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Silk Road Mountain Race part 1

Spoiler: I scratched at kilometre 1106 and did not complete the Silk Road Mountain Race.  I was under no illusions. I thought it was going to be hard I did think I could complete it though, so when the race started on Saturday, August 12, 2023, I started riding. I immediately settled in at the…

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My Feelings About Media Bans

Recently, there has been some controversy around a famous rider not being recognized for a record-breaking ride on a popular bikepacking route. The film crew that covered the ride included a spouse. They took video of the ride at various places along the route, and documented the ride. I’m not going to wade into the…

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Fatbikepacking Adventure With Teens

The teen years mean father and son trips are a lot lamer than they were when my son was young. Not that I’m slower, or less adventurous, but I’m just not as cool as his friends are. [as usual, click photos to enlarge.] The solution to this, is of course, to bring friends.           (more…)

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In Which My Friend Guy and I Stumble Into a Surprise Winter Adventure

My friend Guy is a super positive influence to take on bikepacking trips. He always has a new piece of home-made gear to show off, or a new idea to solve a common problem. He never whines, which is good, because we stumbled into a surprise winter adventure… The Sensible Part Our first night out…

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Castle Wilderness – New to Us Route

I tried to talk Tadhg into bikepacking the Alberta Rockies 700 but he thought that sounded like a 2 week rather than 2 day ride. So, in the tradition of compromise, I scaled back. I may have to do it solo next year. I did want to do a new and hopefully a bit challenging…

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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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Lost Horse Creek Winter Overnight

Fiona and I had enjoyed the previous weekend’s trip to Shadow Lake, that Tania suggested we do a quick overnight to the campground at km 7.2, Lost Horse Creek. Tadhg and I decided to bike, both of us generally prefer biking when it’s one of the options. Tania left herself the option to ski or…

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