What’s it like to bikepack for days and days

as told to Tara Nolan

Ever wonder what it’s like to ride thousands of kilometres, start a bike brand or nail a new technical mountain biking skill? Here are a handful of bike enthusiasts who have accomplished large, and some not so large, goals related to the sport. Their great tales may inspire you to take on new bike-related challenges.

What’s it like to compete in a self-supported, cross-continent bike race?

Morgan Taylor, West Kootenays, B.C.

Stephanie and I got married in October 2015 and planned last year’s ride as our honeymoon. We built bikes instead of buying flights and only spent about $1,000 a month when we were on the road. I don’t know if there’s a cheaper or more efficient way to travel.

The trip was split up into three legs of about a month each. We rode from our home in the West Kootenays over two mountain ranges to where the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route crosses into the U.S., then down through Montana and into Wyoming to see Yellowstone and the Tetons. From there we jumped in a car to Denver, so we could take the train to California. We spent a week with friends in the Bay Area, then made our way down to Los Angeles for another 10 days or so. We then caught a ride to Bend, Ore., and rode to our new home in North Vancouver via Portland, the Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

RELATED: Essential gear for bikepacking

We planned the trip over a number of months, getting our bikes and all of our gear sorted out and tested. We wanted to have bikes (Soma Wolverines) that had interchangeable parts anywhere possible, so we could carry spares that worked for both bikes. For example, it worked out that we could carry one length of spoke for all four wheels (this was lucky more than intentional, but starting with matching hubs helped), and we only needed to carry one spare freehub ratchet. We didn’t do much fully loaded test riding, but we did ride our bikes a lot to ensure the fits were good. Our bikes are not specifically travelling bikes, but they had all the right features for our needs and would be useful urban and adventure bikes after we finished this trip. We had a full rackless bikepacking setup on both bikes, as well as front panniers, 2.1″ mountain bike tires, mountain bike drivetrains, dynamo lights and USB chargers, and all the things we figured we’d need for an extended trip.

On the second day of our trip, we had a massive backcountry pass to climb. We were sure my bike should be heavier to help balance the difference in power between the two of us, but our initial ideas of how each bike should be packed quickly went out the window on this six-hour climb. We stopped about a third of the way up the valley to redistribute. Everything that was heavy and dense ended up on my bike while the lighter, but bulkier things went on Stephanie’s bike. Where things moved to on that second day out – based on weight and bulk – ended up mostly staying that way for the entire trip. At the time, climbing Gray Creek Pass was certainly Stephanie’s biggest accomplishment on a bike, but since then she’s had quite a few milestones worth writing home about.

We had a rough idea that we wanted to ride from home, hit the Adventure Cycling Association’s 40th- anniversary party in Missoula, Mont., about 10 days after departure, to go to Yellowstone and the Tetons, to explore backroads and backcountry routes, and to make our way to Los Angeles eventually. What came between was up to following our noses and locals’ recommendations for routes, which left our schedule wide open to opportunities as they arose. We still prefer to travel this way, even on shorter trips.

We would certainly do it again, though next time we’d bring our dog. With this experience behind us, we worked out how to bring him along using a single-wheel trailer and did a weeklong trip with him this year. That’s another story altogether.

This is the first in a seven-part series that first appeared in Dec. 2017/Jan. 2018 issue of Canadian Cycling Magazine.