Camping Equipment

I used to think there weren’t all that many choices in camping gear – we all need a tent, sleeping bag, and pad. But since I’ve been on the road, I’ve seen cyclists with so many different configurations of camping equipment, I’ve since realized there are a ton of choices out there! This is what we’ve chosen and why:.

Tent: We wanted one tent for the four of us rather than two tents. Our reasoning for that was rainy days – on those days that we were stuck in the tent for an entire day (or, God forbid, two days) we wanted a tent big enough for all of us. It needed to be big enough for us to sleep comfortably, but also to sit up and play cards or whatever. After we started on the road, we discovered yet another benefit of one tent – many campgrounds charge per tent, so we pay only one fee rather than two that we would have to pay otherwise.

Given that we wanted one tent, our options were extremely limited – there aren’t a whole lot of 4-person backpacking tents on the market. We ended up with the REI Half Dome 4 Tent and have been very happy with it.

Sleeping bags: Again, there are lots of options here – down vs fiberfill; summer weight vs three season; mummy style vs box

We knew we would pass through cold weather, so wanted warm sleeping bags. We also wanted down for its lightweight nature and compressability. We ended up with a mishmash of brands, but they were all nice, warm, down bags.

If I had it to do over, I would do it differently. Rather than one very warm sleeping bag for each of us, I would get two lightweight summer bags that can layer together on the cold nights. That way, we aren’t sweltering on warm nights, but are still toasty on cold ones.

I would, however, stick with a down sleeping bag . I really like the lightweight nature of down, and having to keep it dry hasn’t presented a lot of problems for us

Mats: This is one area where we have definitely gone against the grain. Most people I know (actually, all people I know!) have opted for inflatable Therm-a-rest pads. We’ve opted for semi-solid foam pads .

Our reasoning was that we wanted the durability of actual foam. Although the inflatable pads are more comfortable and they pack down smaller, we have had bad experiences in the past with punctures. And once the inflatable pads are punctured, they provide no insulation whatsoever. Our foam pads, on the other hand, have gone through both heaven and hell – and lived to tell about it. We’ve had cactus thorns poking completely through the pads. Heck – we’ve even had full-fledged sticks poking through!! And yet, they still insulate us perfectly fine from the freezing cold ground – and that’s what we need.