My most significant mail home was on my first tour of the 21st century. The idea was a slow meander and surf safari down the Oregon coast. I left Portland towing a BOB like one wheel trailer with a full wetsuit and diving gear aboard (I was smart enough not to take a lead weight belt.) After jackknifing on a descent at speed on Hyw 101 I mailed 35 lbs of gear home. From that day on I became a devoted gram counter.
On the other hand I typically take a stack of paper maps and send them home as the tour progresses.
Keith I’d like say that with about 40 years of cycle touring experience I now have packing so worked out that I never have to mail stuff home.
But alas no that’s not the case. Last tour which was about 3800 km and took six weeks in total, at about the 1500km mark, I posted reading books, a few clothes and a twig stove which I had as a backup in case ethanol wasn’t available. Weight wasn’t the issue. Available pannier volume was the issue. I needed more room for water.
When I first started touring I would sometimes mail extra things home that I thought I would use but did not--an overkill sized bike lock, misc extra cloths, extra tire I thought I would need and did not, etc.
Now it happens less though I still do planned mailings. For example when I rode cross country from California I started with a winter sleeping bag through Colorado and shipped a summer bag ahead so I could do a sleeping bag switch-a-roo. I needed the warmer bag over the mountains at the start but didn't want the weight in the 100 degree plain states. Once out of the mountains I jettison cold weather clothes as well.
This summer I will likely do something similar on the Trans-Am route, though I may go with a "summer" down bag/fleece liner combo and mail the liner home.
Back in the 1990s, four us did a five day ride across Virginia, our first time touring. Three of us each used a ziplock bag to hold a tooth brush, travel sized toothpaste, travel sized vaseline, etc. - enough guy essentials for a 5 day tour.
The fourth guy apparently just emptied his entire medicine cabinet and filled one pannier with full sized vaseline, shaving cream, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. because he was too cheap to buy the travel sizes.
The first day started with a 1200 foot climb up to Reed's Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Guy 4 was in decent shape but all on flat roads/trails. He died halfway up and we each took some of his load (which was when we discovered everything he had packed in there) and made it to the top.
At the lunch stop the next day, there was a post office across the street and Guy 4 sheepishly mailed it all back home - including a fairly large battery powered clip-on reading light he had packed, even though we were staying at motels every night...
Later on we stopped at a chain store so he could stock up and join the ziplock travel sized toiletry guy's club.
Sounds like Al from years ago—except he never died on hills but always had to wait for me. I never said anything because I didn’t want him to get faster!
I remember reading about that. But you didn’t bring it from home.
I love it!
2 years ago