A trailer question for my first bike overnighter
 

I'm looking at an overnight trip that is really more of a fishing trip than a bike trip, but a friend wants to go on bike, and who am I to argue?

We're looking at going to a small lake that's about a mile and a half of fairly sandy trail from the trail head. We made the trip last night, but really wished we could spend the night so we could fish it without having to ride home in the dark, without headlights (which we did) and be able to fish in the morning. Like I said, we could easily walk in with backpacks, but there are a lot of trails and an old homestead cabin a couple miles away I'd like to show him and biking would be a fun way to do it.

We are not experienced mountain bikers. I've done a decent amount of riding over the summer on pavement. He has not, but is a very experienced dirt bike trail rider. We've started considering gear that would be nice to have, but neither of us have luggage capacity on the bikes we're planning on riding. His theory is to wear a large back pack to a spot by the lake, ditch it at camp and ride on when we feel like it. I've been considering hooking up my son's trailer and using it to haul my gear. We were also considering bringing waders (remember, I said it's more of a fishing trip) and I'm having trouble figuring out how else to pack them. I also have a pack that I use for backpacking, but am not crazy about riding with it. I don't know how the trailer would do with sand. Most of the trails should be wide enough to accommodate the trailer.

If you were going to do a (very short) ride on a bike without proper luggage, would you go for a backpack or trailer if you were going to ride through sand?

If there were sketchy narrow trail single track, the occasional portage, carry the bike,
then backpacks are good..

wider trails, single-wheel trailer.

unimproved but almost drivable in a car, the 2 wheel trailer..

Based on my experience with an Extrawheel Voyager (overkill for your needs BTW) and to a lesser extent a BoB Ibex if you can ride the bike along the tracks (assuming sufficent width) then the trailer will not be an issue. That said if you have to push the bike, then the trailer really adds to the pain. More a weight issue than anything else mind you.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0/IMG_2788.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--...0/IMG_2853.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h...0/IMG_2854.JPG

Rode this single track (first photo) pulling the Extrawheel Voyager and in the area generally there is a lot of pea gravel roads but not much sand. The pea gravel often is deep and thick so I tended to end up walking a lot anyway which was pain full with the trailer. The bike bogs down in the gravel and the front wheel tends to want to wash-out.

Andrew

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/48790?feat=flyweight waders-SR0&page=men-s-flyweight-ii-stocking-foot-waders&attrValue_0=Olive&productId=848493

I use this kind of thing, these are fancy and theoretically breathable. The ones I use are much cheaper, and just use coated nylon, and are my favourite. One maker was Red Ball, but this stuff is being copied all over the place. They fold up to the size of a VHS cassette, and one can wear all sorts of fins, or shoes, like canvas running shoes, or sandals, or crocs, as well as wadding shoes. These latter are best for slippery cold rivers, but the felt soles are heavy when wet, and may take a long time to dry out.

One of the weird things about these super light and durable waders is that several times a day you will think they have sprung a leak, but it is just the thin fabric feels almost like the water itself very comfortable if the weather is mild to warm.

Thanks for the input. I think I'm leaning backpack, with waders strapped to the outside. If it wasn't for the big heavy waders (with boots attached) the backpack would be an obvious choice. For the most part, there are 2 ways to get where we are going. Narrow and rocky or wide and sandy. There is sand on the narrow part and some narrowish stuff on the wide part, though.

Those waders in the link would be much more convenient for this lake wading, but I've been spending money on getting my bike ready to go and the wife may not be thrilled if I go buy another pair of waders for the trip.