Gear Up for Adventure: A Beginner’s Guide To Bikepacking

Mar 20, 2024

Bike touring has been around as long as bikes have. Bikepacking, on the other hand, is relatively new—at least by definition. Discerning the difference between the two might seem a bit esoteric at first; they both share some fundamental similarities of taking your bike on multiday adventures, but backpacking is generally accepted to be the more adventurous, self-reliant type of fun, made possible by the latest, minimalist gear that can all be fit on just the bike itself, without racks or trailers. “Bikepacking consists essentially of riding considerable distances and crossing vast expanses of wilderness in full autonomy on gravel roads, dirt tracks, and trails with a strong emphasis on minimalism,” says Pierre Bouchard, who may well be one of the best authorities on the subject. Along with his partner…

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Cycling Around the World: Lessons from Living a Nomad Life

Feb 22, 2024

Oscar Wilde said, “If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment.” Long before living a nomad life, I had wanted to be a software engineer. But when I became one, it felt like a punishment. It is not to say that a Ph.D. in computer science and a software development career in Germany were not dreams that came true. But those dreams were no longer mine. Now, I have no career, permanent address, fixed phone number, bank balance, spouse or kids. Everything I own fits inside my bicycle panniers. Every day is a new adventure. Despite all the uncertainties and difficulties I face on the road, I find a new home, a new…

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Shoulder Season Bikepacking in Europe

Sep 15, 2022

Spring and autumn should not be ignored for cycle travel. There’s a real joy and satisfaction that you can find with “out-of-season” travel that you’ll never get if you think of summer as your only option for cycling and adventure. However, the moods of the weather and route choice need thought, so I compiled a few ideas and tips to maximize the enjoyment of shoulder season cycle travel. I’m Andy Cox, creator of the European Divide Trail bikepacking route, and I’ve been bikepacking mostly around Europe for the last five years. Before I started out on this Grand Adventure I’d done quite a few shorter trips around the UK and into Europe, but I was always focused on the summer as my main travel season. While I don’t often travel…

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MSR Backcountry Cafe: Tomato Pasta

Sep 8, 2022

Though it was early September when my husband and I were cycling through the Po River Valley region of Italy, the summer sun still blazed, dry and scorching, lending a golden light to an already golden landscape. As well as being oppressively hot, the afternoon was also deathly quiet. We were used to this Italian riposo by now, that time between about two and four in the afternoon when shops closed, the buzz of activity at the local café dwindled, and the wooden shutters on everyone’s homes were shut tightly against that flaming sun. And so, it was with some surprise that I happened upon an elderly man who was up and about, despite the riposo. He was standing in a field that was parched, barren, and brown, walking carefully through the…

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More than Bikepacking: How to Help Foster Environmental Sustainability

Apr 26, 2022

My introduction to bikepacking was unintentional, which is perhaps why it never felt like my two-wheeled adventures needed to focus on me. My first forays didn’t involve much more than a backpack filled with fishing gear and a tent, riding my 90’s era mountain bike down dirt roads toward reservoirs in Truckee and creeks in Davis, California, intent on fishing for the weekend. As an undergraduate in Bozeman, Montana, my lack of a driver’s license left me peddling up Hyalite Reservoir Road, touring skis strapped to my backpack as I rode that same bike from my dorm to a weekend basecamp. These days, I still avoid putting together routes based on their distance or elevation gain, choosing instead to find purpose in escaping from my normal routine at a slower…

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The Carretera Austral by Bicycle: A Wild Ride through Chilean Patagonia

Oct 26, 2021

In Chile, they have a saying: Only those who hurry through Patagonia waste time. For any enthusiast of the great outdoors, it is one of the world’s truly great wildernesses—and somewhere to explore at a slow pace. The very word “Patagonia” stirs up images of grand mountains, thick forests, shimmering lakes and icy glaciers interspersed with a sparse population and lonely roads. The Carretera Austral is the iconic road running through Chilean Patagonia and has earned something of a lofty reputation for road-trippers of all means of transport. National Geographic Traveller dubbed it “the perfect road trip” with similar praise coming from Conde Nest Traveller. In the two-volume account of his around-the-world cycle, British adventurer Alistair Humphreys dubbed the Carretera Austral as “the most beautiful road I have cycled”. There’s…

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