It is so different waking up in a hotel room.
It’s dark-no morning glow.
The sound of doors shutting-not birds.
And while the mattress is comfortable, our set-up in the tent is amazing.
Yesterday, over breakfast, we had a great conversation with Neil and Rett. They have been cycle touring for nearly two years! How do you do that?! A big part of it is your equipment. We discussed at length…what tent… What air mattress…and so on. A dear friend once told me “You get what you pay for and you don’t get what you don’t pay for”. He’s an attorney so I figured he knew what he was talking about. This advice has not lead me astray.
So while I can’t share miles with you today, I can share information about our tent and equipment. Mind you, I am a complete novice but Drew…well, he’s backpacked solo for weeks and has been an incredible mentor to me.
Our tent is a Big Agnes Flycreek HV UL 3 man bike packing tent. Why a 3 man tent? Room for both of us and our stuff. My bike helmet has become my ‘bucket’ where, at the end of the day, my glasses, mirror, Road ID, mouth guard, Garmin and phone go. The kit for the next day is also inside so I can tuck it into the sleeping bag the next morning to warm it before putting it on. Always, always water by the bedside. As you can imagine, a three man tent accommodates 2 people and gear. We are also traveling with GoPros so we can capture footage and we want to keep electronics dry.
The mattress pad is an Exped Ultra 3R sleeping pad. It has two chambers, two inflate ports and two deflate ports. It keeps us off the rocks although it can be quite squeeky each time you turn over. I turn a lot over the course of the night so I’m the noisy one in camp! We did get a puncture at the end of week one, found and patched it. It’s been fine since.
We sleep in down quilts-Enlightened Equipment Convert down quilt 20 degree. They are more narrow at the foot. You can zip them together and after week one, we started zipping my edge. I can still poke my feet out the bottom to cool myself but having the two quilts zipped together helps to keep me covered, especially since I turn often and continue to earn my trail name ‘flipflop’!
To protect the down sleeping bags is a silk liner by Jag Bag. – super easy to wash and a light cover on those warm nights.
Our pillows are Klymit inflatable pillows XL. I’ve tried covering it with my down jacket, a shirt. Long story short, I’m just sleeping on it. Putting my ear in the center where there is a depression helps to keep it from creeping away.
After chatting with Neil and Rett, it sounds like we have similar equipment.
Today we’ve worked to regroup- do laundry, catch up on posts, work, communication. We walked to The Montana Club for a late lunch/early dinner where Riley gave us amazing service. And yes…Drew got a quesadilla like no other!! The food was delicious!!
A light breeze filled the flag and we made a quick visit to the local gas station- the Town Pump- for supplies. While walking back, we spied a small snake trying to warm itself on the sidewalk.
Back to the hotel, we tried the hot tub. It was more of a warm tub (90ish degrees) but we did get to meet a lovely couple from South Dakota who is traveling with their 3 daughters to Washington, the North Cascades and the beach. The girls were having a great time in the pool. They were so polite and respectful.
It rained most of the day so being indoors wasn’t too painful.
Sunday, we were supposed to ride again but we are staying one more night. We have scheduled to pickup restock packages every couple of weeks and learned the Missoula post office is closed Saturday and Sunday. We will get everything Monday morning. We will need to make up about 50 miles so Drew has restructured the route over the next three days. We have work ahead of us. 70ish miles Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. A bit of climbing as well. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and the wind will be at our backs!!
Until we chat again….
