First Recumbent Bike Tour - Recumbent Bikepacking

After dialing in my touring setup, it was finally time to put it to the test for real. The plan: ride my recumbent about 50 miles out to a campground, tent camp for the night, and ride 50 miles back the next day. No shakedown run, no local loop - this was the actual overnight bikepacking trip I'd been building toward.

Getting Out There

The waterproof panniers from my touring setup came through - the left bag ran a little fuller than planned once I added extra clothing for a chilly overnight, but everything fit, with room to spare in the top bag and a spot on the rack to strap something down. With a bit of headwind in my face, I settled in and watched the miles tick by on a mix of paved rail trail and a five-mile roadside stretch, complete with a McDonald's stop for lunch around the 40-mile mark.

Rail Trails and Old Railroad Towns

A lot of the path I rode used to be an actual railroad bed before it was converted into a multi-purpose trail - one of my favorite things about routes like this. Partway through, I rolled past a genuinely old railroad station in a historic Florida city, well over a hundred years old, before popping out onto the Withlacoochee State Trail and continuing south toward camp.

Setting Up Camp

I rolled into the campground with the whole site to myself - grass for the tent, water and electric hookups, a fire pit, a picnic table, and shade trees. It was a good feeling to arrive somewhere by bike and set up camp, rather than just driving in.

Packing Light, Cooking Small

One of the habits I carried over from hiking and backpacking is packing light and compact, and it pays off just as much on a bike. My whole cooking setup - a titanium 750 ml pot, a folding canister stove, a lighter, and a pocket knife - all nests together and weighs almost nothing. Dinner was a freeze-dried meal that only weighs about four and a half ounces but packs in two full servings, boiled up right in camp as it got down into the mid-40s overnight.

Woods, Quiet, and the Ride Home

The next morning I headed back the way I came, and the stretch through the woods was the highlight of the whole trip - several miles of trail with no roads or power lines in sight, just trees on both sides. It was such a good moment that I put the camera down for a while and just rode it. Rolling back in after two days on the bike, I'd proven out the whole touring setup and started thinking seriously about that longer, multi-day trip across Florida.