gravel bikepacking routes california
Gravel Routes - BikepackingPA Gravel Routes Map Gravel Routes List The Pennsylvania Grand Canyon The deepest gorge of the Keystone State. Im an old mountain biker that got his bike stolen about 7 years ago and took up backpacking. This could easily be called 10 of the 100 best bikepacking routes in the USA this country is made for wild, wonderful self-supported adventures, and there are trips of a lifetime in pretty much every state. Copyright 2023 Exploring Wild, All Rights Reserved, Route Guide: Central California Mixed-Terrain Bike Tour, Bikepacking Grand Staircase Loop in Southern Utah, Mendocino National Forest Bikepacking Overnight: Letts Lake Loop, California Bikepacking: Route Ideas in Every Region, Bikepacking Boise to Elko: Big Skies and Endless Gravel in Idaho and Nevada, Bikepacking Central Oregon: High Desert and Volcanic Geology from K Falls to Bend, Cycling the Alps 2 Ocean Trail in New Zealand: Overview + 4 Day Itinerary, Cycling Boise to Klamath Falls: Quiet Highways + Oregon Outback Bikepacking Route, How NOT to Bikepack the New Mexico Off-Road Runner, Black Mountain Overnight: Mini Bikepacking Adventure in the SF Bay Area, Idaho Smoke n Fire 2022: Rewarding and Fun Despite Tough Last-Minute Reroute, Bikepacking Bones to Blue: Singletrack Trial By Fire around Lake Tahoe, Pinyons and Pines Bikepacking Race: Dust, Rocks, and Sunshine in Northern Arizona, Tour de los Padres 2022: Burly Bikepacking Adventure in Central California, The Big Lonely 2021: High Desert Bikepacking with a Snowy Twist, Smoke n Fire 2021: Third Times the Charm, Idaho Smoke n Fire 2019 (and 2020) Bikepacking Adventure, Bike Nonstop US 2019: Lessons Learned From 3500 Miles at the Back of the Pack, Bike Routes Across America: Top Touring and Bikepacking Routes Compared, Oregon Bikepacking: 6 Scenic Routes For All Styles and Experience Levels, 6 Epic USA Bikepacking Routes with (Mostly) Non-Technical Riding, 7 Long Rail Trails in the US (Perfect For Bike Touring). Carrizo Plain National Monument: Flat-ish gravel roads and wildflowers in the spring, with opportunities for wild camping in a vast landscape. I think youll like them, but you can unsubscribe at any time. If youre interested in bikepacking in California, you might also find these helpful: Or, visit the bikepacking resources center for more pedal-powered info and inspiration. Day 3: 76 miles | 6,900 feet. This gravel adventure bike features a durable and lightweight alloy frame and a reliable and stylish carbon fork. Thirty riders showed up in the morning for breakfast fuel at Higher Grounds as snow and sleet fell outside. The SoCal Desert Ramble - Bikepacking.com Catalina Island is west of Los Angelos and accessible by ferry. The North Bay / Mount Tamalpais area is a prime candidate for Bay Area bikepacking routes, such as this overnight loop out of Fairfax. Traversing the spine of the continent and crossing the Continental Divide 30 times, theres no shortage of climbing, and the states it passes through are like a Top Trumps of North American landscapes. For those wanting something longer, inspiration may be found from the HardCOEre 100. I hear the section through Nevada is tough and very sparse on water and resupply options; research before attempting! This is as much a tour of Vermonts fine smalltown eateries and microbreweries as it is a meander through its countryside. Gravel calendar for rides and races divided be region across California. If the 2,700-mile North-South Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (above) seems too tame, the East-West Trans-America Trail route will give you plenty of scope for dreaming. But this year, because of the extreme precipitation, it meant even more road riding than I was willing to ride and still feel safe. Still, were lucky to have many open space preserves here in the bay, and motivated local bikepackers have managed to link them up in some creative ways. Day 1: Snowdonia emerges / 31 miles / 5 - 6 hrs / 845m . Bikes are permitted on a majority of the trail, with a notable exception through Desolation and Granite Chief wilderness areas and a few smaller sections. JULY - 2023. The SoCal Desert Ramble - Bikepacking.com The SoCal Desert Ramble, Southern California location California, USA We recognize Indigenous Peoples as the traditional stewards of this land. AU, Leg 1 - Perth to Adelaide, complete! Or toss some spare change inthe PayPal tip jar. The SF Peninsula Traverse is an easy-to-reach and easy-to-bail, weekend-warrior-compatible bikepacking route that will bring you deep in the forest where you will forget civilization, and high up on the ridgelines with expansive ocean and bay views. Nous avons cr pour vous des aventures et micro-aventures en gravel, en triathlon, en vlo de route, en VTT sur une journe, deux journes, une semaine, deux semaines. The loop nature of both routes, along with relatively easy food and