Zen,

When I was in DC a couple weeks ago I went to Citibikes in Chevy Chase, Performance, and REI in (Rockville). Citibikes had Jaand and had some really nice looking stuff. Didn't want to buy till I had seen some stuff at other shops as well. Performance did not have much in stock, and there was a small child throwing a temper tantrum and being ignored by its parents - for about 20 minutes. Finally after not getting any salesperson to help me, going crazy for the noise, and worried about being late for my concert tix I put the bag down that I almost bought and left. Sigh. REI had the elephant ear bags but they all seemed to require a special rack to slide them on. They wouldn't be big enough for the C & O trip so I gave them a pass... for now.

Yesterday I went to my favorite shop here, and talked at length to the guy about them. He didn't have much in stock, one Ortleib, but he recommends the Jaand bags. He will order some in for me to look at. Probably not a lot of touring folks around here, but that's the shop they would go to if they were in the market so even if I don't buy them, someone will. Cost is probably the same at Ortleib and Arkel when all is said and done. I think in 4-5 days we should count on rain, esp in Oct - the tail end of hurricane season. The better bags have rain covers... and if there has been rain, we'd probably want to be using them cause the path will throw up lots of mud if it's wet.

I did buy this one at my LBS - the Trek grocery pannier bag. So far I love it but the inside pocket is way too small. Should be at least big enough to slip the bills in when I go to take the mail to PO. Might have to alter it somehow.

http://store.trekbikes.com/jump.jsp?...&bShopOnline=1

He said to gather up all the stuff I think I would want to take and see how much space I need to pack it all. Cause I have no idea how big of a bag I need to get? Are we talking 5 days for this little jaunt? So much planning to do. Lots of stuff on Crazy Guy to read.