knew there was a road within 5 miles, in one direction, and more than 6 miles in the direction from where I came. I chose the five mile direction and was rewarded with a forgotten road route much closer.

The bottom line? I could have panicked, abandoned my gear, or made a poor decision I’d regret later. Instead I took a minute to think logically and clearly, and everything worked out fine.

Bonus 4th tip – reroute

I love the C+O, but to be honest, I probably should have considered an alternate route. When you know there’s flooding possibilities, it might be time to pull out the map and consider another way to get where you want to go!

Watch my reaction to a bike tour flood

The flood I just dealt with wasn’t that bad… in fact, it added a bit more adventure to an otherwise “been there, done that” kind of ride. I could tell in the moment it might be a good idea to document the situation, so I shot my reactions to the predicament as they happened. Check out Escape From The Potomac Flood! —