Self Contained and Ultralight Bikepacking Comes of Age Thanks to gear breakthroughs and pioneering riders, there’s a new style of bicycle touring

Story and photos by Aaron Teasdale “I’ve gotta get a photo of you guys with four days exploring remote backcountry your bikes,” said a man we’d just met on the trails and our last night was soon to take us trail high in the Canadian Rockies. Anyone into high, wild peaks on a trail navigable who’s traveled by bicycle has experienced only on mountain bikes with the lightest this: meeting people who are so blown away possible gear. by what you’re doing that they just have to This is bikepacking, bicycle touring’s take your picture. The difference with this new frontier. guy and his two friends was that they were Our trip had begun five days earlier traveling by bike themselves. They pulled when our group of four assembled in trailers stuffed with everything they could northern Montana at the end of June theoretically ever need, their pregnant as something of a bikepacking all-star cargo bags threatening to burst open in an team. There was Jeff Boatman, the adven- explosion of gear. Normally, people would ture mastermind from the backwoods of be asking to take pictures of them. But then California who’d created Carousel Design there was our group. Nearing the end of a Works (carouseldesignworks.com) and the five-day tour, we had no trailers, no racks, gear-carrying system that has taken ultra- and no panniers. light touring to new levels of efficiency. “Where’s the rest of your stuff?!” they’d Endurance cycling legend John Stamstad asked incredulously, looking at our lightly had come over from Washington to join us loaded rigs. for the first part of the trip. We’d met at “This is it,” we said with smiles. Todd Tanner’s place, a former World Cup- “Everything we need is on our bikes right winning professional downhill mountain- now.” bike racer turned guide and all-around After assuring us they needed all the uber rider who’d recently embraced tour- stuff they’d brought, they spent a minute ing with vigor. Then there was myself, the examining our bikes like they were mysti- least likely person in the group to set any cal objects from another world — fascinat- speed or endurance records, but an avid ing to view but impossible to understand. backcountry explorer who’s been at the “I’ve toured with trailers plenty of times forefront of publicizing ultralight bike- and they’re great,” I told them, “but over packing. the years, I’ve learned that riding light is We’d all come together to ride for a few a lot more fun. You’re trading a bit of com- days, compare notes, and celebrate the Twisted trails and twisted mountains. It’s hard to imagine a better place for bikepacking the K-Country. fort in camp for comfort on the bike, and it sport, which was benefiting from recent to find quality places to do it. In the opens up all kinds of riding terrain.” gear breakthroughs and burgeoning inter- U.S., large, non-motorized, backcountry us had ever seen. Jeff, who’d never been After topping out at the day’s second water in Canadian Rockies!) With their heavy loads, they planned est from the mainstream cycling media. areas with ample singletrack are all too in the Canadian Rockies before, was nearly pass, we made like water and flowed down As the day rolled on — and I intermit- to spend the rest of their trip muscling After years of existing in touring’s shadowy often closed to bicycles, leaving bikepack- dumbstruck as we followed old rock-rid- valley for a dozen miles, crisscrossing and tently stopped to look at flowers, animal along well-traveled valley-bottom roads. fringes, bikepacking had finally arrived. ers stuck on washboarded dirt roads with dled, four-wheel-drive roads (now closed fording the Sheep River and its tributaries tracks, and birds — it became clear that Oppositely, we had just spent the previous But that fact hasn’t made it any easier dust-spewing trucks and ATVs. This was to anything motorized) through sweeping a dozen times on our way into the deep I was used to riding at a more leisurely not the experience we sought, so we did subalpine valleys glowing emerald with forest of the mountain foothills to the east. pace than the rest of the group. This was what many sensible Americans would do: fresh spring growth. Lined on either side High-country snowmelt was juicing the no surprise — after all Stamstad launched we headed for Canada. by the Opal and Misty mountain ranges, waterways and impossibly cold creek cross- Great Divide Route-racing by time trialing There, just west of Calgary and south their vaulting limestone spears and cliffs ings were abundant the first couple days. the entire 2,500 miles, self-supported, in 18 of Banff, where Alberta’s flaxen plains rise harboring a pearly lacework of snow, it was (Breaking news: coldest matter in Universe days back in 1998, while Todd and Jeff are up to the serrated summits of the Canadian a landscape that could convert atheists. discovered to be supernaturally frigid creek both considering racing the Tour Divide, Rockies, sprawls a spectacular wildland complex known as Kananaskis Country. Encompassing 20 contiguous provincial parks and recreation areas, and approxi- mately 1,500 square miles of mountains, rivers, and trails — almost all open for cycling — it’s one of the premier locales in North America for off-pavement bike tour- ing. The locals call it K-Country, after too many of them sprained their tongues say- ing Kananaskis, but we were soon calling it bikepacking paradise. As soon as we set out from the parking lot at the Elbow Pass trailhead on the trip’s first day, it was clear this was one of the The necessities. Traveling light is important but carrying the right first-aid kit is required. most beautiful mountain landscapes any of

