Tent Camping

[eofelis]

I have a shameful amount of camping gear....um....6 tents!

I try to get out for car camping, some bike touring, and I love backpacking. I use different tents for all those activities. I have a little short overnight backpack trip planned for the weekend of the 25th. I have been piling up items (as few as possible!) next to my backpack already.

Your ride sounds like a great time to see what tent camping is like!

I rode the the Bicycle Tour of Colorado in June and I was concerned about camping with 1000 other people, I'm used to camping in very remote areas, but it was just fine. I was tired enough to go to sleep right away every night, and it seemed like everyone else was too!

[Catrin]

In the end I decided that after a 70-hour work week that a good nights sleep was needed to have a good day on the bike today - and that meant sleeping in my own bed...but the ride is only an hour's drive away so am leaving soon.

I really wanted to do this though, so will look for a chance to do it soon!

[Crankin]

You made the right decision. I went on a 4 day bike/camping trip. I truly did not sleep for the entire trip. We have decent equipment and I like camping, but I usually have a little trouble sleeping in a new place. It was magnified about 100X by camping. This did not make for a fun cycling experience.

[badgercat]

I've done the MS Ride in Arizona the last 2 years (which is stationed at a large park and is 2 days of loops of various distances, not a city-to-city ride like it is in Texas, for example), and camped 2 nights both times. I'm not much of a camper, myself, but it's a lot of fun to "live" at the venue. I understand it wasn't in the cards this time, but do try it out sometime.

I hope you have/had a great ride!

[Irulan]

You made the right decision. I went on a 4 day bike/camping trip. I truly did not sleep for the entire trip. We have decent equipment and I like camping, but I usually have a little trouble sleeping in a new place. It was magnified about 100X by camping. This did not make for a fun cycling experience.

Tylenol PM is a regular part of my camping kit as I do not sleep well outside of home, period. Taking it has literally saved several of my vacations.

[Aggie_Ama]

Camping with the other participants can be really fun. We do this for mountain bike races and have done it twice for the MS150 in Texas. You get a unique experience, so if it works out in the future it will be worth a try.

I don't sleep well until a few nights in my environment, unfortunately I also do not respond to the sleeping ingredient in OTC things. It is the same thing that makes you drowsy from Benedryl but I get wired on Benedryl. My doc claims only 10% of people will not get tired. I find cool temps, sometimes a Trazadone (prescription sleep aid for my insomnia) helps. Plus don't overhydrate so you aren't needing to pee a bunch.

We have some Big Agnes brand insulated sleeping pads, we used to use a big air matress but now using our own pads helps. They are quite comfy but a bit pricey, I think they were $69 for the short and $79 for DH's tall.

[Catrin]

I was disappointed, a little, at not camping Friday evening. From the evidence when I arrived the next morning only 3 or 4 people actually did. I was still only able to get 5.5 hours of sleep - I was just too tired to fall asleep easily. Let me tell you though, when I got home yesterday afternoon I was exhausted and took a hour's nap - then had a great night's sleep last night!

The ride was great yesterday and the weather cooperated. I do want to try the camping thing prior to an event sometime, but it just wasn't in the cards this time.