Last year I bikepacked from Quail Haven to Bend, Oregon, mostly on highways (395, 89, 97). This year I wanted to be on dirt more, and I wanted to go with a friend. I put out a call for adventure buddies for May 2024 and my friend b7 came on board. We back-and-forthed online about routes a bit but set only a rough intent:
We’re going to take the train out to Utah and we’re going to ride around on dirt until we don’t want to anymore, or until early June, whichever comes first.
We wound up riding from May 1 to May 22 with only one zero day on day 3 due to bus>train. Otherwise our shortest day was probably no less than 20mi, and that would have been techy singletrack.
After an intense week arranging my affairs, packing, and sewing a framebag, we pedaled out of QH on May 1st. We rode 90 miles over two days to Lone Pine, then got on a bus to Reno.
First night’s camp site halfway to Lone Pine.
At the Reno Amtrak we were told that our tickets to Green River, Utah, were no good for bikes.
“Well, where are the nearest stations we can go with bikes?” I asked.
“Salt Lake City or Grand Junction,” she said.
I knew there was a bikepacking route from near Grand Junction all the way to Moab, so it was a no-brainer.
We did the first half of the Kokopelli Bikepacking Route. We ditched to highway just before it would go up into the La Sal’s because a cold front was coming in, there was obvious snow up there, and neither of us were packed (or psyched) for wintry hellbiking. (foreshadowing alert!)
This is our approximate route, not including the 90miles in California. We caught a bus from Beaver to SLC, and Amtrak back to California from there.
The Route.
Along the Kokopelli Trail.
Along the Kokopelli, overlooking the Colorado River.
This was the first trip I’d done that depended on the kindness of strangers. Several stages of our route had no water for longer distances than we could carry, so the strategy was “find some RV’ers or vanlifers and bum water off of them.”
We only had to ask for water once. Typically people approached us to see if we needed anything. One woman and her daughter pulled halfway off the side of the highway, hazard lights on, and handed us bottles of water. Another family caravanning in Sprinters pulled off and filled up our canteens and chatted for 20min about their family bike tour across the states, years ago.
Hell, we once rode up on a guy with a severely busted Toyota in the desolate wasteland between Moab and Green River, and he gave us water. People are nice.
Also, I got 4L of water out of this shallow slickrock waterpocket. It was delicious.
Roadbiking into 20+mph headwinds, but the scenery did not suck.
The La Sal Mountains, from just outside Arches NP.
Transitioning to dirt with big skies.
Bit of a climb. Burr Trail, Capitol Reef NP.
The La Sal Mountains.
Some random cathedral I found.
Pink Cliffs just outside Bryce NP.
On our last day of riding we hike-a-biked up a ‘road’ of babyheads from ~7,000’ to 9,000’ by noon. We thought that was the hard part. We were wrong.
A truck coming down stopped and the guy told us “road’s closed up ahead! Snow and mud. Can’t get through. Want a ride?”
We demurred. We’d come this far and wouldn’t turn around without seeing for ourselves. We pressed on.
At 9,200’ we came across a bit of snow across the road. No road closed sign, just snow. Pff. What a flatlander, huh? We aired down and pressed on.
You call this snow? Pff.
More snow patches as we climbed. Eventually it was all snow. We finally topped out at 10,200’. b7 rode some of it on his 2.8” tires, but mostly we walked aka postholed, pushing aka dragging our bikes through the slush.
I expected to lose elevation quickly but the route dropped only gradually, meandering along the north slopes of the mountains. It wound up being 6 miles and 4+ hours of slushy hellbiking before we dropped enough to leave the snow behind.
Thus began four hours of hellbiking through slush at 10,000’.
I really enjoyed b7’s company. I like solo trips, but having a solid companion along who has approximately similar appetite for conversation is delightful. Some mornings we barely exchanged a word till we’d been pedaling for an hour. Some evenings we talked for hours. We made decisions easily, and when the going got tough I think each other’s presence helped us keep good PMA.
He also bailed me out with his spare when I had two tube failures due to being a dum-dum (too-small tubes, old patches). Thanks again, man.
As I’ve come to expect, for me the trip was less about the trip and more about stepping outside of my life so I could see it from the outside. I returned home with new ideas, renewed motivation for old ideas, and a refreshed sense of gratitude for my life.
Gear, Nerd Stuff, Notes for Next Trip, et cetera
The rig.
I was on a Surly Long Haul Trucker with 2.3” tires. I thought it was perfect for 95% of the terrain we covered. The snow would have required >3” tires to roll over (b7 couldn’t ride much on 2.8”s, although he had a far easier time pushing whereas mine sank into the slush frequently, requiring a high-energy maneuver to get it back on top of the snow), and the sand was infrequent. Seriously, I think a lot of people on the internet whine about sand maybe because they’re used to hero dirt from wherever they’re from?
Disc front brakes would have been nice, but meh. I’m not going to get another bike or even swap the fork just for that.
Handlebar bag, framebag, and pack on rear rack is the way to go for me. Weight distribution was SO MUCH BETTER than when I had everything on the rear rack last year.
I still love my myog tarp + bivy bag setup as opposed to a tent. We got righteously dumped on one night with high winds and I stayed dry, just like last year. It’d be nice to carry a pole for setup when there aren’t handy trees though.
Cold soak is the way to go. Leave the stove at home, y’don’t need it.
Breakfast: old fashioned oats (not quick oats!), granola, milk powder, pb.
Coffee: powdered instant makes better cold coffee, and is preferable to the kind that is flaked. I found Cafe Bustelo in the markets out there and it worked best. Skip the Folgers etc instant coffee.
Midday meals: tortillas and cheese or pb.
Evening meals: Ramen with nutritional yeast and olive oil, instant mashed potatoes.
At resupplies: yogurt, red bell peppers, apples, ice cream snickers bars…
I rode the first half with padded bike shorts, then normal shorts after. Next time I’ll try to be ‘broken in’ by the time I start.
Next time I’ll either bring a battery bank, or plan ahead better and go mostly analog for navigation. I didn’t need extra juice last year because I hit towns every day and nav was simple (3 main roads the whole month), but when making up the plan as you go on gravel roads in the wilds of Utah, you need to do more nav. Luckily b7 was on it.
I took my “40F” Enlightened Equipment quilt and was cold most nights. I wore thermal bottoms and top, a $1.79 women’s XL puffy vest I found in a thrift shop in Grand Junction, and a down puffy every night, and woke up cold pre-dawn 80% of the mornings, which tended to be in the mid to high 30’s. On the coldest night there was frost on my bivy. Next time I’ll either bring my 20F UGQ quilt, or be more sure that the lows will be more often >45F which seems to be the comfort threshold of my 40F bag even when wearing layers.
I cut my zlite to 8 panels for the first time, so my sleeping pad only covered shoulders to just below hips. Definitely the way to go. I put my pack under my feet on cold nights and that worked fine.