Before I set out on my first self contained tour I must have read 8-10 blogs and multiple lists for suggested gear and general bike and riding suggestions.

One thing I never saw was a reminder to check fender clearance.

I'm riding on a trail that was crushed stone but with large intermittent segments of packed dirt. Unfortunately, frequent rain turned those packed dirt segments into a muddy quagmire. Because I had very minimal clearance between my tires and fenders, the mud essentially clogged everything up and it was like riding with my brakes engaged. My back wheel literally came close to seizing up and I needed a screw driver (sticks were breaking) to pry the caked mud out of the fender. It was like concrete.

The mud even seeped down the sidewalls of my tires and fouled my brakes.

Every time I cleared the mud out, it came back within a 1/2 mile or so. I thought that I was sick and without energy but I eventually saw that most of my problems were fender/tire related.

Lesson learned.