LAST WEEK- First day, fully loaded.......
In the basket are the tarp, that folded pad I got at Goodwill, the Marlboro Travel bag full of sweats and longhandles, 1 extra gas canister, camerabag, water bottle.
IF YOU LOOK CLOSE there is a 4 foot, red bungie cord, hooked to the basket and looped around the other gas canister, which not only stablizes the steering, but keeps the saddlebags off the front fender.
The double saddlebags (black) are bungied forward to the basket, and the dome tent is seperated, tent on top, poles and pegs on bottom. I also have my backpack, with the fleece stuff and other lighter weight goods.
THE ONLY THING I FORGOT TO WATERPROOF WAS THE TENT (a mistake).
At the end of that first day, I noted that the tent poles had sagged thru the zipped-tied water bottle carrier I had mounted on the frame bottom-
So I cut a bottle in half, and started inserting the poles into that bottom plastic part, which solved everything.
NOTE: First camp- I had a choice, straight shot or curvy Alabama River run, and took the shorter route.
I was 10 miles from anything, including the lumbermill I passed earlier, and the one 10 miles up the road. That night, there was a constant
hummmmmmmm caused by those mills, the sound carrying through the valleys and hollers.
If you plan a route, and notice those big timber mills, figure out a way to
get far, far, far away by nightfall. It wasn't loud, just a little irritating. Of course, two nights spent in Mobile meant police sirens, so the hum was minor comparitively.
Oh yeah, twice I found myself near these deer blinds, and so twice I had use of a chair, and in exchange, took out a plastic bag of litter found around each site. That is kind of a guiding principal, taking out twice as much litter as taken in, depositing it in the first receptacle the next morning....
If it had been a weekend, I would have avoided deer shacks, but you go a mile down a dirt path and find one, whatchagonnado??