Having tackled some introductory bike packing routes, such as the Cannonball 300 (which you can read about in a previous blog post) and the southern section of the Farmer's Folly, I decided it was time to up my difficulty factor and try a full two day route created by Matthew Kadey, creator of the Butter Tart 700 bike packing route. Ultimately, I have a goal of doing the BT700 one day, along with the Log Driver's Waltz, but two to three day routes make more sense with family commitments, and let's be honest, I don't think I have my setup completely dialled yet. Similar to last spring, I have a lot of take aways from this experience that I'd like to address before confronting a longer, multi-day trip that could run as long as a week.
First off, let me say that the routes that Matt Kadey has created are stellar. Even if you are knowledgeable in the area as a road, gravel, or mountain biker, Matt and his partner, Tabi, always find the lesser known unmaintained roads, single track sections, and quad trails that you didn't know about, or manage to string together climbs and sections that you haven't connected before. Seasoned rider and photographer, Jody Wilson, reported that his group of friends experienced the best riding that the area had to offer.
As well, if you have never taken part in a Grand Depart of a route before, I highly recommend it. While you don't have to pay a fee to ride, Matt and Tabi generously donated their time and resources to support the route and even had a vehicle stopping at particular points to top up water and nutrition for riders. Being a solo rider also gave me the opportunity to meet and ride with other people and find friends that I'd ridden with previously at other events or venues. Needless to say, I wasn't riding solo for long; there were plenty of people to ride with, which gives you and your partner some piece of mind in comparison to venturing off into remote areas by yourself.
The route itself was highly rewarding and quite challenging. Having accumulated a fair amount of fitness this spring, I still found the two day venture covering over 272 km and 3,078 m of elevation taxing. The most physically taxing, but perhaps the most beautiful, were the single track sections and the climbs on the second day. Many of the typically mountain bike specific trails make their way onto Matt's routes. Even having a moderate amount of MTB skills from my early days in cycling still didn't fully prepare me for handling my fully loaded gravel bike. Should I have packed lighter? Definitely. Should I have put more weight toward the back of the bike rather than the front? Absolutely. In order to take full advantage of Matt's excellent routes, I really need to dial in my setup. I know for a fact that my rig is too heavy and has too much weight up front. Some riders even took advantage of their 29er mountain bikes, which in hindsight might have been a better weapon of choice.
In terms of other learning opportunities, I've given up on trying to use my hammock tent in the spring. Even using a thermal bubble pad, designed to fit inside the "floor" of the hammock tent, it didn't provide enough warmth. It did add a huge roll on top of my bar bag, pictured to the right. Next time around I will be looking at bivy sacks, one person tents, or perhaps using a winter sleeping bag rather than a summer or fall bag. I was unsure of the temperature rating of my Cascade Designs bag that I have from the dawn of time, and it does compress down quite well, however I probably should have used my equally ancient Sierra Designs fall bag. Despite wearing full pants, long sleeve thermal top, a Thinsulate puffy jacket, wool socks and a toque, I found myself being cold. Sea to Summit recommends finding a sheltered spot to avoid the wind when hammock camping, which I did, as well as using some sort of sleeping pad beneath your sleeping bag. My original ThermaRest sleeping pad packs far too large to consider taking it on a bike packing trip. Time for some new gear, I think.
The On The Road Bags Explorer Harness and Dry Bag has been my bar bag of choice the last few trips. It kept my sleeping bag and Thinsulate puffy jacket compressed, dry, and clean from all of the dust off the gravel roads. I was also able to synch and roll it perfectly so that I could use my shifters without any interference. The Hennessy Expedition Hammock Tent and fly were in my Rapha saddle bag, which isn't available any longer. I've had mixed experiences with this Rapha bag, despite it being waterproof, as it tends to need adjustment and re-tensioning, particularly after the bumpy unmaintained roads, single track or quad trail sections. My cooking setup was in the rear bag, and I think the heaviness of it along with the shape of the pot which also housed my stove made for a unreliable shape that the synch strap could maintain. Needless to say, I'll be going with the Discovery 11 litre saddle bag from On The Road Bags next time. I use the Discovery saddle bag on my fatbike primarily and it has treated me well, although I haven't tested it with a fully crammed load. Standby for a review on that when I try and scout a route on some gnarly quad trail that leads to an abandoned rail in the eastern section of Algonquin Park.
My frame bag and top tube bag were also On The Road's Bogota and Gas Tank, respectively. Both were filled to the brim with bars, electrolyte drink tablets, repair kit, first aid kit, toiletries, powerbank, and other random things. These both held up well and I depend on these two bags for all of my off-road multi-day adventures. With the Bogota frame bag, I still had room for two bottles in the frame of my bike, and one on the downtube.
Thinking that we weren't going to have many mid-ride resupply points, as past riders spoke of being sure to carry enough water, I also carried an extra bottle in my jersey. In hindsight, this was overkill and added to my overall weight. I probably could have ditched at least one bottle. Some bike setups I noticed on NWM had full frame bags and then used a water bottle holder on their forks. I might look into this in the future, but I kind of like my smaller 5L fork bags for clothing. Keeps it light and accessible if needed.
Nutrition wise, I brought more than enough ride nutrition for on the bike, particularly considering it was supplemented by Tabi's generosity by following the ride. I was consuming calories and drinking plenty of water, and even had a 500 calorie alarm on my head unit to remind me to eat. My one area of improvement would be to eat more on the morning of the second day. Having only brought a couple of packages of instant oatmeal, I fired up the stove that morning, had coffee, and thought that I was ahead of the game, as the rest of the group wouldn't eat anything until reaching the first town. Clearly, as my legs will attest later in the day, what I had wasn't enough. My riding partner and I decided to forego the stop in Kimberly at the general store where we anticipated a zoo with the rest of the riders, and decided to grab food after the arguably hardest climb of the day in the Beaver Valley. Thinking back, I should have loaded up on calories at Top of the Rock instead of taking on only a smattering of food and depending on my on bike consumption later. With the efforts during that particular day (estimated 479 TSS), compounded with the previous day (392 TSS), I slowly started to lose my strength. I was climbing well early in the day and was feeling good, but faded, as expected. Perhaps this can be attributed to general fatigue or lack of endurance over an eight hour ride, but something in me says that if I ate better earlier in the day, I might have had something left in the tank.
Sometimes I think my desire to pack light backfires on me, especially when it comes to food. I overpacked during the Cannonball 300, telling myself I could buy more food at stops. This time, I brought less food for dinner and breakfast and didn't follow my own advise about buying more at the convenience stores or grocery stores. Particularly on a long and challenging day like NWM day two, my engine just simply needed more fuel.
So now that I've imparted my takeaways and learnings, you tell me yours. What's your ideal setup? Where do you put the majority of the weight of your kit on the bike? Which bags would you recommend? What's your go to stove setup? Have you found an ideal bike pack tent/bivy and sleep system? I'm always interested in what other people use as a trusted setup for these multi-day rides, and I want to continually get better before taking on the BT700 or Log Driver's Waltz. Teach me your ways, bike packing veterans.