Originally Posted by freemti

I was emailing some friends and thought I should post my thoughts in my own thread, being on topic and all...

I was up by Perkiomem itself on the way the Greenville (sp?), I bailed on the trail around Mount Spring. Since I was safely home in Bed Saturday night, I missed the rain you guys got, actually would of liked to test out the tent in a heavy rain. I had two small rear panniers stuffed to the gills, my tent strapped on top and a thermarest pad lashed to my handle bars. 33 lbs in all. Have you tried using compressions sacks? Very, very handy for reducing bulk - might help with stuff sticking out the back of the bike. I will need slight bigger panniers I think and a handlebar bag seems almost a 100% requirement

I learned some good things to help me prepare for my trip across PA and back (or around whichever it turns out to be), so for me my test trip was 100% successful. However I'm in a quandary what to do about the triple question. I felt much better the second day by avoiding needless climbing and sticking to state roads where it was not too trafficy I'd mix it up a bit by taking a detour off the main route if the topology looked reasonable and view the scenery and then return to put some miles on before repeating the pattern. If the topology said hills, I stayed on the state road where the grade was not awful (still hard work with a 34-28 granny, but at least possible without having to dismount) However it would be really nice to be able to spin up the hills instead of mash...