water resupply, make both logistically simple. Check back regularly. . While cycling on Catalina is steep in all directions, the amenities available make it very comfortable, even decadent by bike packing standards.. On the morning of our third day we road 17 miles from the West side of the island ascending 2,400 feet on fire roads through the central valley eventually connecting to the coast and the steep descent into Avalon. Climbing is plentiful and sometimes steep, and surfaces are varied. With its gentle and easy-riding gravel, the 92-mile Denali Park Road is a favorite among cyclists. Whats not to love? Astonishingly almost all rideable, it takes you on dirt roads and jeep trails from Banff, in Alberta, Canada, to the Mexican border in New Mexico, via British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. Gravel backroads and dirt forest service roads are backbone of these bikepacking routes, but don't expect smooth riding the whole way (and definitely don't bring your road bike). This beautiful singletrack ride weaves through them and will feel like an endless geology and nature lesson. Congrats on the new bike and best wishes for some great adventures. The area offers lakes, a few campgrounds, and lots of forest, along with plenty of climbing. Great Divide Bikepacking Route: Essential Q&A. Routes List - BIKEPACKING.com Three years ago, Johan Cronje, a local bike packer, created the 300-mile JBC that takes in the mountains of Cuyamaca (and beyond), the trails to and from the Pacific Coast, and the sands of the Anza-Borrego Desert. Microwave Pizza Pockets, dill pickles, and hot chocolate were on the Chevron Station menu. Based on the same format as the brutally beautiful Hunt 1000, the event aims for a grand finish (on . Descending Black Canyon in the darkness and waves of orange blossoms scents was glorious. Forest roads and jeep tracks north of Highway 49 lead to ghost towns like Poker Flat. Researched and written by the founder of Bikepacking Scotland, and mostly accessible by public transport, each route includes all the information you need to help you plan your ride, with points of interest along the . Gravelmap is a tool for finding and sharing local gravel roads for biking, gravel grinding, exploration and more. Stretching from Banff, Canada, to the US / Mexican border in New Mexico, the Great Divide route travels 2,700 miles along gravel roads and single track trail along the Continental Divide. We called our trip the TransGabriel Challenge: three days, 78 miles and 18,000 feet of climbing by bike on dirt and gravel . Because the weather forecast included more rain and snow for the entire route, Brendan and Meg rerouted us around all of the dirt riding coming into San Diego North County and the trails going east from San Diego towards Alpine. Here are some routes and areas to start with. Missouri Bicycle & Touring Routes We have so much gorgeous land to explore! Having been re-directed around Sandy Bandy and Rapture Ridge dirt, I road on Highland Valley road. Bring your climbing legs The island may be small but the elevation profile looks mighty. After heavy rain there can often be pitted sections of trail, so take care. A string of national forests, state parks, and other public land can be linked together for days of access to backcountry dirt roads and 44 tracks with free dispersed camping. Be sure to think about where you will sleep each night and how you will get food and water. Each issue features a collection of inspiring writing and beautiful photography. To help share our favorite local routes Rockgeist will be publishing single overnight trips in the Blue Ridge Mountains and other areas on the East Coast. Youll be amazed at how remote this ride feels in places, and how glorious the views are. It brings race competitors to tears, but when youre not riding it against the clock, its all just part of the adventure, right? I had prepared my legs, and perhaps more importantly, I felt like my head was in the right space. Resources and inspiration to support your wildest dreams: Affiliate Disclosure: This site participates in affiliate programs, including Amazon Associates. The route today starts abruptly with a climb up a quiet mountain road, but the reward is a . We visited Catalina Conservancy to pick up our Freewheeler Bike permit ($10 plus a $35 membership to the Conservancy) and talk with the ecologists about their successful programs for protecting the island fox and bald eagles as well as bison contraceptionyes, bisonin 1924 fourteen buffalo were left on the island after the cinema shooting for The Vanishing Americans. Truely a route to savor. For those who want to venture even further off the beaten track, plenty of jeep tracks and even singletrack motorbike trails can take you nearly anywhere you want to explore. One of the astonishing things is that routes can be utterly wild yet almost 100 percent rideable on a gravel