Lucy Van Pelt: "You think you're so smart with that blanket. What are you going to do with it when you grow up?"

Linus Van Pelt: "Maybe I'll make it into a sport coat.”  ~from A Charlie Brown Christmas

See Gear Strategy for more details about “why.”

Sleeping Bag - MontBell UL Super Stretch 800 Down Hugger #3 Long  Ultralight and superwarm.  I never was cold in this bag, a few nights on the Divide dropped considerably below freezing.  Maybe its my physiology, but I always feel kinda ‘clammy’ in this bag.

Sleeping Mat - MontBell UL 120 3/4 Mat w/attached Pillow  Without a doubt one of the top gear decisions for this trip.  Excellent piece of equipment that adds 20 degrees to the bag.  Ultralight, ultracompact, and durable...no holes the entire Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.  

Tent – Firstlight by Black Diamond  Two big seasons on this tent and it is starting to show some wear, but still going strong.  Super light for a two person, durable, and easy to set up quick.  Doesn’t vent real well (single wall,) so you deal with condensation a lot…especially if it’s cold.  Takes a long time to dry.  Got the job done though, I never spent a night cold and wet on this trip.  Packed the tent (sans stuff sack) in the back bag and the poles/stakes in a tent pole bag zip-tied to the back rack.

Campsite near CO/WY border

Outer layer jacket – MontBell Ultralight Thermawrap   I have used this jacket for two winters plus and love it…excellent temperature modulation.  Super light and compacts well.

Rain Jacket – Sierra Designs Men's Isotope Jacket  One of the lightest rain jackets on the market, survived all rainstorms thrown at it and survived my big crash in northern NM.

Wind Jacket (no hood) – MontBell UL Wind

Wind/Rain Pants – GoLite Reed.

Jersey – IBEX Wool Ventoux Lightweight Sleeveless  Wool, works like a charm, stays warm when wet, and doesn’t stink (as much) as synthetic. 

Base T-shirt – Patagonia UL Base layer wool silver  Excellent, I wore this as a stand alone when it got really hot in the desert and elsewhere.  I also carried a Mountain Hardware Ultimate T as my ‘town shirt’ as I found that a top without dirty, sweaty, salt streaks was a better choice for restaurants.

Arm and Leg warmers – Ibex Wool/lycra blend  These are somewhat heavy but make up for it in warmth and durability.

Socks – Smartwool, 3 pair various blends for various days  I lost only one sock the entire trip.  I added a heavier pair wool socks from my bounce box in Salida, which I used primarily as sleep socks in the high elevations of Colorado and New Mexico.

Tights – combo of Peal Izumi Microsensor and some nice, smooth Nikes  I particularly favored the Nike’s but the ‘upper front’ seam split in northern NM. 

Overshorts (for ‘town shorts’)– Patagonia UL tans.  I carried these where I could get to them easy and put them on over my tights when I entered a town.  Tights tend to make non-biker folks uncomfortable for some reason.

Gloves – Specialized fingerless (2 pair,) Pearl Izumi 2007/08 AmFIB Full Finger Cycling Gloves, 2^nd layer, Mountain Hardware UL shells outer.  Made some changes on the route with gloves.  My hands started to get numb in Northern Montana, so I picked up another set of less padded fingerless Specialized gloves in Helena and switched out gloves every other day to help keep numbness from turning to pain.   I brought a set of Gore lightweight winter gloves but they were way too worn before I even left for the trip and I ended up replacing them in Salida with the PI AmFib gloves.

Beanie – Lightweight cycling beanie (Sugoi,) Montbell microfleece dropdown ear beanie  Used two separate beanies, one for riding and the other for sleeping/around camp.  Wet redundancy, see gear strategy. 

Sleep shorts – old ratty pair of purple Umbros from high school  Survived the trip just as ratty as when they started.

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