Packing list for long-distance touring bicyclist James Schauer: 300 pounds of stuff.

As you can see at left, this 60-year-old semi-retired computer programmer is pretty easy to identify as he hauls his rig across the rolling countryside of rural Maryland. He pedals a mountain bike loaded with stuff and tows a 14-foot canoe that shelters more stuff underneath.

He left the St. Louis area last September and has been tooling around the East Coast by bicycle and canoe ever since. With no house and no car, Schauer says he has no particular destination in mind except to visit relatives on his travels.

He told the Carroll County (MD) Times:

“I just wanted to be comfortable and have some time to read and think and live outdoors. ... My legs keep pounding away, and I usually travel 60 miles a day. I’m probably the oldest guy to ever pull a canoe 2,300 miles.”

He has used that carbon-fiber canoe to paddle along the Intercoastal Waterway in Florida when he arrived in Florida. So far, his journey has taken him 2,300 miles by bicycle and 400 miles by canoe.

When a reporter for the Walton Sun interviewed him in his travels in Florida in January, he said he'd probably meander up the coast to Maine and then head over to Minnesota for some fishing. That's been changed to include a visit to his pregnant daughter in Australia.

"I can stop any time I want. The main thing is I wanted to simplify my life. I wanted to meet people. I have no car, no house, I'm 59 and I wanted to go while I could."

So what is he carrying? Camping equipment, clothes and spare parts for this bike. Also a computer, radio and GPS system. He powers up his electronics with a solar panel attached to his canoe.

Interested in human-powered expeditions? Check out "Scotland to Syria by rowboats and bicycles."

Photo from Carroll County Times