"The liberator who destroys my property," Tyler said "is fighting to save my spirit. The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free."  ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

General Gear Strategy

The gear package I launched with was the result of several years of testing, trimming, testing, applying experience, and trimming again.   I trimmed some gear during the trip itself, but not much.   The strategy was to carry the least amount of the lightest gear possible while still meeting requirements for basic necessities and contingencies.  The categories below:

Redundancy

Layering

Transport

Lessons Learned

Redundancy

The most significant strategy that seemed to work was redundancy, more specifically redundancy in the right places.  An example of this is with the Salomon RaidRace 300 backpack, it’s an ultralight expedition level adventure racing backpack I’ve had for 4-5 years.  One would think it’s a big capacity pack relative to this trip, but 99% of the time it was nearly empty short of water(I only carried water on my back when I had to,) raingear and my MP3 player.  Why such a big pack?  Well, the answer is simple.  If one of the bike racks or compression bags failed, I could throw all the gear in the pack and keep moving forward until I could solve the problem.  I found it also came in handy when I had to go a significant distance for laundry/grocery shopping/mail drops, etc where I just threw whatever into the pack quickly and moved on.

If you will notice with my clothing selection (see soft gear,) I had a complete set of dry clothes to change into in case everything on my body got wet (and it did.)  Sometimes mountain storms can set in with cold and rain non stop for days.  So, although it never happened, I prepared for two days holed up in a tent in the middle of BFE .  Not only having an extra set of warm base layers, but knowing you have it makes a big difference in how you approach cold, wet weather.  Riding solo, ultralight, and minimalist is an efficient strategy, but we all have our limits and minimal comfort levels.  As the wise infantryman says, “Suffering is a Skill Level One Task.”