I`m proud of myself- for the first time I didn`t come back from a tour with pounds of uneaten supplies! I`ve really tried hard to cut down on carrying more of anything than I end up using, but minimizing the food stash has proven to be the toughest to cure myself of. Sometimes I could swear I brought home more than I left with! Anyway, I just got back from another two day trip this afternoon with ZERO leftover food. Whoopee!

What sort of food stash would you carry on your bicycle? When I have toured, my cycling partner and I have carried an extra meal with us (i.e. packaged noodles), and maybe a few bits and pieces like coffee, sugar, or lemon spread ...... but we have bought our day's food along the way.

Why carry food when there's a good chance you'll encounter a store at some point during the day? I could see it if the tour was somewhere really remote ....

I live in Nevada. Do you still find restock opportunities in Australia?

Yes, definitely. I've done two Point A to Point B tours here in Australia. The first was 3 months in 2004, and I travelled from Sydney to Melbourne over a period of about 3 weeks, then a 1200K randonnee, then 3 weeks in Tasmania, and then about a month in Queensland. At no point were we unable to buy food during the day, and in most cases we had several opportunities.

We made a mistake in one place ... should have picked up food in a particular town because the campground was about 20 km before the next town ... we thought it was just outside that next town ... but we had enough food to put together something for dinner and breakfast. One such mistake in 90 days isn't bad.

The second tour was an 8-day tour down to Wilson's Prom in 2008, and there was no problem at all with getting food on that tour. We didn't carry much in the way of food, but ate well.

Interesting. I have to say that I can't relate though. Do you take food for the whole tour or something? I could see that if you are talking about very short tours that start from home or if you will be in such a remote area that there are no stores at all, but otherwise why not just buy food daily or every few days in more remote areas?

I typically start with no food other than maybe a couple power bars, cliff bars, or whatever to hold me over until I pass a store. I guess that I might actually come home with more than I left with in some cases but that would be because I started with nothing and finished with almost nothing.

So my impresion that Australia outnevadas Nevada is out of line? From some of the journals I`ve seen, the western US has nothing on Aus as far as remoteness and ruggedness go, but then again I`ve never been there.

Yes, I usually take at least a good portion of the food I expect to use from home and yes, most of my tours are very short- normally only weekends.

My original point was that I`m bad about lugging too much food. My subsequent point was that carrying only one meal around here would range from silly to outright dangerous. There are short tour routes that would allow that kind of packing, but not many. More often than not, somewhere along the course of a weekend trip is a span of longer than one meal`s worth of time without services. Occasionally, there will be no services for more than 24 hours. The most extreme case I`ve had from my own touring experience involved carrying water for about a hundred miles of dirt road (knocking on a door was not an option, nor was filtering or treating water). Keep in mind also that just because there`s a store at a certain location on one trip doesn`t mean it won`t be boarded up the next time you pass through.

Anyway, this weekend`s trip had a reasonable food and water available and I resisted the urge to overpack. I`ve often overpacked in the past despite having reliable services on route.

EDIT: This is admittedly not my average trip, but it does provide a good example of why I don`t have the have the same view about buying along the way.
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/gerlachride

Have a look. This is a collection of photos I've taken during the 14+ months I've spent over here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7602419256784/

Now, I haven't been into the centre or north & north-west of Australia, which is apparently quite a bit more remote and rugged, but that's mainly because it's so far away from the populated parts of Australia where I've toured and where I currently live, I haven't had the time to get there.

I've ridden both the "Loneliest Highway" in Nevada as well as the perimeter of Australia. Australia has a lot more empty spaces in the north and west. For example, most every place I saw in Nevada was still on the power grid whereas in further reaches of Australia the road houses generally had their own diesel generators. Another good comparison was that Australia as a whole was similar in size to the lower 48 US states with 10% of the population. I met a guy with 4 camels who had walked from western-most to eastern-most Australia. We figured that until he got close to eastern Queensland, he had crossed 4 sealed roads [equivalent of walking from Oregon to Pennsylvania and crossing only 4 sealed roads...]. Parts I rode on were sometimes remote, but not necessarily more "rugged" than parts of NV I've ridden.

