My typical method of packing for any trip is to assume that everything is under control, and leave it all to the last minute. Last time J & I went overseas, I think that we were up until 1:00 am packing. We were bleary-eyed and cranky, which (combined with jet-lag) makes a fine start to a vacation!

This time we decided to set our sights a little higher. I said (with determination) that I wanted us to do a full “mockup” packing job on Sunday of the weekend before we were due to fly. Then we’d take the bikes and our panniers up to the Seymour Demonstration Forest for a dry run ride with all our gear. By “full” packing, I meant that we should select the actual clothes, toiletries, etc: everything, in short, that we would take with us. Not just the rough weight-equivalent, because this wouldn’t allow us to verify that we could actually fit everything in to the limited space available in the panniers.

Through sheer force of will we managed to make that Sunday target. The photo above shows my bike fully loaded under 50 lb of gear. 12 lb of that is tenting equipment (tent, mat, sleeping bag), which I won’t actually need until the Camino ride. I’m hoping that I can store it in a locker at the train station in Paris. If not, I guess that it will be accompanying us on our visit to George Sand. By contrast J’s panniers weighed a much more sensible 21 lbs…

The road through the Demonstration Forest is perfect for a dry run ride: paved, undulating among the trees. It’s just over 20 km to ride to the end and back, and there are a couple of reasonable small hills in there too, to test out our gears, our balance, and our legs. It was definitely worth doing: it’s much better to accustom yourself to the way the bike handles under load while on familiar ground, than to discover that than you’ve grossly overpacked only when you begin that long-anticipated ride half a world away. And now way we’ll have a chance to reconsider what we’ve packed. All those things that looked “essential” begin to seem less so.

For my part I’ve decided to cut down from 8 books to a mere 6…