Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Sam and Erin are a newlywed couple taking an 18-month bicycle tour of Asia and Europe… and they’re bringing Sierra Blogging Post along for the ride.

We’re sending them gear and they’re sending us great stories and photographs from their adventure. We just sent them a big shipment and they just sent me their latest dispatch from Vietnam…


"We received the latest shipment of goodies from Sierra Trading Post by hand delivery. Erin's parents live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where Sierra Trading Post headquarters is located, so they picked up our new gear before flying to Vietnam to meet us. They arrived at the Hanoi airport bearing giant duffel bags full of new gear!

It was the perfect point in our trip to get fresh gear because we're making a transition from the winter weather of China to the tropical heat of southeast Asia, and spending the summer bicycling through Asia's highest mountains - the Himalayas, Karakorum and the Pamirs.

The jewel of this gear shipment was a new, four-season Marmot Citadel tent, which we tested out in our hotel room. We've been traveling with an ultralight tent so far but found it didn't stand up to wind and heavy rains very well. We need something sturdy.

We've already used the new tent in the jungles of Cambodia, and it did a great job keeping us dry in the rain. We chose this tent because it's durable, has great ventilation, spacious vestibules to hold and protect our bicycle gear, and the color is right. We prefer muted tent colors that blend into the environment to minimize visibility and decrease the chance of theft while camping.

We also got a slew of new clothes. We choose clothing carefully, making sure each item is both lightweight, versatile and effective. When you're exposed to the elements as often as we are, functional clothing is our only protection against cold, rain and heat. We found just what we needed at Sierra Trading Post.

We each only carry two shirts and only one pair of pants to keep the weight of our loads low. We prefer high-performance, synthetic clothing from brands like Cannondale, Lowe Alpine, Pearl Izumi and Cloudveil. We need resilient, stretchy apparel that shows little wear and tear no matter how much we abuse it. The fabric needs to wick moisture away quickly so clothes dry fast, both on our bodies and a clothesline. It's no good having to pack wet garments into waterproof panniers every morning - things would never dry!

We don't bicycle in pants, preferring to wear shorts or capris, but it is important to have pants with us for times spent off the bike. In the winter in China, it was necessary for warmth purposes, and in the tropics of southeast Asia, it's important for mosquito purposes. Sam got new Cloudveil Ultra-Cool Caribe pants, in thin nylon to keep cool in the tropical heat, and a light color to help protect against mosquito bites. They dry quickly and are perfect for times spent relaxing off the bike in Thailand.

My new Pearl Izumi cycling shorts are really comfortable with extra padding, non-chafing seams and a tight fabric.

Spring is monsoon season in many of the countries we'll be riding through, like Thailand, Nepal and India, so Erin got a new Lowe Alpine Venture Gore-Tex jacket. A rain jacket is really only worth buying if it's made of a breathable material, otherwise body moisture gets trapped inside, causing you to get cold and wet, even while the jacket is repelling the rain.

Summer in the high mountains will be cold enough for wool and down, so Sierra Trading Post sent Sam a Sierra Designs down jacket in a previous shipment, and to bolster our cold weather clothes, we stocked up on wool. Erin received new Smartwool skiing socks, perfect for cold-weather riding. SmartWool makes excellent, warm, knee-high socks, thin and light weight but warm and effective.

Also in anticipation of cold weather in Asia's high mountains, STP provided us with a thick, warm Sierra Designs Crestone down sleeping bag, perfect for nights we'll spend in the mountains of Nepal, India and Tajikistan. For as thick and warm as it is, the sleeping bag is light weight and stuffs easily in a small bag, perfect for us since we need to fit many things in the small space of a bicycle pannier.

We're really excited to try out our new gear on the next, more mountainous leg of our trip, which will take most of the summer, and look forward to sharing our adventures in Asia's highest mountains with Sierra Blogging Post."