My old iPhone4 is out of contract with AT&T, so several months ago I switched carriers.  T-Mobile has been trying to get in on the iPhone business, and to attract customers they’ve been offering monthly rates that don’t have the cost of paying off a $600 smartphone built into them.  Plus they have a pre-paid plan that doesn’t include hundreds of minutes of talk time (which I have no use for) and has unlimited data usage.  For half the cost of what I was paying on AT&T.

The reason this is relevant is because T-Mobile’s prepaid service also happens to have horrible coverage in northern Michigan.  No, seriously:

(To be fair, T-Mobile’s on-contract coverage up north is better, but the carriers all run their pre-paid services on different, crappier networks.)

So I just swapped SIM cards and signed up for a (disposible) pre-paid account with AT&T, just to use up north. It’s as ridiculously overpriced as my old AT&T plan, but I can cancel it when I get done with this summer’s riding. There are still holes in their coverage (as I’ve seen in the past), but it should be good enough. Meanwhile when I’m around home, I can swap in the T-Mobile SIM and get my regular phone number back.

In case there was any doubt that it’s been too long since I last went backpacking:

I just realized that I did not have a spoon on my packing list.

When I’m on a ride, I’ve traditionally updated the map on the main page of this site every day. I won’t be doing that for this month’s excursion, because… there’s nothing to update. I’ve already been to every county I’ll be going through this time.  (Next month will cover a bunch more new territory.)

But for the record, here’s a rundown:

1. On the first day, I’ll be riding Kent, Newaygo, Lake, Wexford (just the corner), and Manistee Counties.  (Manistee is the green one on the map below.)
2. The next day I’ll be hiking in Manistee County (along the Manistee River, go figure), but I might wander back into Wexford County at the end of the day.
3. On day three I’ll be backtracking (different trail) in Manistee, then getting back on the bike and probably cutting the corner of Benzie County, to camp in Grand Traverse County.
4. Day four will include some time in Grand Traverse, then Leelanau, Benzie, and Manistee again (along the lakeshore).
5. The last day I’ll probably stick to the shoreline, going through Mason, Oceana, Muskegon, and Ottawa Counties, but I might cut through Newaygo County instead.

So now that I have the backpack, I need to figure out how to pack it on the scooter. I tried putting it on the floor between the seat and steering column, but it was in the way and not very secure. OK for transporting a 40-pound bag of bird seed home from the store, but not for what could be a 1500-mile road trip.  What I ended up with is turning it around and facing it downward, and having my tent and sleeping gear “wear” it. With a couple bungees added for stability, I think I’ve got a winning setup.

It takes up some of the seat, which means I have to sit a little forward of where I usually sit, but not much.  Since most of the gar that I’d normally take in my big over-the-shoulder bag is now in the backpack, I’ve replaced that bag with a much smaller camera bag.  (I’m not sure if I’ll keep the water bottle on it.)  This picture does a pretty good job of showing the whole set-up: sleeping bag (olive), tent (dull green), and sleeping pad (red) on the bottom, with pillows (faded black) on top of them, secured under the bungee net; backpack on top; camera bag with water bottle on the seat; and spare gas (in the red metal bottle) and oil (not visible) in the glove bucket.  Also not visible: clothes in the “pet carrier” under the seat.

I tested it with a short ride, both with and without the rain cover,in  windy conditions, and it worked fine. It does mean I’ll have to remove the pack every time I refuel (or need to get anything from under the seat), however.  It’s a substantially larger bundle on the back than I’ve had in the past, but not carrying the big shoulder bag does a lot to make up for that.  And it’s pretty aerodynamic.

The second half of “backpack packing” is figuring out how to pack the necessary gear into my backpack, for when I’m on the trail.  As you can see, the pack is pretty small.  And I’ll be honest here: I misjudged this task.

On a long backpacking trip, food is the largest single item to pack.  This is a short backpacking trip, so I figured I’ll save a lot of space by not carrying much food.  But I still have pretty much everything else.  The cooking gear is the same size, the water gear is the same size, the tent is the same size, the sleeping bag is the same size, etc.  I’m bringing less clothing.  But it’s still a lot of gear for such a little pack.

I’d planned from the start to strap the tent to the outside, and modified the pack to allow that.  Turns out I’ll be doing the same with the sleeping bag.  Normally I bring along a pair of “camp shoes” to wear instead of my hiking boots when I get to camp; there’s no place to put them.  A pair of jeans for when it gets cold at night?  Doesn’t look like it.  To bring along  just one of the two little pillows I’m packing, I need to use the bungee net.  Which is also the only way I could include the (necessary) second water bottle.  And the bag is packed so tightly that it doesn’t fit as comfortably as it should.

There’s very little in the pack now that could be considered “optional”.  Fresh underwear?  Cooking gear (so cold oatmeal and freeze-dried dinners)?  The towel?  Ditching the rain gear would free up a lot of space, but that’s conceivable only if the forecast is confidently precipitation-free.

I think it’ll work like this.  It’s only for a couple days.  And even though it doesn’t fit as well as my bigger pack would, it’s still lighter, and the terrain I’ll be hiking (especially on the first trip) isn’t particularly challenging.  So it’s OK.  I think.