Touring Topics
TOURING TOPICS
though slanted for the western traveler, a Pandora's box of useful tips.
ADRIAN ABEL
IT USED TO BE that on every motorcycle trip there would be some item I forgot to take along, usually a towel or tooth-brush or something minor. But now I have a simple system that works beautifully. A few days before leaving I start a list of the items that are easily overlooked. At first the list has only one or two things that I wished for on the previous trip but as other items occur to me. I jot them down. At packing time I might have to prune the list a little but anything I do without is less important than other things I barely have room for. The importance of such a list s easily justified if you get out in some isolated spot and discover you have no can opener - or matches. The motorcyclist has a few special items to take: most important is a change of plugs, next a chain master link if it applies. If you take a canteen. fill it before leaving.
If you are really an all-weather rider tips on beating the cold are usually appreciated. For instance whenever I stop to refuel or check the road map I take off my gloves and put them on the engine cylinder heads. They are not hot enough to burn the gloves but in a matter of a few seconds they are warm and will thaw numb fingers.
Did you ever ride in such cold weather that when you finally stopped to warm up and get a cup of coffee you found you couldn’t speak plainly because your face muscles were numb? I found just the item for such rides, a leather face mask, picked up in a surplus store for less than $1. The W. L. Thomas Company markets a similar item combined with goggles for about $4. Of course, children think you’re a “man from Mars.” and every service station attendant tells you that it's pretty cold to be riding a motorcycle (as if you didn’t already know). When it’s really icy I put my black rain-suit on top of everything else, and about half the service station people ask me if it’s a diving suit.
Another good protection for the face is a plastic shield which fastens to your helmet. And an itemthat would be handy to have is a scarf with snaps to fasten to the bottom of the face shield. Easy to make, it would keep wind off your face completely.
Camping out is such a major item on trips that some hints along these lines are in order. Proper selection of the place to spend the night makes the difference between a good camp-out and a disappointing one. If you are in desert country you have problems and should try to make it to the mountains or some verdant area. The desert is often windy at night — which doesn't help sleeping a bit. Too, there’s a scarcity of fire wood, rocks to build a fire place and. naturally, water. Also, in the winter, deserts are subject to flash floods and I can’t think of a worse camp-out calamity.
If you're riding through desert country about the time you want to make camp, and there are mountains 100 miles away or so. my tip is to take the extra time to ride there and find a more suitable spot. Once in a while you can find a good spot in the desert but I feel very lucky when I do.
What makes a camping spot good? Pretty much the same thing that makes
staying in a house more suitable than on the lot where the house was built. A shelter from wind and possibly rain, the convenience of water, a way to get warm (like a fireplace or the materials with which to build one), fire wood, privacy from motorists on the roadway and escape from traffic noises.
A public campground or picnic area fairly well fills the bill; I usually try to make it to one by the end of the day’s riding. Too often, though, they’re far away or non-existent, like in Mexico, and you’re left up to your own resources. A wooded or forest area is just great. The trees seem to isolate you from road noises, it is usually easy to bring your machine through the woods, and firewood is abundant.
Once you’ve selected a spot, early in the order of business is getting a fire going. The reason is not only to get warm and have light to make sleeping arrangements but mostly so the flames will have died down by cooking time. That’s right, you shouldn’t have any flames in a camp fire for cooking. You can surely tell inexperienced campers in a public campground trying to cook something over a roaring fire: they singe themselves every time they reach for a pot. and every item in the fireplace has a layer of soot and embers on its surface. The coals left over from burning a log are best for cooking. They give out the most heat and the least soot, and as they cool you can move a bigger log into the coals; it will burn with a minimum of flames.
It seems as though outdoor types like to pride themselves on starting a fire without any paper and with only one match. Meanwhile you’re standing there freezing to death. My idea is to get the thing going as fast and as simply as possible and worry about being a boy scout some other time. I found a system that never fails and is simplicity itself. After having set up a little pyramid of sticks leaning on each other, take one of the sticks, about -Vs to Vi inch size in diameter, and stick
it in the gas tank so that three or four inches of it get wet. Then put it back with the wet end down. If the sticks are dry, you’ll surely have a fire going with one match.
