+1 for the Specialized Rime. 

I tried a pair of PI Trans Alps a while back, and they are great to walk in, but just too flexible to ride in for any length of time.  There was too much pressure on my foot at the cleat.  They've been relegated to commuting.

I tried the Rimes next and they are about as stiff as Sidi Dominators, so they are great for riding.  With the Vibram sole, you can walk in them pretty well; but not as well as the TransAlps, the Rimes are stiff enough I get a little heel rub.

My conclusion is that, short of carrying two pairs of shoes, there is no perfect solution.  You have to compromise somewhere in the stiffness vs. walkability equation.

I second the recommendations for Delorme Gazetteer maps in conjunction with Google Earth.  The Gazetteers do a great job laying out all the options and they color code roads according to how busy there are, which is nice.  The Gazetteers are in book form with 11x17 inch pages, which photocopy nicely, so I make copies of the pages I need to carry with me.

With Google Earth, you can get a feel for the nature of the road surface or help find hidden routes through corn fields.  Google Earth also makes it easy to scope out if there are convenience stores on the routes your planning.

Have fun!

From a two-day, 240 mile round trip from my front door in the Boulder area to the Pawnee National Grasslands in NE Colorado.  Normally I'd head west into the mountains, but when they're still snowbound (this was April), heading east at least gets you some miles.  The scenery was monotonous but beautiful in its own way:

Great info here, thanks everyone.

For the Black Diamond Storm users, can you describe how you've mounted this light to your handlebar and/or helmet?  It appears the included bracket only works with the included elastic strap.

I didn't see where anyone mentioned Zpacks tarp tent. They are $$ but after watching a buddy of mine on TD last year set his up faster than I could get my bivy spot set up, I became extremely jealous!

Fully enclosed with bug net is only 9oz.

http://www.zpacks.com/

I really like my Zpacks tarp.  I have the one without a bug net, claimed weight is 4 oz.  This weight doesn't include stakes or seam sealer, but still well under a pound for the whole thing.  With a tyvek ground sheet cut to size, it works quite well.  I have yet to subject it to really bad weather though, rain with variable strong winds could be uncomfortable:

I've just switched over to a WTB Vulpine for my rear tire and I'm running them Stans tubeless at around 45 psi... I did read a review on mtbr that some folks have had problems with them blowing off the rim when running tubeless.  Anyone else experience that?

I've used the 29er Vulpine converted to tubeless as a rear tire for a few years now on an Arch rim, lots of miles and many worn out tires, no issues at all.

I run Vulpines for pretty much everything. Don't think WTB makes em anymore though? I could be wrong, but I was bummed to see they weren't on the website anymore.

I observe the same thing and I'm equally bummed, I love this tire.  I don't wee WTB offering it anymore either.  WTF, WTB??

I recently received my custom El Gilberto frame bag and top tube bag from Scott and I'm supremely impressed.  I've gotten many miles in on them already and they were exactly what I was hoping for.  The quality and attention to detail is apparent, Scott does fine work, and he's a pleasure to work with.  I highly recommend Porcelain Rocket.

Not the greatest picture, but it's all I have on hand:

I guess everyone has their own way of interpreting gear ratios and how they apply to our individual riding. The 29er on which I'm running this 20/30/40 crankset (with a 11-34 cassette, BTW) replaced a 26er and my math showed the 20x34 granny gear on the 29er is the same roll out as the 22x34 on my 26er.  This was enough to make me want a 20T chain ring, I didn't want to lose any low gears jumping to a 29er, this Middleburn set up did that for me.

Also part of my decision process was that, like yourself, I have a Fargo.  I got a complete bike back in 2009, it was my first 29er.  I love it but the stock 22/32/44 x 11/34 gearing is harder than my old 26er.  For bikepacking, I definitely suffered a bit on the steep climbs here in the Colorado mountains.

I also wanted to stay away from 10 speed.  I'm annoyed that you can't get a reusable chain link in a 10 speed set up, I rotate and clean chains regularly and love my SRAM 9 speed power links.

What Area54 said makes total sense, there is a practical lower limit to gearing.  My 20x34 gear on my 29er is above this limit for me, I use the heck out of it.  In practice I am finding lower gears on a 29er are even more useful than their equivalent on a 26er because of enhanced traction.

I imagine any SS riders reading this dialog about super-low gears are shaking their heads and want to tell us to just HTFU

Hi, SlowDave, my experience may be useful to you.  I've been using an ISIS Middleburn crank on my SS for some years now, and I've been very happy with it.  I just built up a new frame a few months ago (a 29er hard tail) and like you I wanted 20/30/40 gearing for those long days with a loaded bike.  I decided to go with Middleburn again, this time with the new X-type Middleburn cranks with a compact triple spider.  I had one installation issue, but figured out a solution, and I'm very happy with my choice now.

