Is camping mostly just completing everyday chores, in a less convenient way? Perhaps…but man it’s fun! Take camp cooking, for example: you’ve got 1/100th of a kitchen to work with, but somehow in this inconvenience of cooking pasta on a one-burner stove, you often find a sense of fulfillment that isn’t there normally.
Bikepacking is much the same. Heavy bikes, long rides and a good chance of realising along the way that you’ve forgotten something important. The pull of going on a self-supported adventure with friends, eliminates any of those concerns of inconvenience. It is replaced with a sense of excitement and anticipation that only a mutual mission can bring. In addition to that, isn’t there just something satisfying about arriving at an epic destination and knowing it’s all thanks to your legs, willpower and trusty steed (aka your bicycle).
Come along with Tom and the crew as they tackle their first ever MTB overnighter:
Bikepacking is usually associated with tailored rigs specifically designed and fitted out for that intended purpose. You don’t usually use your daily driver MTB for trips like this. The beauty for us one-bike novices was that we didn’t need a custom setup to get out there. The Aeroe racks we used are easily installed on any bike; you don’t need any mounting points on your frame or fork to fit these. They also don’t attach to your seat at all, which is great for us as it meant we can still use our dropper posts. And let’s face it, the temptation to huck a sneaky water bar is too great.
The ride we’d selected was the Narrow Neck Trail, a 20km return trip in the Blue Mountains just near Katoomba. The trail can be hiked or ridden, and it follows a ridge to one of the most beautiful lookouts imaginable, which would be our campsite for the evening. The ride came highly recommended from fellow Flow bikepacking battlers Mick and Jono, who both tackled their own versions of their first ever mountain bike overnighters there. Looking at the map, this looked like an achievable first step into the world of bikepacking.
Between the four of us on this trip; we had a grand total of one night backpacking experience under our belts. However, this lack of exposure certainly didn’t equate to a lack of excitement. As we loaded the bikes there was some serious hype being shared around. So too were the nerves and questions of “Are we doing this right”? We had food, shelter, water, first aid supplies and spares. That’s all you need, right?
Within about five minutes of starting the ride, there were people hucking water bars and drifting sandy fire road corners. Not your traditional style of bikepacking, but the crew was fizzing with stoke. Shortly after this, the responsible part of our brains kicked in for a hot minute (rare occurrence!). We thought we better check the racks after we had just put them through some serious product testing. To our relief they were tight and our cargo was still attached.
The excitement probably led to us burning way too much energy early on. The novelty of descending with a loaded bike soon down shifted a couple of gears (literally) to a realisation of needing to pedal these big rigs uphill. Thank god for wide range cassettes!
With our granny gears spinning, we started slowly heading towards vistas that exponentially got more and more spectacular. The stupid banter that encouraged more skids out of each other quickly turned into conversations of gratitude. “How lucky are we to be doing this”. The Blue Mountains are truly beautiful, you can’t help but be mesmerised through immersion.
In case the trek out hadn’t been spectacular enough, we rolled into our campsite just before sunset. The proceeding hour consisted of us riding along a stunning ridgeline as the day came to an end. Honestly, one of the coolest experiences we’d all had on a bike.
Once we got to the campsite, we got stuck into setting up our sleeping quarters. Thankfully nobody had forgotten the essentials. Just low key, the kind of things that would keep us dry, warm and alive overnight. This is where the triple-checking before we set off worked in our favour!
We cooked dinner as the sun went down. And with each tasty, hard-earned mouthful (mmmmm dehydrated food), in that soft, pastel light, we realised we were reducing the weight to be loaded onto the bikes the next day.
After a big day of riding and next to no screen time (something most of us have way too much of on the regular), the sleep was deep and restful. We woke with two simple goals for the next day. The first was to eat breakfast whilst savouring the epic view of the valley. The second was to ride back out along that amazing ridgeline. A simple life on bike; it’s certainly a good one.
We’ll leave you with some hot tips from our experience as first-time bike packers. It’s good to learn from your mistakes, but even better to learn from someone else’s!
Tip 1 – Offline maps are a must. Most bike packing routes will have a downloadable map that doesn’t require mobile data to view. Make sure you share your route with a friend not on the ride. If things go wrong someone will know where you are.
Tip 2 – Save your emergency contact’s information into everyone else’s phones. That way if something happens and you get taken away in a helicopter or are unable to unlock your phone, they can let someone know what’s happening.
Tip 3 – Keep weight off your back. Use those racks! Put heavier gear on the bike’s rear. Less weight on your bars will help keep the steering light. Avoid backpacks if possible.
Tip 4 – Quick access to bike spares. The Aeroe racks and dry bags were great for loading up the majority of our gear. But it would’ve been helpful to have a small hip pack or frame bag so you can quickly access spares.
Tip 5 – Share items amongst the group. For example, there is no need to for everyone in the group to bring a gas cooker. What worked for us was to have two cookers for our group of four.
Tip 6 – Bring a power bank. Keep those devices that are storing maps and the ability to contact help charged up.
Tip 7 – Bring extra ski straps (aka Versa/Voile straps). If something breaks or you want to carry an extra water bottle to your frame these straps are perfect.
Tip 78 – Water! You’ll probably need more water than you think. Particularly if you’re planning to eat dehydrated meals that need water added. Use those ski straps to attach an extra Nalgene bottle to your downtube. Or even better get some bottle holders that attach to your fork.
Tip 9 – Bring thongs. Having a change of shoes is a campsite luxury that won’t cost you much space or weight.
Tip 10 – On bike kit, off bike kit. One set of riding clothes and one set of non-riding clothes is all you need. Go for merino wool if you can. It’s moisture-wicking and doesn’t stink even after multiple wears. Don’t forget to bring a small packing puffer jacket.
Tip 11 – Lay your gear out before packing. We met in a park close to the trail head. Here we had tons of room to lay all our gear out. This meant we could easily triple check we had everything.
Bonus Tip – Get your friends stoked on it. Sometimes you need soul-searching solo missions. But we’ve found bikepacking with friends is the way to go and safer too.