Now with that said, there are broad stretches of nothing and if one were on the outback tracks, it could be a while to see someone. On other hand, since there were few sealed roads, there was also a moderate amount of traffic even in outback on those remotest roads. Also, there was a set of outback stations and roadhouses. The largest gap between roadhouses was 286km between Roebuck Roadhouse (near Broome) and Sandfire Roadhouse in the Great Sandy Desert. A more typical gap between either a roadhouse or a small settlement might be 100km. So, while I was cycling in the outback, I'd carry some food but typically not more than a day or two.

A much larger proportion of the population lives either: in rough stretch between Adelaide and Cairns or in Southern WA or in Tasmania. So in those regions the gaps will not be as large to make up for those big stretches with very little and hence for most riding there there may not be as big a difference in being to buy food along the way most places (and more densely populated than parts of Nevada or Texas or other western states I've ridden).

So my comparison would be that Northern and Western Australia has stretches that are more remote than I've seen in lower 48 states (and for that matter along the main route across Siberia) but that doesn't necessarily mean most who cycle there are in those empty spaces...

Thanks for the clarification. We all do things differently, so I wondered.

I have always flown to the start for a tour, so I always am at least starting in a developed area with stores. Then once underway, the majority of the time, I will pass some kind of store once a day or more. There are exceptions where it may be two or maybe three days between stores and yes stores can and do go out of business. I always carry enough to be safe, but possibly inconvenienced a bit if there is no store where I expect to find one. It is a balancing act and we each need to figure out what works for us balancing safety with the desire to carry less weight. The answers will be different depending on where and how you tour and other factors.

For weekend tours I can see where folks might carry more of their food from the start. I tend to not want to bother gearing up for less than 10 days or so, preferring to do day rides or maybe even forgo the bike and just trail run or hike if it is only a weekend or several days. That is just a personal preference though and I certainly am not implying that there is anything wrong with shorter tours, other than that they don't appeal to me.

Congrats on paring down to only what you need. I like to do more remote rides too. I don't get to do those here in Georgia but when I was living out West I could. I am kind of picky about my food (I didn't used to think I was but seeing what most people are willing to eat I have decided I am picky after all) so I carry most of my food too. I usually carry too much myself and it is hard to not have that comfort cushion! Way to go.

I've had the same sort of problem in past too, but haven't ever gotten completely cured of it. We usually head out the door with about 2 days worth of 'emergency' meals, meaning stuff we can fall back to if we don't pick up food along the way. (Oatmeal, noodles, pasta side dishes - dehydrated stuff mostly, and small quantities of condiments). Then we stop and buy groceries along the way when the opportunity permits.

One of the issues with buying groceries on the road is that you're at the mercy of the packaging size that the store offers. We still do it - but I hate paying premium price for 'travel sized' quantities - which is why we try to bring condiments and staples along with us. One of the great things about fruit and veg is that you can purchase as much or litte of it as you want - you don't have to get the econo-size just to get a price break.

We have a dehydrated soup kit that we've been carrying around with us off and on for at least a couple years. The package is so worn and dog-eared that going to wear through at some point...

Congrats on narrowing down your needs! We also tend to pick up food along the way, but there are times when there simply isn't any food to be had along the way - and then we carry it for up to 10 or even 15 days depending on where we are! It's hard to predict how much you'll need.

Or you`ve got your choice between twinkies, hot dogs, canned goods or s`mores fixins from the bait shop.

Canned goods can make a decent meal ... I've eaten a lot of beans on toast and stew with bread on tours.

I'm going on a 2 week tour soon and I was planning on bringing a small pot, a small camping stove, rice, oats, and wheat berries for most of my food.

Are you heading up the Dempster Hwy or somewhere equally remote? If not ... why would you limit yourself like that? It's good to have a package or bag containing a meal or two of rice or pasta or instant oats or something, just in case ... but I'd be pretty bored if that was all I ate for a 2 week tour when, in many cases, you can buy a wide variety of food along the way.

I agree.

Additionally it is fun to sample the local cuisine, whether that is red beans and rice, biscuits and gravy, pulled pork, or fresh seafood.

When near towns I like to eat at least one meal a day in some kind of restaurant. It is especially fun to go to diners and sit with the locals if there is a communal table. In small towns that is usually the case often with booths on the side and a bunch of tables pushed together to make one long table in the middle of the room. Sitting there guarantees plenty of conversation. If shy ask before sitting there, but I have often just plopped down and never felt unwelcome.

