Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Me, My Thoughts are Flower Strewn, Ocean Storm, Bayberry Moon

I got this shot on the internet. Our bob trailer should look something like this.

So, remember how I said I wanted to do more touring and bike camping? Well, John just made that easier. I thought I would just slowly buy paniers in the next few years, and eventually get set-up to have enough of what I need to bike camp and tour. John emailed me yesterday and said he bought a bob trailer, used and on sale on ebay. I'm excited to do some weekend bike camping trips. I hope we can finally do our ride to Stone City, camp at Matsell bridge and hang out and eat and drink at the General Store Pub. We can also seriously think about going self-contained on RAGBRAI this year.


I've read the pros and cons of using a bob trailer instead of bagging it all on your bikes. The cons seem to be that if there is a strong crosswind, it can be hard to handle your bike, and that it can be wide on narrow roads, people are tempted to pack too much stuff on it, because they can and if you are trying to transport it on a ferry, it can be cumbersome.

The benefits to a bob trailer are that it's easier to balance your weight than with paniers, it can carry as much as you need, we can ride it on gravel roads and even some light single track and we can lock it to a tree and leave our campsite with our bikes and without any bags to go on more of a training ride.

I'm excited to see how it goes, try out the trailer, save some money on  hotels, but most importantly, to BIKE CAMP!

5 comments:

rel said...

Now that sounds exciting. I'm more of a hiking camper, but camping out is great no matter how you travel.
You've stirred up my memory of my friend and I hiking and camping under the stars in South Korea.

Churls said...

I love to hike camp too. As long as I am outside for most of the day, I am happy to hike, run, bike...

Dan said...

A BOB??? Seriously. Who actually uses those things?!?! ;)

A said...

wow that is way toooo small I need like a mini van full of crap to go camping - are you crazy? Hope you have lots of fun with it!
A

Churls said...

Dan, Do you just use bags when you bike camp? Are you able to leave your campsite and leave your bags and ride around the area where you camped without all of your stuff on you? That's why we want to try the BOB but let us know if bags are better for that. I'd love to hear what works best for you.

A.,

I don't need that much stuff to camp, but we'll see how bare we can get to help with the weight of all of our stuff....