As the youth would say, I’ve been gettin after it ✊🔥💨💣💥💯. After a year on the road on a heavy as heck bike with different cultures to get deeper into, it’s a breath of fresh air to drop everything and ride to the mountains of the good ol’ United States of America, carrying as little as possible, speaking English, looking at big peaks, not caring about crazy rules I can’t understand. Here, in Colorado, it’s easy. All the good stuff is National Forest and all that is fair game. Go pedal. Get somewhere. Sleep. Do it all over again.

So this is what I’m packin for some overnight bikepackin’ sackin’ 🚵😴

Compared to my gear for the long tours, I’ve left behind my rack/panniers, iPad, camera gear (hard drives, reader, lenses…), instax printer and film, tent, extra clothes, multi-fuel stove, spice/oil kit, winter gear, first aid kit, satellite communicator, charging cables and adapter, spare bolts/cleats/cables, extra water bottles…

And now we’re left with just the essentials. Because life is most beautiful at its purest form, right?

Sleep:

For a bunch of the overnighters I’ve rolled this summer, I’ve just been in a hammock or on the ground. Overnighters are chill because you can check the weather before and fairly confidently prepare for dry/warm weather. So if that’s the case, I’ll bring a hammock and the groundsheet from my 2p tent, so I can cowboy camp on it or use it as a makeshift tarp in case the rain comes. I bring my 30 degree sleeping bag, air pad and pillow. They all go in my handlebar roll, a prototype Roadrunner Mega Jammer I’m madly in love with. So now I’m comfy and warm. Night night, sleep tight. Life is good.

Clothes:

I wear the same kit two days in a row, and just letting the bibs air dry and assuming that does some sort of hygienic thing (probably not but feels better). Socks as well. Gross boy, I know, sue me. It’s not a fashion contest. I’m riding clipped in so my mountain bike shoes. I also bring thermal pants, zip off pants/shorts (for camp and for swimming), a small pack towel, my warm wool socks, sometimes my sandals but most likely not and all this also goes in the handlebar roll. I also roll my fleece jacket into my rain jacket and voile strap it to my saddle. (So the fleece doesn’t get dirty). And I always carry my hat. Because what’s a white guy without a hat?

Food:

I must begin by saying I eat a lot. So much I should see a doctor. But for an overnighter, sometimes it’s just a dehydrated camp meal for dinner, sometimes a burrito in the framebag, sometimes I make ramen, sometimes it’s just rice and beans. Breakfast I try to stomach a couple bags of instant oatmeal, I pour over my coffee from one of those fantastic GSI coffee strainers, and voilè, we’re back on the road. Fruit snacks, dried mangos, snickers bars. 3.5L of water. And I pack some PB&J’s, they get it done real good 🤤

I carry a basic esbit pot with an alibaba stove and the little MSR gas cans. I love that little GSI pot scraper and use that religiously. Normally I also carry an alcohol burner to have options while traveling but while home, I find butane the best.

Stuff:

So what’s left? I carry a (non-cut) toothbrush/lil paste. Poop shovel/TP. Wet-wipes to cleanse the booty. Multitool, pump, tube, plugs. Film camera (that new new Pentax 17‼️). Sunscreen, chapstick, sunglasses, spork/knife, phone/keys/wallet….

And I know this is controversial in the bikepacking scene, but I say LONG LIVE THE DANGLE

Is that all?…

Anyways, with this small and light setup you can go and sleep in the woods and still ride fast and enjoy the feeling of a light bike, but also knowing you’re more free to go wherever you choose, at whatever pace, however you want. Go swim in a new river, go see a new town, try a new pass home. I’m not even from Colorado, just visiting, and I find mixing up the routing of the van by sleeping a bit in the trees helps me feel more present, more here, more intimate with this incredible mountain range by seeing the gradients more closely, understanding the context, talking to the folks. Bikepacking is a beautiful thing I’m telling you. Go try it. I promise you it’ll at least be interesting.