Tripping with Mike

Twelve days on the Great Divide from Banff to Butte. Great riding, sunny, blazing hot days, amazing scenery and tired legs setting up an ongoing adventure for the next 3 years. Introduction On July 24, 2023 I set off to ride the Great Divide from Banff to Antelope Wells. I am a reasonably experienced bikepacker having done multiple 10+ day bikepacking trips including a 1,000 km route from Banff to Penticton on the Great Trail in 2020, the BC Epic 1000, a 1,000 km gravel bike race in 2021 and the 1,000 km Tree to Sea gravel bike loop on North Vancouver Island in 2022. In comparison, this would be my first ride planned to be longer than 2 weeks and if completed upwards of 4,500 km.  To cut a long story short, I made it to Butte, Montana in 12 days, over 1,200 km of riding and 16,000 metres of climbing and decided to stop the ride early. While I had physically prepared reasonably well for the ride with regular mountain bike riding, multiple 100+ km rides fully loaded on my gravel bike...

A remote 1,000 km loop around the furthest reaches of Vancouver Island - bears and eagles everywhere, rain and sun, big hills and endless scenery. Introduction In early July 2022 I set off on a two week bikepacking tour of North Vancouver Island. The previous year I had done the BC Epic 1000 race from Merritt to Fernie during the infamous heat dome in June (I was the lanterne rouge) and vowed I would subsequently aim for shorter less strenuous bikepacking trips.  Yet, after reading about the new Tree to Sea loop on North Vancouver Island and realizing I had a 10+ day window in early July, the next thing I found myself doing was cycling up the Sunshine Coast to catch a ferry with my bike and gear over to Comox to start the ride. Trip Log I kept a running trip log of traveling into and out of the loop and what follows is the story of the ride.  Overall it was about 1,000 km of riding up and down about 14,000 metres of elevation. I camped 7 nights and stayed in a hotel or motel 3...