Getting dry wood is sometimes a problem. If it’s been raining in the area the problem is aggravated and sometimes impossible. I met two individuals in Baja California who said they didn’t eat for three days during a rainy spell. Actually there are too many things that can be eaten cold to justify going hungry. If you can get a little fire going, even if it’s with paper or cardboard, you can usually manage to dry out some damp (not water-logged) sticks which in turn will burn and dry out some larger ones until you finally get a log going. The main problem is that you must always have the next size larger stick near the blaze to dry out. In looking for firewood try to find a branch of a dead, fallen tree. A full branch provides all sizes of sticks up to log size for the fire and can be carried to camp in one piece. Don’t bother with a limb on a standing living tree even though the tree is dormant; though apparently dried out it has enough moisture in it to make burning difficult. A good source is discarded lumber from boxes, furniture, house or whatever, as it was probably dried before the item was made. A bad source is brine-soaked wood that comes from little bushes growing in desert areas along salt water beaches. Even though the bush has long been dead and its root looks like a good size for kindling, the salt content is so high that burning is handicapped. Actually, if you’re planning a trip through Mexico, particularly Baja, you ought to carry along a portable camp stove if possible. All this about building a fire may seem too fundamental to many of you, but Jack London tells an interesting story (“To Build a Fire”) about a guy who suffered and froze to death because of not being able to get a fire going, and he was experienced!
Another thing I found out the hard way regards an air mattress. At first I bought a light and cheap plastic one; it lasted about two nights before it developed a leak. It was such a slow leak, though, that I could blow it up at bed time and it would hold till after midnight. Thinking this was what to expect from a cheap product I turned it in on the best one the store carried. But the same thing happened; it went flat about the second night. After three more patches I found the answer. First, you’re not supposed to fill the air mattress until you can hold it without it bending and, second, you’re not supposed to place it on bare ground. The amount of inflation should be such that if you sit on it you’ll hit bottom; in fact the only way to avoid hitting bottom is to lie completely flat upon it, and then if you touch just a little bit that’s the right amount of air. When laying down the air mattress, something is needed to protect it from dangerously sharp little rocks and twigs. Since then I’ve carried a tarp or a sheet of rubberized cloth to place under it and I haven’t had a moment’s trouble. A good side advantage of the tarp is that if the air is damp from mist or heavy fog part of it can be thrown on top of the sleeping bag thus having it dry when you fold it up in the morning.
Rolling up the air mattress in the morning is simplified if the valve is opened as soon as you intend to get up. In a few minutes a lot of the air will leak out naturally. and if you let it leak through breakfast only a little remains to be squeezed out before folding.
Rolling up the sleeping bag can be a problem if it is a goose-down bag. I he first few times it was impossible for me to get it all stuffed back into the carrier the manufacturer provided. The trick is to find a firm surface on which to roll it and kneel on it as you roll. The harder you kneel, the tighter it rolls. Now I have enough space left in the sleeping bag carrier to fit in the air mattress.
While touring the country and camping out, showering can sometimes be a problem. Of course there is no biological necessity to shower every day, but if you are used to it and go without one for a couple of days, a hot shower really feels good. Truck stops and trailer courts often have showers for little or no charge. In Mexico, though, the situation is different. The Mexican towns have concessions called baños where the use of a towel and a shower stall costs three pesos (24(*) and for five pesos they have a vapor (or steam) bath. The other is called regular. Soap is usually extra. I found some salt water soap in a surplus store that’s good in either fresh or salt water but there’s one thing about it you must watch. If you have cuts on your fingers, say from digging clams, touching the wet salt water soap is like touching a live wire and you’ll find yourself handling it with your little fingers and thumbs.
One final point; if you’re planning a camping-out-type vacation and can vary the departure date a week or two one way or the other, scan the calendar and pick a