bike. A gravel bikepacking bike gets bonus points for extra mounting points (braze ons, eyelets, barnacles, etc.) This 497-mile route takes you from San Bernardino, near Los Angeles to San Diego on the Mexican border. Wild plains, jaw-dropping mountain views, classic desert, pine forests and snowy passes its all here. The Stagecoach organizers didnt want to send us to the highways but this year it was inevitable given the flooded and unrideable trails. Unlike the familiar coastal route, this trek takes you through the San Bernardino Mountains, Anza Borrego Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, and Cleveland National Forest. The Anza-Hapaha Loop is a 2-3 day bikepacking route that connects several of Anza-Borrego Desert State Parks magnificent dirt and sand roads, explores its wildflower, ocotillo, and cactus-rich desert, and snakes its way through the badlands of two geologically mesmerizing canyons. Create a GPS track: Once you've identified the roads and/or trails you want to ride, use an online application to draw your route on a map. The official notes describe the trail as strenuous, technical, challenging, complicated and barely existent in some sections. It will certainly be a ride of a lifetime. We believe travel by bicycle has the power to encourage conservation, inclusivity, and respect for all people and cultures. Patterson, and fly down the accompanying backcountry singletrack descents. Both routes have a fair bit of singletrack, though Bones to Blue has more, and its ratio of climbing to miles is higher. The extreme heat in the summer and unpredictable winter weather in the higher elevations make those seasons somewhat less desirable. I am a bikepacking addict who also happens to be an above knee amputee. I dont recommend coming to the bay just for the bikepacking, but if youre in the area or passing through and want to explore what the area has to offer, here are a few routes to check out. Elevation: 4000 ft. Start/End: The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA. The Bay Area Ridge trail, though a tempting concept, is still very much unfinished. Rides: Specialized Chisel Comp; Canyon Inflite CF SLX; Canyon Aeroad; Roberts custom road bike. . 1. But if you do choose to ride, youll be completely on your own.. Historical signage en route explains how the railroad was established to support the logging and mining industries. Possibly one of the most exciting MTB bikepacking routes in the USA, this was designed from scratch for two wheels and is over 50% singletrack. It's easy to see why the national capital region has emerged as a bikepacking hot spot. This route packs it all in just 40 miles, the first route in our 2019 Gravel Adventure Series #DirtChurch. Distance: 40 miles. While I really enjoy making up my own routes, I would also love to see more established routes that would make bikepacking in California a bit more accessible. The SF Peninsula Traverse is one of the standout local routes and includes a lot of the best bike-legal trail on the peninsula. We may not have endless dirt roads and camp-wherever-you-want land regulations, but bikepacking in the bay area has its own charms. Bikepacking Clinic-Trek Bicycle Fort Wayne - eventbrite.com / 166 km 2 days Hereford Express Overnighter comment 9 time Feb 27 compose Guest Routes Canada 84 mi. I rode it in 2022 and was impressed. . It's all about exploring the roads, gravel roads (or groads), and trails less travelled. Trail Length: 150 miles for the GAP and 184.5 miles for the C&O Canal Towpath Days to complete: 4-10 days Riding: Gravel and dirt road. The East Bay includes many smaller open space preserves with a few campgrounds. Youll go from open swaying grasslands into steep-sided valleys, along ridges and even through cool groves of cottonwood trees - a welcome respite from the heat if you go in summer. The North Dakota Badlands are an extraordinary maze of striped-rock canyons and grasslands classic Western movie territory. You can find routes created by adventurers across the globe on bikepacking websites. BIKEPACKING.com is dedicated to exploration by bicycle. Its resolutely low-key, with an emphasis on overcoming your own challenges as they arise. My wife and I have gravel bikes with 42s and 47s. From Aqua Caliente the route follows the old stagecoach route to Ocotillo Wells passing parched cattle skulls and wind-carved sand dunes, eventually arriving for the requisite burritos in Borrego Springs. The utter bliss of bikepacking in the backcountry - Los Angeles Times All the maintained campsites in Cuyamaca and Mount Laguna require reservations, but you can also find camping along the streams and meadowsbring your water filtration devices. From our sponsor; more content below. Day 4: 66 miles | 3,300 feet. Im Alissa, your virtual guide, here to help you make your biggest, boldest adventure dreams a reality. October 17, 2020. It heads out of Fruita on