Bulk of Equipment Purchased

Budget: ~$400

I'm buying up stuff so quickly that the budget is in a state of flux in which I've lost track of it. I'll have it back to the penny once the dust settles.

I got a spare tire and spare tubes for the bike.


The little boxes in the middle contain the collapsed tubes. So now if I get some ridiculous puncture that I can't patch (which, no doubt, at some point I will), I'll have a recourse. I also ordered panniers and a rain cover for the bike, which should arrive at the shop by the end of the week.

I got some camping equipment. I paid extra for compactness; it will be worth it. I tossed a boot into the photo for size comparison.


The long rectangular package is the tent. It'll be barely big enough to hold me lengthwise when set up, but barely is still big enough. The big green roll on the left is the sleeping bag. The small one on the right is a pad to put under the sleeping bag.

I never thought the pad was important until I once camped without one. It was almost like sleeping on the ground. I wondered all night why I even brought a tent. In fact, I now actually think the opposite—that if the weather were really nice, I'd potentially be willing to leave the tent packed and just put the pad on the ground and the sleeping bag on it. (Probably not, though; the tent does a good job of screening one from small animals.)

I still need:

• A couple of good bike locks
  
• Pepper spray and bear spray
  
• First aid
  
• Simple stuff like sunscreen, sunglasses, etc.
  

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So tomorrow, I'm grabbing my little brother and we're biking up to Salisbury, where we'll sleep in my new tent and try it out. Tonight, I was thinking about getting there, and realized....Oh, crap! How am I going to attach stuff to the rack?

So I had to borrow some bungee cords.


I'll need to buy some of my own before departing for real.

Salisbury should be a good time.