12 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 13 one of the hardest bicycle races the world well behind the speeding pack when a “Guys!” I yelled, with significantly has ever known, and would no doubt do black bear suddenly appeared in the forest more gusto this time. “I’ve got an unhappy What is quite well. As for me, the last thing I want in front of me. The sun had just gone down bear here. Can you start walking back here, to do on a bike trip is hurry. Racing some- and I’d been scanning trail-side meadows all together, slowly and loudly?” bikepacking? thing like the Great Divide Route sounds for wildlife when there it was, rearing up “Is that bear still there?” a voice called about as much fun to me as doing my own on its hind legs not 30 feet up the trail back. Bikepacking is one of those great dental work — even if I could pedal 100- from me. It’s amazing how quickly you can “Yes, the bear is definitely still here.” words that makes sense as soon as you plus miles a day for three weeks without stop in these situations — in what felt like I heard murmuring as they confirmed hear it. A nifty amalgamation of “biking” dying — so it took a little while for our a fraction of a second, I took my pepper what I’d said. My thumb stayed tensed on and “backpacking” (or portmanteau, group to calibrate. spray out, popped the safety off (just like the bear-spray trigger, my eyes locked with as these things are called), the word While the other guys could have eas- I’d practiced countless times), and aimed it the bear’s. perfectly represents what bikepacking ily ridden much farther each day, I was squarely at the disgruntled beast. Finally, they started moving back toward is. Simple enough, right? Alas, like life, content (and tired!) after 25 miles or so. “It’s okay big guy,” I said in the most me in a yelling mass of bikepackers. Just as taxes, and trying to mount a new rack Fortunately, as the trip’s orchestrator, I gentle and reassuring voice I could muster. I’d hoped, this was enough to send the bear on your bike, it’s more complicated than it appears. was able to dictate things a bit and show “Let’s just leave each other alone.” loping into the forest, where it stopped While the term is seeing a surge the speedy endurance-junkies how to tour This caused it to start woofing. I was about 70 feet away and resumed snuffling in popularity right now, “bikepacking” Teasdale-style. After all, there were pic- clearly no bear whisperer. along the ground as if we weren’t there. means different things to different peo- tures to take, views to savor, and campfires “Uh, guys?” I called out. I could hear After re-holstering the pepper spray and ple. Most recently, the ultralight multi- to sprawl around each night (and morning). their voices ahead on the trail. “You might sharing a laugh with my saviors, we fol- day mountain-bike crowd has embraced Todd would later admit, “I didn’t expect not have noticed, but there’s a bear back lowed a trail through dimming light until the word as a name for their activity. If so much campfire time.” here … with me.” reaching the shadowy shores of Bluerock Where are the chestnuts? A couple of bikepackers wish they had more than toes to roast. you think of using a bike to go where To which I replied, “You’re welcome.” No response — the bear wasn’t taking Creek, which fulfilled our needs by deliv- people usually backpack — singletrack It came as no surprise then, late on that his eyes off me — then laughing and more ering both a clean water source and deep next three days on rugged trails and old Camping in meadows and on mountain- trails in the mountains — this definition first day, that I was in my usual position talking. The bear woofed again. beds of pillowy moss to sleep upon. exploratory roads across ridges and down sides, we had campfires every morning and makes sense. It’s also a lot easier to say Swapping stories about wildlife encoun- through the foothills of the Rockies. Under night, and immersed ourselves ever deeper than “ultralight multi-day mountain bik- ing.” Clearly the activity needs its own ters we’d had over the years, we cooked blue summer skies we passed fields of in the landscape of Kananaskis. name and bikepacking would seem to over the camp stove while our shoes and wild horses, came upon 500-foot canyons John bade us farewell on the trip’s be the perfect choice. socks dried around the fire. Talk turned opening suddenly from the forest floor, third morning, beckoned by responsibili- The only problem is that it’s been in to our favorite riding locales (Todd: South and climbed alongside tumbling