Packing for a mountain bike tour on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

This is a pretty complete list of the clothing, cooking, camping and bike gear that we packed and carried on the Great Divide. It’s organized by pannier location, because this will be a starting point for our packing for the next trip, with a few adjustments.

We rode the Divide later in the season than the majority do so we didn’t meet that many other cyclists on the route. However, those we did meet all had lighter loads than we did. Our reason for carrying all that we did had a lot to do with wanting to test out all the gear that we planned to take with us to bike West Africa, which was going to be our next trip right after the Divide (the crash at the end of the tour changed our plans). So, things we carried that most people don’t are a lot more tools: everything needed to completely disassemble a bike and fix just about everything fixable. We also ride strong, older steel frame mountain bikes that should stand the test of time. Because we want to maintain this website for family, friends, and others wanting to travel vicariously through us, we carried a small Apple laptop. Dave is also a landscape and wildlife photographer, so he carried a digital SLR with two lenses. And finally, we chose to carry a full camp kitchen and lots of food because we really really like to eat. This cost us some weight (a lot at times, especially after picking up a package we shipped to ourselves on the route) but we feel it was well worth it. We had a hot breakfast and coffee every morning, and a hot dinner and tea at night. We especially appreciated this later in the trip when we often woke up to frost on the ground.

Now that you understand our rationale, here is our gear list:

Dave’s Front-left Pannier

Dave’s Front-right Pannier

  • Cook kit
  • 2 MSR 1-liter fuel bottles
  • Nalgene 1/2-liter bottle of cooking oil
  • Bear pepper spray
  • 10-liter MSR dromedary bag
  • Katadyn Hiker water filter
  • 2 10-meter nylon cords (3mm) for hanging food, clothesline, set up rain tarp for cooking

Dave’s Back-left Pannier

  • Lunch food bag
    • Clif & Power bars (We bought lots at Sam’s before the trip for cheap, and sent batches of them in our food boxes along the way.)
    • bread or tortillas
    • cheese
    • dried fruit
    • mixed salted nuts
    • apples or other fresh fruit
    • chocolate
    • fritos (Michelle never knew she was a fan of chips, but she HAD to have her Fritos on this trip!)
  • Dave’s clothing to have handy while biking
    • rain coat
    • rain pants
    • gloves not being worn (either full-fingered or regular cycling gloves)
    • knee warmers
    • Sugoi helmet cover for rain
    • Sun hat for lunch time
  • 6’x8′ tarp with 2-mm cords pre-attached for quick setup in the rain (to cook under)
  • Kryptonite cable lock

Dave’s Back-right Pannier

  • Breakfast food bag
    • oatmeal
    • dried berries/raisins
    • mixed nuts
    • sugar & coconut when available in small enough quantities
    • chocolate chips or M&Ms
    • pancake mix
    • maple syrup
    • coffee!
  • Dinner food bag
    (We dehydrated a lot of sauces and vegetables before the trip, bagged them, and then sent them to ourselves along the route so we’d have good (organic) stuff to cook with. Didn’t take much effort and was REALLY worthwhile considering the sad offerings at most convenience-type stores along the way.)

    • pasta
    • dried pasta sauce
    • rice
    • dried beans or lentils
    • other sauces varying from Thai to Indian made rice and beans/lentils a treat
    • bag of spices including lots of dried onion and garlic
    • dried vegetables (mostly broccoli and mixed peppers)
    • herbal tea
    • chocolate
  • Repair Bag
    • cone wrenches
    • 6-inch modified crescent wrench with chain whip
    • cassette remover
    • full-size Vice Grips
    • bottom bracket remover
    • 8/9/10 mm. Y-socket wrenches
    • small crank remover
    • chainring bolt wrench
    • modified 32 & 36 threaded headset wrench
    • spare brake pads
    • small roll of Scotch 3M duct tape (ask Dave about duct tape and you’ll get a full explanation of the varying qualities you’ll find and why this is the best choice!)
    • JB Kwik Weld
    • blue LocTite
    • MSR stove repair kit
    • tent pole splint
    • extra AAA batteries for headlamps
    • seam grip adhesive
    • water filter silicone lubricant
    • spare scouring pad (Michelle hates washing dishes with just sand. She had to put her foot down with Dave on this one.)
    • ThermaRest repair kit
    • folding spare tire

Dave’s Handlebar Bag

  • Canon 20D digital SLR camera
  • 10-22 mm EF-S lens
  • 24-105 mm L-Series lens
  • pen
  • wallet with money, our passports, & credit cards
  • circular polarizer filter
  • extra camera battery
  • memory cards
  • silica gel packets

Dave’s Camelback

  • 3-liter water bladder
  • leatherman
  • asthma inhaler
  • Dermatone lip balm
  • Crank Bros. M17 Multitool
  • tire levers
  • patch kit
  • bag with TP, $20 bill, medical tape
  • energy bars for the day

Michelle’s Front-left Pannier

  • less-used ditty bag
    • 1st aid kit with epipen, antibiotics, asthma, & the usual
    • camera cleaning kit
    • spare water filter cartridge
  • 2 ThermaRest ultra-light full-size sleeping pads

Michelle’s Front-right Pannier

  • Dave’s clothes (in addition to what was in his back left pannier for the day and on himself for riding)
    • flip flops
    • zip-off nylon pants
    • spare t-shirt
    • Patagonia expedition-weight Capilene shirt
    • socks
    • long underwear
    • wool hat
    • liner gloves
    • fleece jacket
    • long tights

Michelle’s Back-left Pannier

  • Michelle’s clothes (Dave nicknamed it the Giant Bag of Clothes. Michelle took offense, as would any rational human looking at the spare choices available at any given time.)
    • spare bike shorts
    • spare short Smartwool biking socks
    • spare sports bra
    • camp Smartwool socks
    • long underwear
    • regular undies
    • nylon capris
    • Smartwool long-sleeved t-shirt
    • Smartwool mid-weight zip-shirt
    • Patagonia R1 pullover fleece
    • Mountain Hardware rain jacket
    • Smartwool hat (See a pattern here? I love me some natural fibers, purchased on sale, of course.)
    • WindStopper fleece gloves
    • flipflops
    • sun hat
    • Pearl Izumi long thermal biking tights
  • Small ditty bag
    • ibuprofen (Michelle took one each evening for her knees)
    • tooth brush & tooth paste
    • dental floss
    • Dave’s Advair preventive asthma inhaler
    • tweezers, nail cutters
    • Michelle’s facial creams & potions
  • Medium ditty bag
    • soap
    • shampoo
    • comb
    • saddle sore cream (Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, if you must know, and yes it works well)
    • TP
    • lighter
    • small scissors
    • ear plugs for noisy KOA’s
    • Q-tips

Michelle’s Back-right Pannier

  • North Face Slickrock tent & ground sheet (custom cut piece of 3mm plastic sheeting)
  • Sleeping bags (Both Western Mountaineering down bags, super lightweight)

Michelle’s Handlebar Bag

  • Route map
  • Sunglasses cases for both of us
  • Compass
  • Sugoi Helmet Cover
  • Small Notebook & Pen for taking notes for daily blog entries
  • sharpie pen
  • Headlamps
  • Sunscreen

Michelle’s Camelback

  • 3-liter water bladder
  • pocket knife
  • energy bars for the day
 

Great Divide Pages: