S24O Packing List: Swift Campout

The Swift Campout 2022 has come and gone, and now that we're deep into camping season, we’re really leaning into the idea that not every bikepacking trip has to be an epic undertaking. There are so many things adding complexity to our day-to-day that we relish the simplicity of a single night under the stars.

The lightweight spirit of the Swift Campout is one that resonates with us whenever we start thinking about our next trip. Sub-24h overnights (AKA S24O’s) can be some of the simplest bikepacking trips to prep for once you have a starter kit to work with. The short nature of these trips means you can get away without bringing along some of the clunkier camping classics, like bags of ice, extra weather gear, and several days' worth of meal prep and fuel. You don’t really need to carry a whole bunch of canned bevvies since it’s just one night, and we don’t recommend it, either—that’ll weigh you down real fast, and they’ll be lukewarm at best once you get to camp.

Our two-person camping setup has seen several iterations over the last five years, and each trip teaches us something about what we would—or wouldn’t—want to bring along next time.

Here’s what our first ever Swift Campout together looked like:

The nighttime temperature dropped down below 10 degrees in 2019. We would have benefited from an extra blanket or just the fly for our tent, but we rarely bring those along for S24O trips since it's easier to predict the weather for a single-night trip.