[dReWpY]

I must fully admit the more bike touring I do, the less cooking I do. Lately I've taken to getting up early, and after perhaps a cup of coffee I break camp and try to get on the road by 6:45-7. I ride until 10:30 or so and find a smallish town with a little cafe that normally serves the local farmers. I've had great meals well prepared and relatively low prices. Hitting places like that at odd hours puts you there between local peaks and assures (usually) good service. I will then ride until maybe 4-5 and hit someplace with a salad bar. A bowl of soup/can of ravioli or some other such one-pot meal in the evening ends the day.

Don't forget a Bic lighter or equivalent for lighting your stove. I gave up on matches a long time ago.

PERSONAL HYGIENE
Always an exciting topic. After a day on the roads with temps in the 90's in the shade and no shade, a shower or bath is essential. In many campsite these days showers are available. Not in others. We do _not_ have one at most GPNDGs. When out camping I will invariably change into my cut-off's, or swim suit, get my largest pot and grab some soap and towel and head out for the nearest pump. Knowing that the water coming out of the ground is usually about 32.0001 F, I simply screw up the courage, pump out a pot full of water and pour it over my head. I keep doing that until I stop screaming. Then you soap up and do it again until you are rinsed off. The bright blue color tends to frighten off the mosquitoes. We have also gone swimming in local lakes or streams.
Another consideration: When you use soap, you're generating wastewater, and most water sources at campsites are NOT set up to handle the wastewater generated by lots of campers. The basic rule is to dump wastewater (generated by cleaning your body, washing your dishes, etc) at least 100 feet from a water source. That includes the stream that Bill likes to camp nearby, and that includes the common-use water pump in the campsite.

This makes a certain amount of sense. The dump-a-bucket-on-your-head strategy is perhaps appropriate when using those regular faucet-type water sources you find on concrete aprons at most camp grounds these days.

You could also think about using an environmentally friendly soap. It's hard to believe that anyone will actually walk 100 feet for every bucket of water they will need to wash. Also in some popular campgrounds 100 feet from one water source puts you within 100 feet of another. Since many of them are simply underground pipes coming from a pump house someplace, I'm not convinced this is always or absolutely needed. Use good judgement and remember to pay attention to the environmental concerns.

If you accept the simple fact that you might not have the same opportunity for cleanliness that you have at home, you can stay quite comfortable on a camping trip. I don't think I have ever had to walk more than 100 yds for water. I carry several water bottles with me on each ride (several are easier to pack and if one leaks, you can chuck it and still have water.) I found a plastic coated folding bucket is handy for washing people, bikes, clothes. Avoid the canvas models as they can take awhile to dry.

I also have been carrying a product called Baby Wipes with me. These come in a rectangular plastic box available in every super market I've been in, near other baby and child care products. These are damp paper towelettes, moistened with water and other soft things. They are great for a last wipe-down of arm pits and other vitals before crawling into a sleeping bag. Your sleeping bag will love you if you do. They are also hand when using outdoor toilets. Invariably these outdoor potties have something akin to wax paper for TP. Using Baby Wipes makes life mellower. The moisturizers/lubricants also makes sitting on a bike for miles a bit easier to take.

Of course you should also take a towel with you in any case. It is the single most important piece of traveling gear you can name. :-) HINT: When using an outdoor toilet, always tap on the seat before you sit down. On one occasion I did this and a _large_ juicy spider came running up to the seat rim expecting its next dinner. Gave me a moment's pause.

THOUGHTS ON PACKING A BIKE
I try to have everything in a bag of some sort. Strapping a sleeping bag or pad open to the wind and rain is _asking_ for trouble. Waterproof/coated nylon is cheap. Custom made stuff sacks are easily made. In a pinch, heavy duty plastic garbage bags will protect gear, but will shred with time at speed. Go to someplace like Costco and buy their box of 24 bungee cords for $8. Use lots of bungee cords and strap everything _to the bike_. Do NOT bungee one bundle to another bundle. Make sure everything is super solid. It won't matter most of the time, but that one time when you gotta do a hard swerve to avoid a chunk of debris, or stupid cager, or hit a rock or some gravel or sand, it will. If you make a hard move with a loosely bound load, it shifts and you go down. Not fun.
Make sure that your seams are not pointing into the rain and that your rain suit and camera is somewhere near the top of something.

Put anything that will be ruined by water into baggies of some sort. The style designed for freezer storage are made out of a heavier, more durable polyethylene.

Finally, you might want to pack all your bags about 3/4th or 4/5th full (you were planning on taking too much stuff anyway). Then, when out in the field you can repack easily. You can never repack as carefully out in the field as you can in your living room. I like the _Toss and Stir_ method of filling bags.

CAMP SITES
Camping is where you find it. National Parks are beautiful to ride through, but a zoo. It was only a miracle that in 1993 after the Joust, Blaine, Vic and I found a spot a short walk away from a magnificent stream in the bottom of Zion NP. Usually, reservations are necessary well in advance. Forest Service campsites may charge, and then again they may not. Charges are typically $5-$8 per site. In some locations they limit the number of vehicles per site. Usually 2-4. It is nice to pick a campsite that is off the beaten path to anywhere. You do not want to be between a bus full of kids and the only toilet or water pump in the camp grounds. I like campsites next to a stream. The sound will muffle other noises of the campsite and aid in a good night's sleep. State and county parks are a gamble. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes they're a dive.
I generally plan on spending 2-3 nights in forest service camp grounds and then hit a KOA or similar commercial spot. They have laundry, showers, swimming pools, pool tables, beer, and other things that are real nice to visit/use while on the road. Often KOA's are a couple of bucks more expensive, but with the discount card you can get via AMA (cost $3 and provides a 10% discount) plus their usually higher standards of cleanliness and maintenance and the _unlimited_ hot shower time, they are worth it. Typical KOA charges are $14-$18 before discount.

Maybe once every 7-10 days or so, crashing in a motel, sleeping in a real bed is a nice reality check. Hard rain and cold weather will drive me into a motel so fast it ain't funny.

MAPS
You gotta have'em. I finally found a good source of cheap maps. Many of the discount stores like COSTCO will sell you the latest US Road Atlas by AAA or Rand McNally for about $6. Buy two. Use one by the home toilet for dreaming. From the other cut the maps you need for any particular trip. On the road maps will cost you $2 each. The Road Atlas will also list all the toll free phone numbers for the tourist bureaus for each state. Call for the tourist package which most always includes the official state map. Some state maps are great, Utah's is in a class by itself. Some are useless.