rivers ties in the teeming world beyond trails use for a lot longer than this new form Africa; Jeff: Sierra Nevada; Aaron: any- into mountains weeping with snowmelt. and campfires. Though he’s spent the last of touring. The seminal 1973 article in where untamed.), and as John sliced pieces National Geographic by Greg Siple of summer sausage and cheese into a pot and Dan Burden about their pioneer- of boiling Ramen noodles, he said his was ing tour was called “Bikepacking Alaska, where he’d won eight consecutive Across Alaska and Canada.” Then a Iditasport winter races in the 1990s. He general book about touring came out then pointed to the alcohol stoves we were in 1982 with the name Backcountry Bikepacking. And Adventure Cycling both using and said nonchalantly, “that’s You may be alone, but never lost. editor Mike Deme has used the term where I learned these don’t light when it’s in this magazine over the years as well. colder than 30 degrees below zero.” More recently, touring the Great Divide “Good to know,” I said with a laugh, Mountain Bike Route and other dirt- and then added, “I’m so glad I’ve never had road tours is often referred to as to learn that,” bikepacking. And it works really, in a After stringing our food up from a general sense, for all of these uses. scraggly cottonwood by the creek, we Here’s my suggestion: Since road retired to our respective shelters, or in the touring already has a generally accept- case of John, a space-blanket bivy sack ed name — “touring,” or if you want to directly on the ground (ever the ascetic, get wordy, “bicycle touring” — and dirt- touring enthusiasts need a more suc- he also eschewed a sleeping bag). Jeff, the consummate craftsman, slept under a cinct name for their activity, and they’ve Ride the globe using the most embraced the term bikepacking, let’s custom tarp of his own making that incor- modern tire technology. The new expedition roll with that. porated his front wheel on one end and his tire that combines contrasts: Excellent puncture Bikepacking: off-pavement touring, bike on the other for an impressive bike- protection but with low weight, deep grippy tread often with minimal, lightweight gear but easy rolling. All this with outstanding durability. supported shelter. As an ardent devotee www.schwalbetires.com (preferably on singletrack trails). The of sleep, my accommodations were deluxe deeper in the boonies the better, far by comparison, and I laid back on my full- Technical Features: Folding, Triple Nano Compound, Double Defense (HD-Ceramic Guard + SnakeSkin) from the madding crowds and strident length sleeping pad under a fast-fly tent whine of motors, where the hand of and let the murmurs of the creek carry me man does not rule and wild beasts still into slumber. roam the land. Schwalbe North America | Ferndale | USA With a good map and no itinerary other Gravity assisted. The climbs were tough but the descents made it well worth the effort. than to simply explore, we rode for the

14 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 15 decade largely focused on trail running, he seemed impressed with the current state of bikepacking, a pursuit he helped inspire. Nuts & Bolts: Kananaskis Country GOODBYE DESK. HELLO PATAGONIA. “I’ve got to do more rides like this,” he said, “This kind of riding wasn’t possible K-Country is a velo-wonderland for dirt historic levels. For your safety and theirs, 15 years ago — it’s awesome what the new lovers of all stripes. Besides the boundless keep a clean camp, always hang your food gear now allows you to do.” trails webbing through the mountains and at night (or use the bear proof storage con- We couldn’t have agreed more. With our foothills, tourers with traditional loads will tainers at designated campgrounds), and svelte 10-pound loads seamlessly integrat- enjoy the Sheep and Elbow River trails, plus make lots of noise around blind corners. the many dirt-road options in the foothills to Carry pepper spray too, and make sure ed into our bikes, we were free to enjoy the the east. The Great Divide Mountain Bike you can access it quickly while riding. simple yet profound pleasures of riding. Route also cuts through the western side On many a downhill, the woods and moun- of the Kananaskis region on its way into Packing Lists and a How-to: tains rang with our exuberant whooping. British Columbia. Loops from Kananaskis To see Stamstad’s, Boatman’s, and If we have the backpacking world to south to the Fording River Pass into British Teasdale’s packing lists for their

