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I did a super chill shakedown tour through CO last summer.
Estes Park -> Ned -> Idaho Springs -> Loveland Pass -> Frisco
I went anywhere from 6 - 26 miles in a day depending on the elevation, and after the first few days of adapting to the riding, I got better at it and would ride further, faster, and longer.
There was a lot of elevation gain and I didn't have ultralight anything: so like a two man tent, a Coleman stove from Walmart (one of the ones that screws onto the top of the pressurized fuel bottle), Steel Frame Surly LHT, vinyl poncho, and WAY too much food, so I had to push it up some of the mountains, especially when I was bonked and running off of ketogenesis, but the camping was super comfy. I guess my point is don't have an inflexible itinerary and egress plan.
I used a steel coffee cup as my cooking pot and cup.
I used a gravity fed inline water filter. It ran really slowly and was actually a major source of my delays. I would stop and camp at a stream rather than going forward so I could spend the afternoons filtering water. I think I am going to add a "rock catcher" filter and a squeeze bulb pump to my system.
Couscous + olive oil was a great, great, great dinner
instant coffee + powdered milk was great
mix granola and powdered milk, add water for brekkies.
snacks were whatever, pb-cheese crackers were a fav.
I didn't carry meat with me, because it attracts bears more than other food, but I ate pizza wherever I could.
For soap, I used "Camp Suds"
I used a couple Fdroid offline GPS mapping apps to keep track of where I was, my elevation, etc.
I have a couple of bibs from Merlin cycles. For some reason they are much cheaper than any other options.
Since then, all I got new was a new tent, because my other tent was old and barely kept me dry enough when some storms came through. I will probably also upgrade the rack and rear panniers before heading out again.
