Its time for the biannual gear issue, one of the most popular on the blog. For some reason it is now even more popular than my swimsuit edition. For this years Big Ride, I am going to use a tent from Hilleberg the tentmaker; the Anjan 3. Remember that I work part time at REI, so my gear was all purchased at discount. The advantage of this particular tent besides being a three person tent giving me extra room is that the tent goes up really fast. It sets up with the poles in the fly and the tent body hangs below the fly keeping everything dry if the setup happens in the rain. This is a good thing. Sleeping in a wet sleeping bag reminds me of my youth where mistakes can happen. The tent weight is just over 4 pounds.
Next up is the sleeping bag, which is Western Mountaineering's Mitylite, a 40 degree down bag weighing under 2 pounds. The bag works as a lightweight quilt and you can move the down to the side to keep from getting too warm. Sweat makes a wet sleeping bag, See above.
The sleeping pad is a Thermarest neoair camper giving a luxurious 3 inches of padding. It rolls up about the size of a large nalgene bottle. To save my hot air for other things, I also bought an electric inflator which will fill it up in a couple of minutes.
There is no place like home. This is where I will be living for 48 days on the Big Ride.
Tent showing the fly sheet rolled back exposing the tent body hung below.
All the camping gear fits in this backpack in a color easy to find
The gear all laid out. Lots of color! Green fan, silver battery, small sheet to cover thermarest in grey, sleeping bag in the yellow and grey stuff sack, mattress pad in black with the blue inflator, tent in red stuff sack, camping chair in orange sack and the important down pillow in the yellow sack. 
