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Another Quick Overnight With Jeremy and Girls

The Planned Group Jeremy and I had not gotten out for a bikepacking overnight since the weather turned winter. I planned to take my family, and invited Jeremy and some other friends to add to the fun. The Actual Group By the time Saturday rolled around, it was Jeremy and I and a daugher each.…

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Not This Time

On a -40ºC bikepacking trip, I learn an important lesson, not about bikepacking in the cold, but about taking better care of indispensable equipment.

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Heat Exchanger Masks – a Love Story

(updated, March 2025) How I Started Caring About Heat Exchanger Masks Back in the 90s I started riding my bike to work after a hiatus of a few years. My coworkers would regularly ask me if I was going to be like Tom, a notoriously all-weather rider. As winter came on, I realized what most…

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Video of Making Your Own Pogies

Previously, I had written about making your own bike pogies. Now, I’ve made a video. It isn’t winning any awards, but it may help you to make your own bike pogies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozucL2oWaA

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MYOG Part 4: Sleep System

[Editor’s note, I know this is technically the first published, but I wrote it as the 4th in the series. Read them in any order and they should still make sense. Also, I get asked a lot of questions about my tarp.] MYOG Sleep Systems, introduction Canada can get cold. The Canadian Rockies can get…

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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…

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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…

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Bikepack.ca podcast with Tom Babin

This Podcast from bikepack.ca is well worth listening to if you are at all interested in winter cycling. It is both interesting and entertaining. They also spend several seconds talking about me, which made me very happy.

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Skipacking with Fiona

Fiona is 6, she is a proven outdoors-capable girl.  I have been promising to take her camping for several months, and this weekend we got the chance to go. We decided Banff national park needed some visiting and so with some advice from my friend Scott, who used to live in Banff, we set off…

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