thank for developing ultralight camping Columbia and then back up the GDMBR to Kananaskis ride, check out www.adven Bleakney Photography by Gregg equipment, we have Jeff Boatman to thank Kananaskis are also possible. turecycling.org/ultralight, where you can for bringing them so elegantly to the world also learn the basics of ultralight touring 2010 Pangea Guides and Maps: Backcountry Biking techniques. of cycling. As a backpacker, mountain Whether exploring Argentina, the Great Lakes, biker, and expert outdoorsman, he longed in the Canadian Rockies by Doug Eastcott or Zanzibar, the Pangea will take you there details many of the best routes in the area. Resources: with unmatched ruggedness, stability for a way to apply the ethos of ultralight Fording is fun. Creek crossing abound in For maps, check out Backroads Mapbooks l www.bikepacking.net offers forums, gear and capacity. With the right bike, backpacking to backcountry cycling and K-Country until mid to late summer. your horizons are limitless. (www.backroadmapbooks.com) for land- reviews, and route information. combine his two favorite activities into one. scape-scale planning and GemTrek maps l www.travelalberta.com Toll Free (866) 282-6336 [email protected] Like other adventurous mountain bikers in l previous day. It was the only trail down, so (www.gemtrek.com) for on-trail navigation. www.irideadventures.com is Todd www.co-motion.com the early and mid-2000s, he experimented Tanner’s guiding business for multi-day our precipitous climb was about to become with strapping lightweight gear to the top Bears: rides (rental gear available). He also a rollicking descent. After five days in shelves of racks, but the racks eventually There are bears here, big ones, including rents cabins and has a bike shop near Kananaskis, this was exactly the kind of broke. He knew there was a better way. So grizzlies, but human encroachment has the Great Divide Route just south of farewell we were hoping for. As we paused reduced their numbers dramatically from Eureka, Montana. Eugene Oregon, USA he set out to create a rackless cargo system for a minute to take in the view of the mas- We’ll build one for you! that would be durable, light, and suited for sive valley dropping away below us and the VeloAdvenCycleJuly2010:VeloAdvenCycleJuly2010 6/28/10 5:34 PM Page 1 the kind of high mountain riding he loved. jagged pyramids of rock cutting into the In 2006, he launched his company, Carousel as he explained how the system worked — ed to do something dramatic, something sky in every direction, we agreed this had Design Works (CDW), and unveiled the clothes in the seat bag, shelters and sleep- that would push the limits of bicycle travel been one of the most glorious bike tours of handlebar, seat, and frame bags that would ing bags in the handlebar bag, food in the and be a worthy culmination for our trip. our lives. revolutionize lightweight bicycle travel. frame bag. “You know, bikepacking.” When we spied a trail on our map that leapt “And this is our last downhill!” I said. We were all using CDW bags on our trip, After talking with the overloaded-trail- contour lines up to a high chain of alpine Then, as gravity began pulling us down and every cyclist we met along the way er guys who took our picture, we spun lakes, we knew we’d found it. So it was that the serpentine trail, a funny thing hap- marveled at them and our Lilliputian loads. through the mountains debating where to two hours later, we found ourselves alter- pened — we all went fast. The racer, the Ride for adventure, “We’re on a multi-day ride,” Jeff would say go for the final night of our ride. We want- nately pedaling and pushing our bikes up artisan, and the photographer, all charging a mountainside through aspen forests and down the mountain together like a trio ride in comfort. along exposed, open slopes. The trail steep- of wild horses celebrating their freedom. ened savagely as it climbed into the alpine, Whoops and laughter filled the air as • Full Custom until we were traversing scree slopes and we dodged rocks, darted between aspen • Semi Custom shouldering our bikes over lichen-speckled trunks, and launched air off roots with • Extensive stock line fins of limestone. The chirping calls of abandon. We were like boys now, giddy for all levels of riders pikas echoed off the surrounding moun- kids romping through the wilderness. This tain faces as we threaded our way through is one of the beautiful things about cycling patches of snow and car-sized boulders to a — it can make us feel the speed of a stal- USA Made: Handcrafted high knoll between the lakes. With its pan- lion and the glee of a child together in one in California. oramic view, it was a perfect place to camp. euphoric rush. “We may not be the first people to bike Maybe that’s why some people consider here,” I said that evening as we sat around the bicycle to be mankind’s greatest inven- a campfire and watched the day’s last light tion. If that’s so, then thanks to innovators illuminate the magnificently contorted like John Stamstad and Jeff Boatman, and strata of the encircling summits, “but I bet places like Kananaskis, it just got a little Shop Voler exclusively at: we’re the first to ever bike here and spend greater. velowear.com the night.” After one last look around at the peaks Aaron Teasdale is an outdoors adventurer who lives in 866-952-7788 Missoula, Montana, with his wife Jacqueline, and sons the next morning, we headed back across Photo by Doug Highland Silas and Jonah. the scree traverse and pointed our tires Superlight. Carousel Design Works gear helps make bikepacking an easier undertaking. down the mountainside we’d climbed the l For bonus bikepacking coverage, visit adventure cycling.org/bikepacking. 16 ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG ADVENTURE CYCLIST DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 17