stunning singletrack in the high La Sal mountains and heads towards the martian red-rock vistas of Utah. About . A few brave folks have circumnavigated the whole bay using parts of the trail and some busy road riding, but I wouldnt consider that a relaxing bikepacking trip. Its doable in three days and neither of the two on-route camping options require a reservation, though making it between them might require a push. For Issue 08, we invited several contributors to return and pick up where earlier trips and ideas left off and also feature a handful of first-timers whose perspectives weve long been eager to share Issue 07 Issue seven is a celebration of courage and discovery of what were capable of when we dont let others expectations define us Issue 06 examined a diverse range of topics, including embracing aloneness, rekindling a sense of adventure, grappling with failure, and many more Theres loads of gold in the hills and mountains of California. Gravel Routes in California - Gravelmap Bikepacking routes - 10 of the best USA bikepacking routes There is also camping for a fee at Joshua Tree National Park. Winter can work well for lower-elevation routes (check snow conditions for any sections over 6000 feet or so). Oregon Outback. Thanks for reading! Two alternative tracks are included for making the route shorter. The preferred route of accomplished endurance cyclist and Alaska native Lael Wilcox, the 92-mile Denali Park Road consists mostly of gently rolling, easy-riding gravel and is the habitat of a. BikePerfect is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Sometimes it feels a bit claustrophobic. Hugo Koopmans on LinkedIn: Iceland Divide Bikepacking Route | gravelrit Glacial valleys, thermal hot springs, bears this ride has it all. It includes a long stretch of Bolinas Ridge road, which jumps off the map to anyone looking for long ride possibilities in the area. The combination of these two historic routes takes bikepackers from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, all the way to Washington DC. From the bottom, and from the top! Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath (opens in new tab). Southern California is known for its perpetual perfect weather, but it can get hot in the summer. Picking the right season is everything, as is planning your transport, knowing where your water is coming from, and knowing how to fix your bike 100 miles from anywhere. Click here for more info. By contrast, the Trans-America is little more than the annually-updated GPS file of a no-prizes race which has a seven-page website and a small Facebook page. I decided not to continue the Stagecoach because I felt unsafe on the highway. Between Borrego and Idyllwild, there is the hike-a-bike through two miles of densely packed willows (think canyoneering but through branches), desert pedaling past abandoned bandit hideouts, ascending Coyote Canyon to cross the Pacific Crest Trail and then the long climb back to the where the route started. If you beat me to it, please let me know what you find out. Copyright 2023 Exploring Wild, All Rights Reserved. BIKEPACKING ROUTES | AZ Gravel Rides Here are a few good places to start when looking for a bikepacking route in Central California: Tour de los Padres: This is a bikepacking event held annually on a variety of different routes in the region. For routes with desert riding, consider your tire setup carefully. Mountains, sea, lakes, beach, rivers and forest, this route has all the nature you could want, with plenty of epic climbs and remote gravel tracks. It evokes the freedom of multi-day backcountry hiking, but with the range and thrill of riding a mountain bike. Find event and ticket information. Here are the two well-established options: Tahoe Twirl: 187 miles, 19,300 feet of gain, Bones to Blue: 250 miles, 31,000 feet of gain. Its the foundation of the modern culture of bikepacking. Guide pointing to a snow-covered Four Peaks! Its 90 percent off-road, with less than 5 percent singletrack. Vakantie tijd, ruimte om het hoofd leeg te maken! Wikiloc. October 12, 2020. Tired of seeing ads on every web page you visit? The LA Observer is a short foray into the city's neighbouring Angeles National Park, via the unexpectedly steep and rugged folds of the San Gabriel Mountains. . Triathlon and adventure racing fit into his meandering cycling past, as does clattering around the Peak District on a rigid Stumpjumper back in the day. It is very well waymarked but that's no excuse not to take some backup navigation. Henry Coe State Park, down south near Gilroy, is the only Bay Area park where true backcountry camping (outside designated sites) is allowed. After a long stretch alongside the winding Youghiogheny River youll eventually climb to the top of the Eastern Continental Divide at 2,392 feet, but its super-gradual - the gradient is rarely over 1 percent, as youd expect from a disused railway line.