I've been thinking about touring the west coast, but have never toured before. Does anyone just take a trailer? What are some of the downsides of that? Also, I'm an avid backpacker and so I have a lot of gear that I think will transfer over well. Things like my tent(REI 2person 5lbs), tarp, stove/fuel/pots, and most importantly, my backpack. I was thinking it might be easier for me to just mount my backpack onto the rear of the bike above the tire on a rack. For going around corners though, it seems like it'd be a better idea to keep an even load F/R. So maybe I could use the BP on the rack in the rear and get some front tire saddlebags to even it out. The backpack is about 5lbs and can hold ~4500cu in. I wonder if I'll need more space than that?