(logo thuds)
(logo whooshes)
(upbeat jazz music)
- We've done two bikepacking trips here on GCN in 2018
First we did a four day trip
through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco
and then a two day epic gravel trip through Iceland.
But we want to do more and I expect you do to.
So here is how to plan your next adventure.
(upbeat jazz music)
For me the best bit of planning is actually getting inspired
so the daydreaming, the research,
the whole world is at your finger tips.
You don't need to go out and buy paper maps
although they are blooming cool
everything can be found online.
I'm not sure we can tell you exactly how to get inspired
but videos, great place to start.
Instagram fantastic source of inspiration
and websites generally as well.
For this video we are gonna have
a bit of a hypothetical 2019 trip going on.
And our source of inspiration
is a gravel road through central Patagonia.
I've actually been down it many many years ago
but not on a bike.
So 2019 I'm gonna rectify that.
So we have our inspiration
and we know roughly where we're gonna go.
The next point is to deal with a couple of practical issues.
(Inspiring music)
The first thing to consider
is actually how much time you have available for your trip.
So the longer you have the further afield you can go
'cause you do need to factor in
how much time it's gonna take
to get to the start of your adventure
versus how much time you're actually gonna have
for your adventuring.
So for example a hypothetical Patagonian trip
we're gonna need to give ourselves quite a bit of time.
A couple of weeks at least
because it's a long long way from home
and it takes a long way to get there.
And get home again.
(Inspiring music)
The next thing to think about is your budget.
So the great news is that bikepacking it
can be pretty cheap.
Certainly if you set out from home
all you really need is a bike and a bit of luggage.
Venture further afield
and you're gonna need to factor in your travel costs.
But you can also bear in mind the cost of living
might be different at your destination as well.
So potentially you might have to spend more on flights
but you can actually save on food and accomodation
when you arrive.
For our hypothetical trip
flights are gonna be quite costly
and the actual cost of living is gonna be broadly similar
perhaps a little bit cheaper.
But it's gonna mean that we're having to brace ourselves
for quite an expensive trip.
(inspiring music)
So you've got your destination
you've got your time
you've got your money.
The next bit is another particularly good bit
the actual route planning.
Google Maps is a good place to start
particularly if street view is available
for the area that you're looking at
and it is in a surprisingly number of places.
It will give you a great idea of what to expect frankly.
So everything from the scenery to the road quality
traffic levels, climate even.
If we look at our hypothetical road we can see that
it's not hypothetical it's a real road
on our hypothetical trip, anyway
it's still gravel which is excellent news
and not a car in sight.
And the weather looks ever bit as bad as I remembered.
Judging from the fact that it's a temperate rainforest
and there's a lot of snow knocking around the place.
Once you've got a rough idea of the roads to ride
the next step on would be to use
a dedicated route planning app.
Now there are loads out there.
For both the GCN trips this year
we've used Komoot which is a outdoor sports specific app.
It's actually the one I use whenever I'm planning a route
but it's particularly good for being able to sniff out
off road options like gravel as well as on road options.
And it does that in two different ways
first it uses open street maps which I've learned
is like the Wikipedia of mapping in that anyone can
contribute to it meaning that you can add new tracks
that you find or take away lost ones.
Komoot then adds it's own map over the top
with elevation data on there.
And it's also got a way of working out
what the road surface is going to be.
So particularly useful for if you're planning
a road bikepacking trip
and you find there is a whole chunk of gravel on there.
So in this case in fact
it's mostly unpaved.
As well as the maps
satellite imagery can also prove invaluable.
Certainly when we were planning for Morocco
we spent a long time scouring the images
for details on mystery gravel sections to try and work out
whether or not it was gonna be passable
using the equipment that we had.
And speaking of Morocco actually our bikepacking guru
Josh Ibbett has a golden rule which is that
the shorter your trip the more you should plan
to make sure you get the absolute most out of it.
Now once you're happy with your route the final point to say
is you then need to work on how you're gonna follow it.
So you could simple do it using your phone or in this case
I can sync it up directly with my wahoo which is great
I'll get turn by turn directions.
You'll probably want some kind of paper map as a back up
if you're going really off the beaten track
I would've thought.
(upbeat jazz music)
Now it's all very well saying plan your route
but bikepacking trips can of course
take on different formats.
You can do a point to point ride where you fly into one city
and then maybe fly out of another one.
Or you can base yourself in one spot and then do a loop
which is what we did in Morocco.
Now that meant that it was easy logistically
we could stash our bike bags in Marrakesh
and it also meant we could make more
of the short time we had available.
In fact we got to spend longer in our saddles.
Now when you're looking into the nitty gritty of the route
you're gonna want to factor in your ability
that's gonna affect your daily mileage
how many days you have available for it
and the terrain that you're gonna be covering.
You can see on this route on the elevation profile
there's a couple of pretty big mountains to go over.
Now I would personally err on the side of caution
less may well be more in this case
because I would imagine for most of you
it's gonna be a holiday so you're not gonna be wanting to
stress out about missing your return flight.
Or having to pass up opportunities to explore
or relax maybe have a longer than normal lunch stop.
(upbeat jazz music)
If you're planning on staying in hard accommodation
so where you have a roof over your head
then you're probably gonna wanna plan your schedule
a little more closely because you're gonna need to factor in
whether or not your daily mileage is actually gonna
tally up with the accommodation options available to you.
If you go a little bit more self sufficient so camping
then you will be able to be more flexible of course
but you still need to factor in
where you're gonna be able to stock up on the essentials
like your food and your water.
(upbeat jazz music)
Now you have planned your bikepacking trip in its entirety.
I have it on good authority
that it probably won't go to plan, yet.
I mean it is hard to factor in things like the weather
mechanical problems, illness, injury
maybe even something as simple as a closed road
and so it's important to retain
a degree of flexibility in there.
It is an adventure after all so things can and will change
but you can also mitigate those risks
by building in some contingency.
So for example your route you could make a copy of it
and then create a shorter plan B
maybe take out the mountain passes for plan C
for if the weather closes in.
You should also take note however briefly
of where hospitals are.
Remember to tell your friends and family where you're going
so that someone knows where to come looking for you.
Now all those things will add up
to help make your bikepacking trip fun, relaxing
and perhaps most importantly safe as well.
And those factors definitely become more and more important
the further off the beaten track you become.
So that is how you plan your next bikepacking adventure.
Please let us know in the comment section
where you want to go next
and hey if enough people are clamoring for Patagonia
maybe we'll get to go there.
Give that one a big thumbs up, please.
Anyway talked a little bit in this video
about those trips to Morocco and also Iceland.
If you haven't seen either of those videos
click on screen now.