Touring - 7000 miles ultra-light

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ericp_ca
08-17-07, 10:35 AM
Planning a 7000 miles trip ultra-light (I posted before worrying about hardware reliability/maintenance)

I basically plan to leave home with camel-back, beamrack and credit-card bringing just the bare minimum. I have done three times, without the beamrack (3 days/360 miles, 2 days/300 miles), and my only problem is the shoes. I wear size 14 with orthotics and I can't walk with flipflops. Cheap flipflops fitted flat in the camel back main compartment (it is a 100oz type with some room) on prior trips, but I can barely walk 200 feet with those. I don't walk to walk around in bike shoes after my day of riding, but I would like to walk in something decent that does not take too much space in my rather small "trunk" (A Topeak DXP for those who wonder).

Any suggestions ?

Megamax
08-17-07, 12:54 PM
I used Crocs and they worked out well. They are very light, comfortable, and waterproof. I doubt they will fit in a trunk bag (not sure anything other then a flip flop will), but they are light enough you could strap them to the rack/trunk. They are not ideal for hiking rough terrain, but other then that I never had a problem.

Mark
Skewer
08-17-07, 03:43 PM
I can't walk worth a darn with flip flops either, but I have had luck packing and walking in slider type sandals. They are light and compress almost as well as flip flops. And the ones I have are waterproof, although these ones in the link are not. Here is an example of a women's slider model from Nike. I didn't see the Men's models that I have.

http://www.nike.com/index.jhtml?cp=USNS_KW_SU07_US_Google_B&ref=http://www.google.com&l=nikestore,grid,_grid,s-Sandals#l=nikestore,grid,_pdp,cid-1/gid-122301/pid-122301,_grid,f-10001+12001+4294967192&re=US&co=US&la=EN

Iowegian
08-17-07, 05:05 PM
If you're really going for 7000 miles and your feet are that sensitive, you need to find a way to carry some decent shoes. Any chance you could get a bigger trunk or find a way to lash some shoes to the sides of something?

Some folks really like the cycling sandals too. Never used them myself but perhaps you could find some cycling shoes that would let you walk comfortably, as well.

Have a great trip!