First 1/2 mile - A Shakedown Ride

Yesterday I reached the point where I was tired of trying to figure out which jersey was better, whether to take 8 cliff bars or 12, or whether I really need to bring a 15mm pedal wrench. So I just dumped everything into the panniers ("bread bags") and rode from home up our 1/2 mile hill to a local park and went around the park, and over the speed bumps to see how the bike handled fully loaded.

I made it, but found out that (a) I'm still carrying too much weight and (b) I need to anchor the panniers better on their lower end so they don't come away from the rack.  Overall the bike felt good. I put very heavy rims and solid tires on so the bike feels solid and handles fairly well.
After I got home again I weighed everything. Bike is 26 lbs. Not bad with racks, fenders, and touring tires. The panniers and tent all together weighed 43 lbs! Too much. So, again I'll be trying to predict the future and weighing (literally) the benefit of having too much or too little of something "just in case". I heard recently that we "pack our fears" so I'll be confronting  the naked position of travelling without a full tool kit, lots of extra food or multiple little stashes of toilet paper. Already this morning I found unnecessary duplicates of items, so chucked out the odd one. Want to get down to 35 lbs max.  Part of my problem packing is that I'm used to the back-country preparation of the continental divide trail where you might be 50 miles from any kind of service and unless you are racing, you really need to pack more stuff. Two years ago, friends and I met up with some horrible sticky mud that coated everything with 4" of gloppy abrasive sand and pebbles and ruined chains and derailleurs in less than a 100 yards of riding. We know better this time not to ride through those conditions, but after an angel rescued us (thank you again Walter from Elkford, B.C.), Tom, our mechanic, spent the evening and into the night turning 3 ruined bikes into 2 fully functional and 1 that was good enough to go on a parts run the next day. The point is that we were well prepared mechanically and it saved our trip.
This trip won't be in the back-country but will be along the North Cascades, Highway 20. If we pack less food, we will resupply more often. Normally I eat lots of organic fruits, vegetables and range free chicken eggs.I know what awaits us in small roadside gas stations and convenience stores are shriveled jo-jo's, over cooked hot dogs, soda and potato chips. We will make our best selections and try to visit local farmer's markets, but the diet is not something that is under control when cycle touring. It is compounded by a ravenous appetite that craves any kind of calorie and NOW!
So the real story here is that cycle touring is about confronting a greater lack of control than we perceive we normally have. If you embrace the truth that one has very little control except in how we confront an issue, then you can experience a great deal of freedom. If you fail at this task, then you are having "an Adventure"!