Tripping with Mike

Nine days of very hot riding over 1,000 kilometres and 11,000 metres of climbing across the best riding and scenery in British Columbia. Introduction After finishing my Banff to Penticton bike ride in 2020, I wasn't expecting to do another 10+ day bikepacking ride anytime soon but as the summer of 2021 approached, I found myself signing up for a bikpacking race called the BC Epic 1000. This is a bike race from Merritt, BC through to Fernie BC on the same TransCanada Trail I had ridden the other direction from Banff.   So on June 26 I lined up at the start line with 50-60 other folks ready to ride off into the hills of Merritt. There had been some considerable debate ahead of the race around cancelling or stopping it as the weather was incredibly hot - upwards of 40 celsius - with no end in sight.  It became referred to across BC as the "Heat Dome" of 2021. Despite this, with some careful planning, lots of hydration, riding in the early morning and into the night while avo...

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...