Used to bike everywhere as a teenager. When I went to college, from northeast Ohio to central Ohio, I decided to bike.

There was no bikeforums.net (or internet), and no bike shop in my town. Nor did I know anyone who had been bike touring. I just had to wing it. Got a Wald rear basket set (the rack + baskets as one unit, none of those fancy folding baskets), bought a small dome tent, took my grandfather's military-issue, wool sleeping bag because it was the only one in the house that folded up small enough to fit on my bike, and got a little igloo cooler.

By today's standards, compared to my current set-up or the set-up of almost any other bike-camper I know, it was pretty ridiculous, but it got the job done... mostly. Nothing about the set-up was light-weight, other than the fact that my baskets could only hold so much; the dome tent leaked; the sleeping bag, while compact, was not warm; the cooler was hanging off the back of my Wald basket set and spent a day rubbing the wheel, and by the time I realized it, I had worn through the outer shell and halfway through the insulation; and some kind of sleeping pad would have been a great idea, but it was not an idea that I had until someone later told me about inflatable pads;. Still, it was a good time. It was only 3 or 4 days, but it was fun enough that I decided to try again the next year.

The next year I still hadn't invested in any special gear. I did add to my supplies a mesh hammock. I was not as clever as the current crop of hammock campers in that I had no bug netting, no tarp, and no under insulation. It was more comfortable than the ground, but anything beyond a light rain meant that I'd get back into my leaky tent. And I was even colder on those nights I slept in the hammock. I had planned on biking around Ohio for a week or two and then working my way back to school in time for classes, but after a few days, I was tired of sleeping cold and/or wet. I headed to school early so I could sleep in a bed again.

Over the next decade or so, I slowly adjusted my camping gear to focus on comfortable, warm sleeping, since that seemed to make or break my camping experience. I did not, however, focus on portability. It was all car camping for several years. My last car camping trip involved a large tent, queen-sized air mattress, heavy sleeping bag, extra blankets. Camping was getting more comfy, but the bike was no longer part of the equation (unless I brought the bike with me in the car). I still loved the idea of bike camping, but I didn't see how my current level of comfort could be maintained on a bike, and I couldn't see returning to the days of cold, wet camping with only a thin pad between me and the ground.

It wasn't until I found bikeforums that I learned that someone smarter than me had successfully turned a hammock into a tent that could be both warm and dry (and bug-free). That was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. If I could sleep warm and dry and have a tent small enough to carry on my bike and not toss and turn on the hard ground, I was ready to try some bike camping again. It had probably been 15 years or more since my last, overnight, bike trip. I don't have the time off to do any serious, long distance traveling on my bike, but in the last couple of years since getting my Hennessy Hammock, I've done several overnight trips and a couple of short, multi-day tours with more on the horizon. Real racks and real panniers and other lightweight gear choices have made a difference as well, but for me the key was a decent sleeping set-up. I don't know that I'll ever get to go on an extended tour, but just knowing that I can do a self-supported trip has been great.