Camping Prep

We're getting ready for another bike camping adventure! Last year our inaugural trip was to a local state park campground in Vernonia about 30 miles away, equipped with my Xtracycle Radish and Andy's hybrid commuter PLUS a trailer. This year, we are taking it down to the kitchen scale and going lightweight, getting everything packed and ready to roll on our Brompton folding bicycles. We have some larger trips planned for camping with Bromptons later in the summer (including our first plane trip with the folders!), so we wanted to get in a shorter weekend camping experience locally at least once to have a trial run with gear packing and culling.

If you've read my description of camping in Vernonia at Stub Stewart from last year, you might remember that I complained heartily about the big uphill climb to the camp at the end of the ride, but here I am undertaking this trip again! Our decision was based mostly on familiarity: this trip was a fairly easy one along country roads, including a long stretch on a protected trail, and we had certainty about amenities upon our arrival (need...shower...). Our hope is that with the lighter (and less) gear and lighter bikes, that uphill climb would not be so painful now that we're expecting it. Right now we have everything mostly packed, with raincovers for all the bags ready to go (on and off showers today, yay), and will load up the bikes once Andy gets home from his half-day at work. I'm excited for our first camping trip of the year, first camping trip on the Brommies, and first long ride with Andy's ingenious Tyke Toter support, a vertical piece that he fit onto the only child bike seat we could find to fit with the Brompton and its folding attributes.

We'll tell you all about it once we get home!