How Biking to Trailheads Can Enrich Backpacking

[Mark Wetherington]

Companion forum thread to: How Biking to Trailheads Can Enrich Backpacking

Mark Wetherington explores how trading auto for bicycle for home-to-trailhead transportation impacts the hiking and backpacking experience.

[Dustin V]

Did you have to modify any of your gear list other than the frameless backpack to make it work on the bike? Stiffer shoes?ZA

And is this a gateway into bikepacking for you?

[Mark Wetherington]

I have clipless pedals on that bike, so I wore bike-specific shoes and just stuffed my trail runners (Altra Lone Peaks) in the saddlebags. On another trip I bungeed them on the outside with my closed-cell foam pad. But other than that I pretty much left me gear as-is for usual backpacking trips.

I’ve done a little bit of bikepacking over the years (including in the Red River Gorge, but that was mostly riding behind gates or down flat single-track along ridgetops to campsites) and would love to do more. Trips like this definitely stoke my appetite for that type of adventure. And funny enough I have a trip planned later this week via mountain bike to a USFS cabin I rented for the night here in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains  (the irony and indignity of putting my bike in my car and then driving 30 miles to bike 6 to the cabin is not lost on me).

I’ve also used my bike to ride rougher roads than my vehicle can handle to certain trailheads, but that’s more utility riding than actual bikepacking I suppose.

I do have a trip sketched out for next year in the Lost River Range of Idaho that is a mix of backpacking and bikepacking. I’d park at one trailhead, bike to a distant trailhead, camp there the first night, then hike back to the car and pick up the bike on the way out.

[PaulW]

An inspiring article Mark. This is something I’ve wanted to do for some time as I live in an area where biking to several different trailheads is easy. My biggest concern is safely storing my bike once I reach the trailhead. How do you store yours?

[Mark Wetherington]

Thanks, Paul. I typically lock my bike (using a U-lock and a Kryptonite bike cable) to a tree a short distance off the trail at the start of the hike or to a tree out of sight in the general trailhead area. My bike is dark green so it blends in pretty well to the forest here, but I don’t generally worry too much about people seeing it. Most of the trailheads I bike to are pretty low-traffic and vandalism/crime aren’t really problems there.

In a certain way, one thing I enjoy about biking to trailheads is I know I won’t come back to a vehicle with a busted out window. That has happened to me once, in Kentucky, and it wasn’t exactly an experience I’d like to repeat. I feel like a bike is less attractive to thieves/vandalism in most ways. What you see is what you get so there’s no incentive to break in and rummage around.

[Stephen M]

When I was in college I did several bike-to-trail trips. I lived in Portland, OR, which is relatively close to a number of trailheads in the Columbia River Gorge and coastal mountain range. My biggest concern was always bike theft, as someone above asked about. (The same trailheads that I could bike to in a day are also some of the more popular and crowded trailheads due to their proximity to the city.)

Like Mark, I would conceal my bike & panniers off-trail somewhere near the trailhead or even a short distance into the trail, take care to cover anything reflective/hi-vis, and finally use a combination of a U-lock (or 2) and cable to lock my wheels/panniers/frame to each other and basically make it very cumbersome for anyone to pick up the whole mess and carry out.
I wasn’t always able to find a tree that I could lock my bike to, plus I’d be concerned about an opportunist just chopping down the tree to get to my bike. Bike theft is super prevalent in the Portland area, but it seems to mostly be a crime of convenient opportunity. I suspect that hiding a bike and then making it super awkward to carry an tangled mess of bike gear locked to each other would be safer than actually locking to structure if the structure is in a visible area.

Reading this makes me want to do another bike-to-hike trip to the Columbia River Gorge again!

[Barry B]

I was a backpacker and ultramarathon cyclist. Also a kayaker and XC skier, so have always been interested in multimodal travel. I gave up backpacking and road cycling in favor of bikepacking on Vancouver Island.  Anyway I see two problems – one is security which several have mentioned.  If I had to leave my $2000 gravel bike, I’d hide it well off the trail (bushwacking uphill), cover it with camo cloth or a tarp, lock it to a substantial tree with jack-knife-style lock and I’d also use my alarmed disk brake lock. Finally I’d remove the pedals and seat tube making it impossible to ride away. Hide them some distance away if you don’t want to carry them. Mark a GPS waypoint so you can find them later!

The other issue is cross-over equipment. I’ve searched for years for cycling/hiking shoes. Sole needs to be stiff for cycling but softer for hiking, etc. It’s all a compromise. I’ve also searched for panniers that convert to a decent backpack without success. Why doesn’t some company do this? Now I use a bikepacking handlebar roll, frame pack, and saddle wedge which is even less backpack-friendly.

Too much trouble. So for the moment I ride trail or back roads. Bikepacking is exploding. Check it out. Double your distance! And even carry more weight.

[John S.]

Dan Durston has done a similar thing but using his Honda Ruckus and Honda Fit, I think. I never forgot that story because I thought it was so cool ; ).

[Edward K]

I am section hiking the Sheltowee Trace through the Sheltowee Trace Hiker Challenge and will wrap that up next weekend. Typically, the shuttles are provided. However, I had to miss the planned hike with the group and did a section solo. I used my bike to shuttle myself from the campground (final destination) up to the starting point. A decent ride of about 18 miles. I can agree with you on the sense of the adventure beginning with the bike ride and continuing on with the hike. I will have to look into biking to the Red River Gorge (I live in Lexington and am a fellow UK grad) to do some of my backpacking. Thanks for the article. Go Cats!

[Arthur]

Grand Canyon.  Left a bike at the exit and a car at the entrance trailhead.  When I returned, someone had let all the air out of both tires.  Lost a bit of faith in humanity that day.

[LARRY W]

I went on a 16000 mile bike touring trip in 1998 and 1999 and wanted and wanted to do some backpacking trips along the way. I found a company in Canada (Toronto?) that made panniers that turned into a backpack. They weren’t very good panniers and a worse backpack but they worked. Something that was a big negative was all the road grime that built up on the back side of the backpack.

I came to the conclusion that small backpack on a rear rack combined with a solid fender would be my best bet. A pack cover might be good too. I’ll dig it out and take a pic.

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