Packing list for long-distance touring bicyclist James Schauer: 300 pounds of stuff.
As you can see at left, this 60-year-old semi-retired computer programmer is pretty easy to identify as he hauls his rig across the rolling countryside of rural Maryland. He pedals a mountain bike loaded with stuff and tows a 14-foot canoe that shelters more stuff underneath.
He left the St. Louis area last September and has been tooling around the East Coast by bicycle and canoe ever since. With no house and no car, Schauer says he has no particular destination in mind except to visit relatives on his travels.
He told the Carroll County (MD) Times:
“I just wanted to be comfortable and have some time to read and think and live outdoors. … My legs keep pounding away, and I usually travel 60 miles a day. I’m probably the oldest guy to ever pull a canoe 2,300 miles.”
He has used that carbon-fiber canoe to paddle along the Intercoastal Waterway in Florida when he arrived in Florida. So far, his journey has taken him 2,300 miles by bicycle and 400 miles by canoe.
When a reporter for the Walton Sun interviewed him in his travels in Florida in January, he said he'd probably meander up the coast to Maine and then head over to Minnesota for some fishing. That's been changed to include a visit to his pregnant daughter in Australia.
“I can stop any time I want. The main thing is I wanted to simplify my life. I wanted to meet people. I have no car, no house, I'm 59 and I wanted to go while I could.”
So what is he carrying? Camping equipment, clothes and spare parts for this bike. Also a computer, radio and GPS system. He powers up his electronics with a solar panel attached to his canoe.
Interested in human-powered expeditions? Check out “Scotland to Syria by rowboats and bicycles.”
Photo from Carroll County Times
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looks like the life !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely amazing! I wonder hour the trailer effects bike handling
WHEN was he coming to Maine like what year and month
This story is about 10 years old. I don’t know when or if he ever made it to Maine. Hope he made it.
Yea I hope he did.
I’d like to buy a big dummy and do an unusual trip as well
I wonder if he was harassed by the police? I’m about to embark on the same adventure. I just finish my trailer.its 7 feet by 24 inches and weighs about a hundred pounds, two sets of new tires, 4 sets of slime no flat tubes, a guitar 4 large tarps I tenet one hammock 300 feet of rope 1000′ string. 200 lbs of dehydrated food, water filters blah blah blah 600 lbs gear intotal
Why so much weight?
Hope you had a good time
One of the greatest things I have ever seen. Totally inspiring! I love bikes and biking. I’ve done a little bit of every kind of biking even towed a canoe one time but never all that and I’m only 44!
Keep the rubber side down