Originally Posted by
fishboat
We do see a surprising number of threads here on BF with someone planning their first tour and it being a rather major trip..1000 miles or more without planning any practice runs. Then there's the occasional guy (avid biker) and wife/GF (casual biker) jumping into a tour without a shake down trip or two. (yikes) Such a "plan" is ripe for a failure-to-launch after a few days or a staggered start. A couple/few short trips of 2-3 days along with some objective observation of what gear is really needed(hopefully it rains for a day or two on one of the trips) REALLY helps in making the actual tour much more pleasant.
With respect to your cross country..wow. Never camped before..interesting way to start. Sort of jumping in the deep end. Determination can go a long way in any effort. I've camped my entire life..it was the day after day riding 50ish miles that I wasn't familiar with. That part was surprisingly easy.
I did ACA’s unsupported Northern Tier tour so I could learn the subtleties of camping, like don’t pitch you tent where water might pool if it rains. The first night we stayed in the group area of Kitsap Memorial Park on Puget Sound. I had to use the porta potty in the middle of the night and was worried there might be a snake inside. When I exited, I had to shoo away a raccoon that was trying to get at supplies on the picnic table. Not long after that, a couple of us discovered that there were four really loud snores in the group of 13.
The riding part was relatively easy. I was an avid roadie and used a bike for general transportation. One and even two metric centuries or more during a weekend was not rare. I had also done two supported tour across PA. But when we crossed the North Cascades Highway we started out in the upper 30s. It started raining before Rainy Pass. The rain turned to snow until Washington Pass, and there was over 6’ of snow plowed up along the sides of the road. I had never seen anything like it.
I carried a lot of heavy film camera equipment, including a medium format camera with three lenses and a 35 mm. That mentally helped me decide to leave home creature comforts. One nice thing is that my share of the group cooking gear was one of the large pots with a lid that doubled as a frying pan. No one wanted it because of its bulk, but I’m sure it weighed less than two full 32 oz. fuel bottles that a couple of people chose to carry.