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2011 KVR tour

[This is the original writeup from our KVR trip in the summer of 2011, I have transposed it here to make it easier to access and to avoid accidentally seeming like I endorse Spot. In the years since this trip took place, I have lightened my setup substantially, but I would still consider the Cetma …

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“Emergency” Elbow Loop Bikepack August/September 2016

For various reasons, we decided at the last minute to take a holiday at the end of August. There are, of course, limits to what can be planned at the last minute, and so we decided to go bikepacking on another section of the KVR trail. I packed the food and we each packed our…

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Fish Lakes, Family Backpacking, August 2016

My buddy Scott at Porcelain Rocket has been several times to Fish Lakes, up the Mosquito Creek trail on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National park. He has consistently talked about it being one of the best hikes he has been on. We have been watching for vacancies in the campground that lined up with…

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Family Rockwall hike 2016

One of the classic Canadian Rockies hikes, the Rockwall in Kootenay National Park has been in our sights for a while. Last week/end, we finally got around to this 55km gem. Since the hike starts and ends at two different spots, I brought the car down to our end point at Floe Lake trailhead with…

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Family bikepacking at Lake Minnewanka

[Click images to enlarge them] Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park is one of the few trails close to us that allows bikes and is long enough for a reasonable bikepacking weekend. As such, we tend to go there a lot. Sometimes I get the feeling that it is a compromise to go there since…

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Minnewanka Bikepack Overnighter with new friends

  The tweet went out last month.  I was intrigued, I love bikepacking with kids! adam_roberts hey @coldbike! Overnight bike packing. Minnewanka LM8. Fri April 29th First attempt with 4 year old Thomas! Gonna need your tips… 2016-03-18, 7:09 PM I was pretty excited to see adam taking his kids out for some bikepacking goodness. …

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Bikepacking Packing (mostly also applies to backpacking)

Put everything you want to bring in a pile. Then put half of it back. It’s the cliché of bike touring and backpacking alike, but it has an element of truth to it. I like to start by deciding what the coldest temperature I could possibly encounter and decide what I need for that temperature.…

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Assiniboine Pass hike/ski March 2016

We love cross-country skiing, we love camping, and we had a 4-day long weekend for easter. The obvious solution to this non-dilemma was to go ski camping. After our awesome trip to Lake O’Hara for a long weekend in February, it was a strong contender for a return visit. On top of that, a group…

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