Pandemic Pedaling: From Banff to the Okanagan on the Great Trail
Solo, first time bike packing for 12 days, 1,100 km and 10,000 metres during the pandemic. A ride with equipment failures, trees falling into camps, bears, a dog swarming, occasional crashes, amazing scenery, great towns and a lot of gravel. The New Plan Gearing Up The Route The Bike Arrives The Great Divide, Bear Bell and Dirt: Banff to Fernie I Got This - Minus the Dog Swarming: Fernie to Crawford Bay Trees Falling, Flat Tires, Beautiful Rides: Crawford Bay to Grand Forks Bringing it Home with a Bear: Grand Forks to Penticton Riding in the Pandemic What was I Wearing? What Tech did I Use? Like Your Bike! Packing Light is Hard Everyone has to Eat and Drink Restaurant Call Outs Random Findings! Overall Takeaways References The New Plan My new plan started after COVID-19 canceled a bike trip abroad and I was casting about for some sort of challenging replacement that would work in a socially distant yet still fun way. I stumbled upon an online story about the BC Epic 1000...