Editor’s note: German adventurers Mathias and Caro took off on a three-month bike tour of western North America in the beginning of August. They landed in Alaska and are now in the Yukon with their bikes, camping stuff, camera gear, laptop and the Photo Sport 200 AW. Read Mathias’ most-recent trip report.
We’ll keep in touch as they make their way to Phoenix, Arizona.
In the meantime, you can view their progress at their live tracking site and visit their Facebook page for updates.
“Our bicycle tour “From the Polar Circle to the desert of Arizona” – we will cycle the entire distance in only three months – has the motto ‘Minimal Weight, Maximal Adventure’. Therefore we limited ourselves to only lightweight items which gave us some restrictions on which products we use. We each carry one daypack and a little bicycle carbon fiber rack to keep the weight as minimal as possible.”
“Since we have chosen to videotape a documentary about our trip and to write a blog (including high-quality pictures), we are using high-end photo and video equipment on this adventure.”
“To store all our gear safely, we have chosen Lowepro as our camera bag brand. Their daypack Photo Sport 200 AW has two compartments. The top compartment provides room for basic gear and is similar to a regular backpack. The side compartment is specially designed for camera gear and is reachable from the side.
We use the Photo Sport 200 AW for all sensible technical equipment: in the side compartment we pack our Nikon D7000 with the 24-120mm lens, an additional microphone for our videos and lens 12-24mm wide-angle lens. In the top compartment we pack our small Sony Vaio P series laptop, the case with all the adapters to recharge our different devices, a large battery and two external hard-drives. Our lightweight tripod fits in the side pocket of this backpack.”
“When you are on an outdoor photo trip in Alaska you want the camera ready in only a few seconds because animals like moose or caribou don’t wait for you! With other packs, the camera was usually buried far down if not used for a while and you had to dig it out. With the Photo Sport’s side compartment, we are ready to take pictures of wildlife within seconds. With this option we shoot more – and we hope – better pictures.”
“We will share more feedback along our way down towards our final destination of Phoenix.”
