Quote Originally Posted by Zen View Post
I notice you have only rear panniers.
Do you know how much your gear weighed?
Did you cook at all?
Yes, for the moment we only have rear panniers. We do plan on getting front bags, too. Christmas is coming.

Honestly, I don't know how much our gear weighed. The bikes were pretty heavy, loaded, is all I know. We were concerned, starting out, that the bikes would be difficult to handle as a result but that turned out not to be the case.

We did some minimalist cooking which worked out great. We have an ultra-light weight alcohol stove (White Box Stove) which boiled water like a champ ( http://www.boundarywaterscatalog.com...cfm/4,6689.htm ) and had our tea and instant oatmeal every morning (recipe from freezerbagcooking.com) and soup mixes/ramen noodles with added dehydrated veggies and beans and foil packets of chicken/tuna/salmon mixed in for dinner. Lunches were sort-of snacky: power bars, fig newtons, trail mix (with chocolate, of course ), granola bars. Deciding what to cook and cooking it was actually kind of fun. Between the convenience food aisle of the supermarket and our dehydrator there's a wealth of possibilities.

We do feel that it would be better to have front panniers to balance the load a little better, but all in all things worked out just fine.