Palouse Trip: Packing Wishes and Regrets by Emily

Fourth day of tour.   Note squashed purple bowl on my bike, which is what we used to wash clothes.

Before we headed out on our first loaded tour, we laid everything out on our living room floor.
Clothes, tools, toiletries, first aid, accouterments, food, cooking utensils, sleeping items....   Then we loaded our panniers and started weighing bags.  This was a bit of a comical task, as we needed to stand on a scale, weigh ourselves, and then hold a bag, weigh ourselves again and subtract to find the weight of a bag. Repeat many, many times.

The day our safety triangles and handlebar bags arrived and got added to the mix on the floor.....

Recommended loads were 60% on front half of bike, 40% on rear half. The bulky, lighter items go on back, and the heavier, less bulky items go on front.  This is supposed to provide the best handling and balance, especially when dealing with inclines. So we packed, repacked, and adjusted, until we had a fairly balanced load from left to right side, and the 60/40 split front to back.

Here is my bike, loaded:

We knew this was a "shakedown" tour, in that we'd figure out what we truly needed, as opposed to what we thought we'd need.  Jay did have a head start, because he is a regular backpacker, and has gone on long tour before, up the west coast.  But even he admitted to bringing things or forgetting things.  I suggested we make a list of what  we would change in our packing for the NEXT tour.

Things that I ended up not using, and will not take next time.
1. swimsuit.  I now know that I need to wash clothes each evening, so I may as well wash them while wearing them in whatever body of water we find.
2. underwear.   After a long day on the bike, when I changed into comfortable clothes, I wanted nothing tight or binding. My loose stretchy shorts were fine and dandy.

Things I forgot and either purchased en-route or will bring next time.
1. Kinesiotape.  I use this to keep the hyper-extension in my thumb joint and knuckle from creating unmanageable pain.  Purchased some in Clarkston after first day on road.
2. Aquaphore ointment.  Used to protect sensitive skin from abrasion. Also purchased in Clarkston.
3. 3rd water bottle for 3rd water bottle cage.   Those long stretches with no service on hot days were too much for two bottles to cover.

Things I wished for
1. Warmer layer for evening when it was cold.
2. Rain gear
3. Lighter off-bicycle shoes.
4. More flexible/collapsible clothes-washing container. The purple bowl we found at dollar store was great, but very hard to strap onto my bike.  The search starts now!

And things that we just didn't bring enough of....
1. Electrolyte pills
2. Emergen-C Electrolyte powder

Fully loaded bikes outside of Green Frog Cafe in Palouse, WA