Leah, You've received some very worthy advice so far, and I would certainly second Minh's comment. The only thing I can add is this: As someone who tries to sleep under the stars at least 30 nights a year, I find that the first night of sleeping in my bag on a pad is an adjustment. It's usually a series of 30-minute naps throughout the night. Maybe it's because I want to peek at the sky now and then. But, the second night on, I usually sleep very well. So, go for more than one night!
Oh, and don't forget a good pillow. Enjoy, John On Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 8:04:58 AM UTC-7 Minh wrote: > Bikepacking is fun, my #1 advice is to go out for an overnite, at some > point the gear, the packing can cause paralysis, so you really need to do > it to really understand it! > > and for gear, there is a ton of gear out there that is good enough and not > that expensive, great way to start or reach out to local community to > borrow/gift equipment, I just gave away an old tent myself. Only after a > few trips would I start thinking about upgrading to more specific gear. > > On Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 9:36:29 AM UTC-4 [email protected] wrote: > >> The concern of having critters big and small get into your food is simple >> to avoid. Like others have mentioned, definitely don't keep food in your >> tent if you're in bear country, and never keep food stored in your bike >> bags overnight or you could wake up to holes chewed through your nice >> bikepacking bags! Here's how I handle it: >> >> Firstly, I use these odor-proof OpSak bags <https://loksak.com/opsak/> made >> by LokSak. Basically, they're heavy duty zip-loc bags that come in various >> sizes. I store anything that resembles food or would give off a smell, like >> toothpaste, deodorant, etc. Store all this stuff inside the bags, inside >> your bikepacking bags. Secondly, overnight I will take all these odor-proof >> bags and place them in a small, waterproof stuff-sack (like these >> <https://seatosummit.com/products/the-ultra-sil-stuff-sack> made by Sea >> to Summit). That all gets strung up high enough on a tree branch with a >> decent length of paracord and a heavy carabiner, far enough away from the >> campsite - usually 50-100 yds away. The carabiner serves double-duty as a >> weight to get the cord lofted up and over a high tree branch, and you can >> clip the bag onto it. >> >> Brian >> Lexington KY >> >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/e3e3965f-acc9-41f1-95ac-61fad24edfb8n%40googlegroups.com.
