Filed under: Misc
Finally. I am now in high gear for my first tour. I woke quite early this morning to scribble out a last minute list of ‘must gets’ and today will be checking off the list and beginning to pack and going over the trike to make sure it’s ready for its touring debut.
Solio Charger w/ Book for Scale
Closed Solio
Once I got word that my tent was on it’s way, I started moving on a few things toward the tour. One thing I’ve been eyeing is some kind of portable, solar charging battery to keep my cell phone and GPS working. Enter the Solio Hybrid Magnesium Edition. It’s lightweight and portable with a battery to store energy. It can also be charged via outlet, which I’ve already done. That way, I have it full to start and can use the sun to keep storing some charge. It has adaptors for several different brand of cell phones, a USB, other similar devices. We’ll see if it suits my needs.
Watching the FedEx tracking number, I knew when my tent was in Sweden and simply waiting for customs, I went into something of high gear by plotting out a ‘short’ tour. It’s barely 70 miles, but given my speed and the fact the dog will be with me and it’s meant to be only an overnighter, I think that’s a good start to see what our baseline really is. Especially since this will be the first time I’ll be taking the trailer any kind of distance and with a load of more than a few kilos of water and a tire pump.
My husband was also kind enough to drive me over the route. It’s not the Sverigeleden, but still pretty countryside and lots of things to take pictures of (runestones, 3 castles, a 1700’s farm stead, stoneage stone work of some kind, and of course… churches). It’s close enough to home that it won’t be a two day wait for rescue if I need it. It’s a chance to see what will and won’t work for me and what else I might need that I haven’t thought of.
While on the drive, Jens checked the status of my tent on his blackberry and discovered that it had been released from customs. Since the end point of the tour was fairly close to the FedEx hub, he decided that we’d go pick up the tent, even if for no other reason than to keep us from needing to sit around the apartment all day to wait for the delievery. When he came out carrying the box, he had this dubious look on his face. It was a fairly small box for a tent and weighed almost nothing. Opening it up, there it was, neatly packed.
Packed Tent w/ Book For Scale
It’s a Mountain Hardwear Helion 2 Super Lite Tent and it is TINY. Even the sleeping bag is bigger and it’s compressed down pretty small. It weighs just a smidge over 3 pounds and it’s freestanding. Which is good. That means unless there’s a raging windstorm, I don’t need to stress about trying to drive stakes in Sweden’s incredibly rocky ground. It’s described as a two person tent. Though I haven’t put it up yet, just from the dimension drawing, I’m dubious that even two VERY close people would be challenged to sleep comfortably in it. Still, that’s fine. I purchased it for my touring which my husband is unlikely to do. I’ll take pictures of it up at my first camp.
So, while this isn’t a ride chatter, it’s still related to my cycling and I wanted to share my new toys. Next post should be about my first ever cycling road trip!
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Terii's Cycling Babble 