The Truckers See Their First Tour

Last weekend Teresa and I took the Long Haul Truckers out for their first overnight jaunt. Since the day I got it, my LHT has been fully outfitted with front and rear racks, fenders, and full panniers. Ironically, I have ridden it over 4500 miles in two years, and not a single one of those miles involved an overnight trip.

We are getting married out in Montauk, so we decided on a whim on Friday night to catch an early Saturday morning Long Island Railroad train out of Flatbush Avenue. We quickly packed up a couple of sleeping bags, my tiny tent, a sleeping pad, and some basic snacks.

Getting on the train just before eight o'clock, we arrived just after ten. It's amazing what a geographical transition you can make in very short time on a train. After a comfortable cruise out the train hit the end of the island and we were free.

What I loved about this adventure was that it was so spontaneous. We had the stuff we needed, tossed it in the panniers and went. We didn't even have a place to stay, we just figured it would work out somehow. Our goal was to camp at Hither Hills State Park, a kind of mecca for Long Island beach families who jam the phone lines each year like a bunch of 1980's kids trying to get tickets to Springsteen so that they can camp for a week out on the beach. We pulled up and put our names on the waiting list and hoped that someone would not show.


I really love the feeling of carrying everything on my bike. At certain points on this trip we were paranoid about theft and had to pull off all panniers and bags and lug them around. But even with this inconvenience, there is something so amazing about just having everything you need on your person, moved along by your legs alone.

We got the campsite off the waiting list and set up our meager camp, consisting of one tiny tent and nothing else. We headed off to explore the town of Montauk. A cold fog rolled in and we confronted the fact that perhaps we had not brought enough warm gear.


A classic moment of my teenage years involved a camping trip on Fire Island I did with my friend Andy. It was summer and somehow I decided that during the summer there was no reason to bring a sleeping bag. I spent a long, cold night trying to conserve warmth by wrapping myself in a plastic tarp. This night was cold, but we had warm sleeping bags and were comfortable.

The next day, Sunday, was glorious. We awoke to a warming sun and clean beach air. Of course it is still Long Island. For those who don't know what that means, here's a quick primer:

First, people have to bring everything they own with them wherever they want to be. Luckily, they have huge gas-guzzling vehicles and don't feel bashful about pulling them right up to the place they want to be...


It's a beach, but make sure you don't turn your ankle on the tire tracks...


And of course it is critical that you set up your camp to resemble all the comforts of home...


It was somewhat laughable how different our campsite was. Surrounded by these SUV-hauled tent and camper cities, we seemed like we had too much room. And of course this is the wrong way to look at things: if everyone camped the way we did, there would be room for two or three times as many people to camp at Hither Hills. And you know what? I really didn't lack for anything during our visit.

We made our way west and north to Shelter Island. Here's the trucker rigged up on the south ferry:


Teresa's dad just happened to be doing an organized ride on Shelter Island, so we poached a rest stop and got to meet up with him and his riding partner Joe:


We spent the rest of the day cruising around Shelter Island and Greenport. I am resolving to not let too much time elapse before we load up the truckers for another getaway...