Moto Camping - Needs to Happen
/its getting warmer out, and i have a decent amount of moto experience under my belt. i have been craving more adventure, which isn’t easy to get when you’re married. i’ve got the bug.. i need to pack my bike and go places.
Bike in photo is from google images.
the dream is to go for a month across vast lands, crossing continents. that is not going to happen any time soon. like i said, wife.. and kids. i have to start somewhere though. during the summers I’m usually in alone in brooklyn most of the week while my family is in jersey by my parents. i join them on weekends. what i’m hoping to do is find somewhat local places to camp during random weeknights through the summer. local meaning about an hour or two away. head out on something like a tuesday afternoon, come back wednesday morning for work. something along those lines.
one night camping trips sound a bit lame but I’m still excited. it’s about starting small and having time to my self at the same time. i would pack up my bike (which is half the fun), ride out to a camp site, unpack, build my tent, cook my dinner, enjoy some wine, relax by a fire and read my book (iPad mini). then in the morning i’d pack up, head home, take a shower, and goto work (a little late). that’s the plan anyway. who knows if ill even like it, i hope i do. i hope i go out as much as i can this summer, if only to justify the money thats being spent on this new hobby.
whats cool about this hobby is that its actually two hobbies merging. I’ve camped before and i always enjoy it, add that to my motorcycle hobby and they just compliment each other perfectly.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on the right gear to use. i don’t want to spend too much in case i get bored of it quickly. some items i can go low cost for now, like a camping stove ($35 instead of $150), but on something like a tent, I’m willing to spend a little more now because i know i won’t be getting a 2nd chance at that for a while. i can always get a better stove once I’m more experienced, but the tent is a bigger decision.
one of my main concerns was finding a tent that would fit on my bike easily, be easy to setup, and fit 2+ people. REI was having a good sale and after a lot of research i found a tent that folds up small, fits in both my side case and my top case. thats rare, and its awesome. i went with the Kelty Trailogic TN3. It folds down to 14”x11”x3.5” which is amazing.
I already have an old sleeping bag which might be ok for now. its a cheap coleman sleeping bag thats meant for cold weather. My goal is to replace it with a warmer weather bag that packs much smaller. Something like the REI travel sack sleeping bag. It packs down to 6”x11”, at about a quarter of the packed up size of my current bag. meaning it would fit in my side cases or top case.
I need some other things like a small camping stove, some cookware, small first aid kit, a really portable chair, dry bag, and other things. i’m still doing a ton of research. I’ve utilized a tool i previously thought was mostly useless, but in this case turned out to be perfect. Pinterest. Its basically a visual book marking system. I created a board called Moto Camping, and its purely for my research. Anything i see i might want, i throw in there. As i buy things, i throw them in to another board called Camping Gear I Own (mostly empty at the moment).
I’m going to get a chance to try the tent out with my wife soon. I’m taking her away for the weekend, one day camping, one day Spa. We’ll be taking the smart car which is fine. I feel like it will be a good dry run so i can test out my basic equipment and skills, while still having the safety net of a car, and extra stufff to bring along just in case. that will make it easier to narrow down what i will need on my first lone trip come the summer.
My next purchase will be some cooking equipment. I also might convince myself to get the new sleeping bag now, so my wife can use my old one.
Either way I’m excited, and i hope to be able to move towards longer more adventurous trips, even if they are much further out in my future.
