Playing with gear

I was playing around in the garage tonight and then noticed there were four bucks in the front yard. They ate every single one of the Dandelions in the lawn. They also ate some of the new leaves off the Aspen tree.

This weekend's training consists of a simple overnighter so I was running through some gear tonight. Last year I created a spreadsheet for every little thing that was with me. It's at work but I know I'm lighter this year. It's amazing how each time I head out for a big ride I seem to be able to do it on less and less stuff. The bike is still gonna weigh right at 24.5lbs. and I'm fine with that because I absolutely trust it. This year I intend to go without my front roll bag from Carousel Designs. Instead I'm using a simpler roll top bag from Sea to Summit (the gray bag on the right). The bag and it's contents (I won't go into that yet) weighs 2.7lbs. I'm quite comfortable with whatever Mother Nature decides to throw at me with what's in that bag though. I will use my seat bag from Carousel Designs. The sleep system for this year will be one of two options. I'm not going to go into what each option consists of but both will have my closed cell foam pad that weighs one whole ounce. I will also bring either my 45 degree down bag from North Face or go with something else. I still need to do a lot of testing (haven't done any yet with the really ultralight setup) and see if it's gonna fly with the strategy that I intend to use for this year (right now). The heavier system of the 2 weighs 3.9 lbs including the Carousel Designs seat bag and my SPOT unit. The lighter system weighs 3 lbs even with the seat bag and SPOT.

I think I'll be able to have about 5 hours of food in my Revelate (formerly Epic Designs before Specialized but the kaibash on things) gas tank bag and jersey pockets before I need to stop and reload. I'm running the same backpack and in that will be my tools/pump/tube, my trusty MSR water filter (I won't use anything else), minimal personal care stuff, my rain jacket, some food, and my water. I have plenty of room to load up on food in my pack, seat bag and front bag if need be. I'm still trying to figure out where I'm heading this weekend. It's gonna have to be someplace remote because with the holiday weekend, everyone will be out playing. I have a general idear where I'll go but Dharma recently got mad at me and chewed up my Gazeteer so I need to do a bit more research. I can't wait for this week to be done and school to be out so I can focus more on training and having fun.