Touring - Finally did my first overnighter

So finally got out there to do my first overnighter on touring bike. It's been a long time coming since i bought my LHT last spring with the intent to do some tours right before i broke my leg snowboarding. Kind put the crimp on my exercising last year and never got out there on a tour.

went 68.5 miles from my house to chain o'lakes sate park in indiana. was kind of a tough ride since was first time i have ridden fully loaded, and was into a wind most of the way. Well that and previous longest exercise ride was 36 miles. but overall was a great ride through amish / mennonite country in indiana. lots of country roads with no traffic. For miles on end the worst thing i had to watch for was the piles of horse @#$% from the buggys!

I carried everything to be self sufficient, even though my wife drove out to meet me and spend the night in the campground (kind of a safety blanket for first time).

Been lurking for quite a while on here, only posting a couple times, but want to thank everyone for all the great advice on this forum. I think I have a pretty robust trouing setup beacuase of all the great comments on this forum. in a nutshell have :

Surly LHT complete with Surly nice racks (heavier than some i know but liked the robustness)
Ortlieb Classic Roller panniers front and rear (got them at Best buy for 1/2 price thanks to someone pointing it out on here!)
Alps Mystique 2 person tent (not freestanding but real pleased with size and fact can fit it and sleeping bag in same pannier)
Mini Trangia stove / cook set. used everclear in it (know more expensive but like that not poisonous and that can dual purpose for a jungle juice relaxing beverage!). Seemed to work great for boiling water.


definitely can see how touring is addicting, and cannot wait to plan and do my next one. with work will probably end up doing a couple more weekend types, but hope to meter out my vacation time to do some longer multiday trips later in summer.

thanks for all the great inspiration and advice!

Great! Did you take any pictures?

68.5 miles is pretty far for the first day of the first tour! Did you ride back the next day? I took a much shorter tour (30 miles) once when I hadn't been on the bike in months. I was amazed at how well I did the first day. Training? I don't need no stinking training! I decided to forego the layover day and head back home the second day. Big mistake! I was dying! It caught up with me the second day. I even called my wife to come rescue me, but she couldn't leave work. I limped home.

That was indeed ambitious distance for the first loaded ride. But it makes it that much more successful. Congratulations! Glad it worked out well.

Sounds like a successful first one, congrats.

Congrats on the first ride! Sounds like it went real well! I'll be picking out a weekend over the next couple days to finally do my first overnighter. Kinda like you I'd planned on doing it last year, but there was a death in the family two days before my planned trip, so it went on the back burner. Just as well. I finally have my Surly LHT now (last year I had a cheap Schwinn hybrid), so my bike's a little better suited for the task. Hope mine's as fun as yours was!

Awesome! Congrats on your accomplishment & a good first experience. I'm in the process of learning about my new bike & adding panniers, collecting appropriate gear, etc. prior to an overnighter. I'm very excited, so it's great to hear of your experience. Thanks for posting, & happy trails!