It can even be fun to try the chains that are specific to the local area. There have been some we really missed when we were out of their area.

And I like to browse through some of the little grocery shops in the small towns I've travelled through. Sometimes the food choices are fairly basic in those places (canned goods, a limited selection of fruit and veg, bread) but sometimes the shops have a little section with local foods.

One such place was about 15 km outside of Winnipeg, on a route I cycled quite frequently after work and on the weekends. I liked stopping in there because they'd have a table near the front with baked goodies. Someone (or perhaps a small group of people) would bake up a storm, carefully wrap individual pieces of a variety of cakes, or little bags of 3-5 cookies, or various other squares (aka. slices, bars), etc. and sell them for a fairly nominal price. They were delicious!! I've encountered similar things in other little country stores.

And there are the local attractions ... historical creameries, for example. The Markerville Creamery was just over 40 km from where I lived in Alberta, and I cycled out there a number of times over the years I lived in Alberta for the ice cream. I just had the ice cream, but because the creamery was in a historical Norweigen village, they also had a selection of locally made Norweigen foods. I've encountered various places like that on my travels too.

And markets ... in Australia and southern BC, for example, there are heaps of fruit markets. Some are large operations, others are roadside stands. In Queensland, we disembarked from a ferry and by the side of the road was a farmer selling the short, fat, very sweet bananas they grow up there for $0.25 a banana. We bought several to have along the way. Later, we came across a table by the side of the road with several different fruits in boxes and a tin can to drop some money in. I've come across everything from those situations to very large fruit markets.

Cycling in France was wonderful because of the patisseries ... mmmmmmm!!!! And over there, they deliver "bread" to the campgrounds in the mornings. "Bread" consists of pain du chocolat and croissants chocolat ... nothing like a couple of those to start the day.

Unless I really had to because my ride would be very remote, I'd rather not carry food with me.

Lots of folks have dietary restrictions -- either medical (GI problems more exotic than IBS) or self-imposed (Kosher, vegan, etc) -- which may make both mini-marts and local cuisine problematic.

This is actually the biggest obstacle that I'm trying to solve in planning my first big tour (TransAmerica Trail the summer after next). In a family of four, there are two members with pretty severe dietary restrictions (one each of the above), and I'm worried that outside of the bigger cities, I may have trouble keeping everyone fed on locally available supplies. I suspect that I'm going to end up way over-packing, but I don't see a ready alternative; especially with the medically restricted diet, if she goes off diet and gets sick and weak far from home, things could turn ugly.

I completely agree about sampling local fare (foodwise and otherwise) when travelling, but suggest at least carefull consideration of the possibilities when it comes to depending on what you find along the route. A road doesn`t need to be Dempster Highway remote to cause minor inconvenience to most or major problems for somebody with special requirements. Even relatively remote, say one store in a hundred mile stretch, you`d be awful hungry upon arriving at the NEXT restock point should that store unexpectedly be closed. If it`s a water issue, it could be worse. Admittedly, I tend to overdo with respect to food, but I still say that it`s worth thinking out ahead of time. Maybe you need to bring it all, maybe you don`t need to carry any of it with you. Different people are comfortable with different situations. Riding alone and without a mobile phone doesn`t bother me in the slightest, while others would never consider that. On the other hand, many people are quite comfortable quitting their jobs to travel, happilly pedal through congested city centers, and tour in lands where they don`t speak the local language, none of which I could ever bring myself to attempt. We all have to consider our comfort levels and plan according to them.

Of course you should have some general idea of where you're going and what might be available out there ... or not available out there. And as I said earlier, it is a good idea to carry a dinner, a breakfast, and definitely some snacks with you, just in case you can't find a source of food along the way.

And I've spent my life living outside my comfort zone.

Sounds uncorfortable to me. If you enjoy that, I`ve got a saddle that you`ll just love- you can have it for free.

Well I plan for enough for my first store going out. (sometimes can be 60 plus miles.)

A couple places it was 80 miles.

Yet when I come home it all goes in the trash that last 60 miles or last day. .

Some serious dumping going on. I never come home with food or water L)