Luggage, It’s All About Lugging. You kids these days have it easy! Back when I started bikepacking, there were few options for bags. I tried panniers a few times, and while they were fine on gravel roads, they sucked a lot once the trail closed in and they started grabbing on rocks and trees. In…
Author: Doug
MYOG Prologue and Cooking Gear
There’s all kinds of inexpensive custom bikepacking gear on the market, so why would you make your own? Bikepacking styles vary greatly, and making your own gear can allow you to customize to your particular style without paying for custom or small scale production. The small boutique brands are not out to rip you off,…
MYOG part 3: You Can Make Pogies (or Buy Them)
MYOG Part 4: Sleep System
Castle Wilderness – New to Us Route
Mud, Sweat, and Tears: Family Bikepacking in Marginal Conditions
Jeremy loves to take his family on bikepacking weekends. That’s mostly because he loves his family, but also because he loves riding bikes and sleeping outside. He was kind enough to invite me on a weekend ride to celebrate his birthday and to have fun with the kids. For bikepacking with kids, it is very…
Spring Family Bikepacking Indoctrination Weekend.
Long Weekend Bikepacking With Tadhg
He started his bikepack negotiation with, “I’m not riding 100km days unless you carry all my stuff. I’ll ride 20km total [5km days] if I have to carry anything.” Both proud and appalled, I planned out a 90km/day route. Unfortunately, I heard from a friend that the route included a pass with “impassable snow” and…
Late Winter Bikepack
Mid March, my friend Katrina organized a very fun overnight bikepack to Lake Minnewanka. The original plan was to get up early on Saturday, bike from Goat Creek trailhead through Banff (town) and then ride up to the Lake Minnewanka trailhead and proceed to the LM8 campground. The year previous, this is exactly what an…
Why?
I get asked, like most winter cyclists, “why?” The situation varies between riding with my kids a couple of blocks, to riding in extreme cold, to riding and pushing through snow to go sleep outside somewhere. The implication is that it’s too hard to be worth it. Some of the questioning comes from a mistaken…