Here's my crankset after I've assembled everything.  I got all the parts from MTB Tandems and assembled the spider, arms, and rings myself:


The issue I encountered was that my Shimano bearing cups were slightly too big to fit inside the small chain ring, there was an overlap of a few thousands of an inch. A dremel tool and sandpaper made short work of the problem, I sanded down the outside of the cup and took off a bit on the inside of the small chainring:


Now everything fits (barely), and no problems since:


Final drive train:


Complete bike, just to take this opportunity to brag a bit (very happy with my new Waltworks!):


BTW, I'm using a standard SRAM X0 front derailleur (direct mount) and it works great.  I've even noticed the small 40 tooth chain ring gives me better clearance over logs and such.  Many more pictures of my build and Middleburn cranks are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115353005259405023937/albums/5665042399852793713

I use the sling on my Woodchippers (the wider size) with great success along with the small pocket.  A full 15 L Outdoor Research dry bag and a folded up sheet of Tyvek fit great and nestle between the drops just perfectly.

and if you search mtbr you'll see folks building up 1x5 and 1x6 setups with ss hubs and eliminating some of the cogs in a standard cassette.

Walt of Waltworks has machined standard 9-speed cassettes down to fit singlespeed hubs resulting in a super-reliable and light 1x6 or 1x7 drivetrain.  I think he'll even sell you one, here's some info:
http://waltworks.blogspot.com/2010/05/xt-cassette-mods.html
http://waltworks.blogspot.com/2009/10/this-one-goes-to-11.html

I'm also of the "just having fun" mindset, so I enjoy bringing my Caldera Cone stove to heat water for dehydrated dinners, oatmeal, and Starbucks Via in the morning.  It's a great option:



https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PnQVtQxTrCVE5npVD7nPNtwFMrK4XYXYzQM14U5SraU?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/l4BGCTB3CZmk8cK_-7FhSNwFMrK4XYXYzQM14U5SraU?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IDGaWRTH6y7iQIeT7bHtGtwFMrK4XYXYzQM14U5SraU?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZLC54LUPikgueOnsPhD5PdwFMrK4XYXYzQM14U5SraU?feat=directlink

I have the sling and love it, but I've never used the harness - with this caveat, here are my impressions.

The sling is simpler, lighter, and is intended to carry a single dry bag.  The small pocket works great with the sling, the large is not recommended (as Eric's website says).  The harness, I believe, is better if you need to fit irregularly shaped or big stuff.

What kind of dry bag fits the sling?  Hard to say, it depends on your handlebars too.  In my case, when I strap in a full 15 L Outdoor Research dry bag in my sling the straps are at their length limit, so this represents the maximum diameter the sling can accommodate.  The sling doesn't limit bag length, but your handlebars might - this same dry bag just barely fits between the hoods on my Woodchipper bars on my Fargo.  Basically, I've found this bag to be the perfect match for my sling on the Fargo.

When I put the same sling on my Moots, with a traditional MTB bar, length is not limited so with these kinds of bars a longer, skinnier dry bag is best.  Also, the fatter bag gets a little close to my front tire, so I'm looking for a long, skinny bag for this bike (which I think is the shape of the dry bag Eric sells).

I have no experience with that rack, but I believe all the reports of failures.  One of the most basic principles of mechanical design is that "cantilevers are bad".

But to answer your question, the rack approach can work for bikepacking, I'm a fan of the Salsa Minimalist myself.  Here's this rack on my Fargo carrying a 15 L Outdoor Research dry sack:

The bag you plan to strap to your handlebars would be perfectly suited to a Revelate Designs sling or harness, https://www.revelatedesigns.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=store.catalog&CategoryID=3.

I have no experience with them, but MLD has some interesting options specifically http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=153. 

Crocs..... super light, comfortable, and inexpensive. I bring them on every backpack or bikepack trip 

Crocs are a nice option because you can also use them for stream crossings.  They won't get washed off your feet in fast-moving water like a flip-flop would and of course they don't soak up any water and dry very quickly.

MC himself favors Epic/Revelate bags, see his review here:
http://www.bikepacking.net/reviews/bikebags/epic-designs-seat-bag/

I have about 1% of his experience but I'm a big fan of Eric's work as well.  You won't be disappointed if you go this route.

Thanks for sharing, and great adventure!

I'm curious how your Amtrak experience was, were you able to roll your bike on board (unboxed)?  Any hassles?

I can also report no observed problems when carrying my Garmin 60CSx on my handlebar and a Spot in my Epic Designs gas tank.  The antenna are only about 8" apart (I think Spot says more than one foot is recommended).  I've seen no GPS accuracy issues and haven't dropped any Spot messages, and the Spot tracking info comes though fine too.