One my favorite books is the late Colin Fletcher’s The Complete Walker, even though I have to admit it defies easy categorization. Part how-to guide and part travelogue, this classic work is perhaps best described as an extended, annotated gear list, a list compiled by a witty—and somewhat idiosyncratic—backcountry explorer. I read it from cover to cover not long after the first edition was published, way back in 1968, and I still open it from time to time to reread favorite passages.

Maybe this helps explain my fondness for lists. In any case, I like making gear lists almost as much as I like reading about other people’s. So it will come as no surprise that I’ve accumulated lists for all sorts of trips, from two-hour rambles to extended expeditions. Take my cycle-touring list, for instance. It has no less than two subheadings under “Clothing”: “On the Bike” and “In Camp.” And though a few items do double-duty—my rain jacket, say—the breakdown is pretty cut-and-dried. But there are points in common, too. Synthetics and wool fabrics dominate in both spheres, with manmade materials my overwhelming choice when I’m…

On the Bike With just one exception: I prefer woolen socks to any synthetic substitute. In warm weather this means thin wool anklets, but as the temperatures fall, I substitute higher, thicker socks. (Farwell wears the same knee-high ski socks year-round, rolling them down in summer and tugging them up the rest of the year. It works. For him. Not for me.) All the rest of my bike wear is synthetic: jerseys, shorts, tights…the lot. But good as these are on the bike, they’re clinging miseries…

In Camp So I always have one set of clothes in my panniers for camp wear only. Then, at day’s end, I can peel off my sweaty Lycra and polyester riding kit and slip into something really comfortable. I have camp socks, too: fluffy wool high-tops. And camp shoes: either NEOs overboots (cold, wet weather) or Teva sandals (perfect for the lazy, hazy days of summer). Either way, I’ve got my feet covered. That’s important. Happy feet are vital to any successful tour.

 

Of course, ultralight tourists will probably blanch at my two-tier wardrobe, but I find that having dedicated campwear makes the twelve-plus hours a day that I spend off the bike a lot more enjoyable. And like Nessmuk, the founding member of the Go-Light Brotherhood himself, I “do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, [I] go to smooth it.” I figure that’s worth a little extra weight in my panniers, don’t you?

 
Send a Comment