Not like any trip I’ve taken before – Part 1: Packing for a 70-day bike ride

This is a three part series on the logistics of embarking on a cross country bike ride, from a city that you don’t live in.

Part 1: Packing for a 70-day bike ride.

Part 2: Boxing up a bike to check on the plane.

Part 3: The logistics of a bike at the airport.

I leave to ride my bike across the country on Sunday. Wow. That’s a bit of a scary thought (but also exciting!). I probably needed to do about 109453x as much training as I actually did… but at this point I am just going to have to make due! I leave for Baltimore tonight, and as of right now I am approximately 95% of the way done packing “normal” trip things. Still have to pack the bike; that’s today’s task though. For my trip we [luckily] have a support van, so I don’t have to consider what I am capable of carrying and how I’m going to do that, but we do have space limitations. We were given a duffle bag by the 4K For Cancer, and in addition to that we are allowed a regular, school-sized backpack, and some sort of hydration backpack. Packing for this trip was more challenging that normal for me for two main reasons: 1) it’s a long trip to pack for and 2) the bags to pack in really aren’t ideal… for example, there are no pockets in them! That makes organizing pretty hard. Here are the steps I took.

Step 1: Stuff all over.

Step 2: Big stuff in bag (sleeping bag & mattress pad… I know you’re jealous I get to sleep on the floor/ground all summer!)

Step 3: Find some old comforter/duvet bags (aka pseudo-pockets) to start packing clothes into.

Step 4: Cram everything into duffle bag.

Step 5: Don’t forget to leave out clothes for wearing on the plane (that in theory would also fit in my bag).

Step 6: Shove everything that won’t fit in duffle bag into backpack and hope all zippers will close. Put things that won’t fit in side pockets and front drawstrings.