So you’ve got a bike, and you’ve set it up for backcountry roads. You’ve taken a few shakedown rides. Everything’s gone according to plan. Now you’re ready for more. Your first scouting trip took you several miles along an old railroad right-of-way to a real hidden treasure of a mountain lake. You spent the afternoon there and had the place all to yourself. Now you want to go back. This time, though, you want to bring a boat and enough gear to make a comfortable camp.

But there’s a problem. You can’t carry all the stuff you’ll need in your hands, and you don’t want to tote it on your back. Why not? For one thing, carrying a heavily-loaded backpack while riding a bike makes crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope look easy. For another…well, let’s just say it’s a pain in the posterior. And pain is not the object of the exercise. Then there’s your boat. How do you haul a boat with your bike?

It’s not impossible. Think of your bike as a sturdy little donkey. Load the beast, not your back. This means outfitting your bike for hauling. It’s a bit like fitting out a canoe or kayak. Straight from a dealer’s showroom, a boat is just a hole in the water. Outfitting is what makes it ready to go places and do things. It’s the same with a bike. When you first wheel it out of the shop you’ve got a neat toy. Fun? You bet. But still a toy. Once you fit it out, however, you’ve got transport — fun and utility in one tidy package. Let’s look at how it’s done.

The good news first. You’ve already started. Water bottle and cage, minipump, patch kit, tools… All of these are important when you outfit a bike, and chances are that you’ve already got them. But if you want to bring your camping gear along, you’ll need more: a rack and panniers to start with, or maybe two racks, front and rear. Think of them as a sort of frame pack for your bike. That takes care of your gear. And your boat? It’s possible to haul some ultra-light inflatables on a bike, but most of these are little better than a fisherman’s float tube. If used carefully, they’re good for exploring beaver ponds and mountain tarns. Want something more capable? Then you’ll need a bike trailer. I’ll get to these in a later article. Today, though, let’s concentrate on basic outfitting — what you’ll need to turn your bike into a beast of burden. Start by getting catalogs from a few of the many specialty mail-order firms. Some general outdoor retailers carry limited selections of bike-camping gear, too. Campmor and L.L. Bean are a couple that come to mind. Be sure to visit your LBS (local bike shop), as well. You can also get lucky at garage sales, hardware stores, and big-box retailers. It pays to look around.

With that in mind, let’s go shopping for accessories… Read on…

 
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Day was drawing to a close as we approached the international bridge. We still had many miles to go before we reached our destination in northern Québec, but we’d already been on the road a long time and we were tired. So we bailed out at a state campsite just south of the border. After a hasty meal I took my tea to the base of a tall pine and leaned back. Swallows swooped low over a slow-moving river. I dozed. Then something hit the top of my head and bounced off. I looked down. I’d been thumped by a pine cone. I rubbed my scalp. Oh, well, I thought, just a once-in-a-lifetime thing. No problem. And I closed my eyes again. But not for long. Only a minute later, a second cone hit me. I looked up into the crown of the pine. No breeze stirred the branches. I rubbed my head again, as much in puzzlement as pain. Then I moved a few feet away from the towering pine’s massive trunk and stretched out. Soon I was nodding off. My nap was a short one, however. A third cone hit me right in the solar plexus.

I eyeballed the topmost branches of the pine once more, and this time I struck pay dirt. A diminutive red squirrel stared down at me from a perch at the end of a long limb. It was obvious that I’d been trespassing on his turf. OK. I figured it was time for me to move on, anyway. So I did, walking a few yards and settling down under a neighboring pine. I was in the process of lifting my mug to my mouth when a fourth pine cone landed right in my tea. I mopped my face with my bandanna before looking up. Sure enough, a now-familiar figure was clinging to a branch in the top of the second pine. And just to make certain I’d gotten his message, he gave vent to a lusty churrrrr.

Retreat was the only option. I decamped to my tent. But that didn’t bring a halt to the harassing fire. Cones rained down on the tent fly at irregular intervals until long after the sun had dipped below the horizon.

Message received. And understood.

 
This happened almost thirty years ago, on the eve of my first Big Trip. I’d seen red squirrels before, of course, but I’d never paid much attention to them. My mind was mostly on the birds, I suppose, and if I thought about the members of the “red guard” at all, it was as smaller and more frenetic imitators of their gray cousins, those phlegmatic habitués of city park and rural garden. Now, however, I was headed Up North, deep into the heartland of the realm of the red squirrel. Read more…

 
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I love to cook, and have been known to take all day preparing a delicious dinner. But who has the time to do that every day, or even once a week? Furthermore, not everyone has the inclination to slave over a hot stove or labor over a baked treat. That’s not to say that being a foodie necessarily condemns you to kitchen drudgery, nor does it mean that the utilitarian cook doesn’t strive to eat well. The good news is that delicious meals can be put together quickly, with minimal effort and within a reasonable budget. Over the years I’ve worked out strategies for putting together great food on the fly, meals that come together quickly and won’t break the bank. And what could be faster—or cheaper—than ramen noodles?

Ramen noodle soups aren’t exactly health food, but that doesn’t matter much if it’s eaten as an occasional meal, does it. A bit of tweaking can make ramen less salty while boosting nutrition. For example, here I’ve cooked up a packet of Sapporo Ichiban® miso ramen. Instead of following the package directions to the letter, I boiled three cups of water (rather than the two cups that the instructions called for), then added the brick of noodles, broken into two slabs. While the noodles simmered, I pulled a bag of fresh spinach from the refrigerator and then put a few tablespoons of frozen peas and corn into my bowl:

 
I chose corn and peas because that’s what I had in the freezer and they don’t have to be cooked, but you can use any frozen vegetables you like, or any leftover veggies you have on hand. As for spinach, it cooks super fast, is loaded with iron, and tastes great.

 
Within three minutes the noodles are cooked through and it’s time to add the flavoring packet. The soup flavor I chose was miso, a soy bean product which I’d never tried before. With the noodles cooked through, I turned off the heat and stirred the soup powder into the pot. Then I grabbed a handful of fresh spinach leaves, washed them, and tore them into bite-sized pieces. I stirred those into the soup, which was hot enough to cook the spinach when left covered for a couple minutes while I put away the frozen and refrigerated ingredients. I then ladled piping hot broth over the thawing peas and corn. The broth was hot enough to heat the veggies through, and they in turn brought the soup’s temperature below scalding. With tongs I lifted a portion of noodles into the bowl, topped them with enough broth to fill the bowl, and that’s it! A meal in minutes! With breadsticks on the side, and fresh fruit for dessert, my doctored miso ramen made a filling and delicious meal. Try it yourself. Use whatever flavor of ramen noodle soup you fancy, add some veggies and perhaps sliced leftover meat, and you’re good to go.

 
From time to time I’ll suggest other fast meals that can be whipped up by anyone. After all, when you’d rather be bicycling, hiking, or paddling, who has the time to spend all day cooking dinner? Instead of stopping at the greasy spoon for an infarct burger, try some homemade fast food, my way!

 
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