My Gear!

I apologize for the lack of updates over the last two weeks. Not too much happened in the interim: I rode another couple of hundred miles in preparation, accidentally ran over a severed raccoon head, and had various obscenities hurled at me from people too fat to exit their vehicles.

The exciting part though is that I've finally accrued all of my supplies! It took over three months and a hefty sum of money for a quintessentially broke college student; the number of nights I spent slaving away at the Stradley Hall front desk almost killed me. But they turned out to be well worth it. Below are pictures of everything that I'm going to have with me on my trek. Enjoy!

We'll start out with the bags that hold everything. I have two Ortlieb Backroller Classic panniers purchased from The Touring Store (http://www.thetouringstore.com/). The bags together total 2441 cubic inches of space. I have no idea how big that is either so just look at the pictures.

Above my head is my sleeping bag inside its sack. Check out the next picture for a look at the bag. 

My sleeping bag, a blue (purple?) North Face Cat's Meow, was loaned to me for the summer by my good friend Mark. It's rated to temperatures near freezing. Hopefully, I won't have to explore that for myself, but I'm under no illusion about what Vancouver nights are like. Thanks again, Mark!

Here's a view of my stock of food I'm starting out with. Eight packs of Ramen (Chicken flavor, duh), seven packs of Ritz crackers, a jar of peanut butter, rice, and Clif bars galore! I'll be buying vegetables regularly and meat on occasion when I'm out on the trail.

In my hands are my pot and pan. They're about the right size for one person. On the floor in front of me are a couple of can openers and a spoon-knife-fork (sponifork?).

Here's a shot of my MSR Whisperlite International stove. The fuel canister connects to the red pump and 30-40 pumps vaporize enough gas to light the stove. The Whisperlite International one-ups the regular model because it can run on unleaded auto fuel or even whiskey.

And this is all of my clothing for the summer. Two pairs of padded cycling shorts (My God, padding is necessary with a leather seat), arms warmers, cycling gloves, the only jersey I could find that wasn't splashed with Italian company logos, and a tank top.  On the right is my Mountain Hardwear jacket. It's orange so people don't run over me.
I'm in the process of obtaining some leg warmers.

 

Finally, here's my Kelty Grand Mesa 2 tent and Therm-a-Lite Z-Lite sleeping bag pad. There's a picture of tent outdoors. I sliced a couple of panels off of the pad so it was easier to fit into the pannier. 

Lastly, here's a picture of the Ortlieb panniers attached to the bike with the sleeping bag bungeed to the back rack. Also, my lovely brother.



A couple of items aren't pictured:

Camelbak with a 70-mL bladder for water
Various bike tools
Phone/camera/chargers
Headlight










So sorry about this post going so long. I'm leaving on Monday/Tuesday (more updates on that tomorrow). Comment with any questions you have about anything. Have a great day, everyone. I'm coming over now, Ori!!!