Cycling the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route
Now that the coronavirus pandemic is starting to subside, and we’ve both received our second COVID-19 vaccine shots, we feel the risks for bicycle touring are manageable once again. It’s time to start thinking about getting back out on the road.
After careful consideration, we’ve decided to tackle the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route, which runs from Canada to Mexico, crossing the states of Montana, Idaho, Utah and Arizona. Our top five reasons for choosing this route were:
It’s in our home country. There are still too many uncertainties related to the pandemic for us to consider international travel. A route that stays within the USA seems like something we’re much more likely to be able to complete, and the logistics are simpler.
The route is documented. That makes it possible to plan a long-distance trip with relative ease. And since it is only a few years old, the available route information should be reasonably up to date.
It covers territory that will be new to us. The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (a.k.a., GDMBR) is arguably the most famous off-road, long distance cycling trail in the USA, if not the world. But the GDMBR covers a lot of the Rocky-Mountain West, where we have lived and traveled extensively in the past. In contrast, the Western Wildlands Route lies a bit further west. It runs through more areas we haven’t cycled or visited much before - which is a big incentive.
It will probably be less-heavily traveled. Given how well known the GDMBR is, it could get quite busy this year as the country starts to come out of lock down. The Western Wildlands Route is much less traveled, potentially offering more of a wilderness experience.
So… Western Wildlands it is. This decision has us re-thinking our cycling setup to better handle the off-road trails, but that’s part of the challenge/fun of these trips (and a topic for another blog post). As the date of our departure draws near, we’re enjoying the sense of anticipation.
How hard could it be?
Hopefully we’re not biting off more than we can chew.
At just over 3,000 miles (4,800 km), this trip will be a lot shorter than our previous, east-to-west ride across the USA. But the Western Wildlands Route actually serves up a lot more challenges. Just ask the folks at bikepackingroots.org, who created this route. They don’t pull any punches when they say, “For riders familiar with the iconic Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the Western Wildlands Route offers a more rugged, remote, and wild experience.” That’s saying something, given that the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route is well known as being one of the more remote and challenging trails to ride. So our route will be “more rugged, remote and wild” than that. This should be quite an adventure.
Click on the image above to open an interactive map of our original, planned route on the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route in 2021.
The Plan
So, what’s the plan? On the northern end, we’ll begin in Whitefish, MT and take a couple of days to cycle roughly 90 miles to the official start of the route at the Canadian border. From there we expect to follow the main route of the Western Wildlands trail pretty faithfully, all the way from Canada to Mexico. Our only planned deviation at this point would come at the very end, where we might make some adjustments to avoid having to camp near the Mexican border. But it’s a long way from here to there. And if we’ve learned anything from previous bicycle tours, it’s that plans are bound to be adjusted along the way. We’re going to remain flexible, and see where the route takes us.
The north-south trajectory passes through a wide range of climatic and ecological zones. The cool and relatively damp northern mountain forests near Canada - which will probably still have some snow at higher elevations - will give way to the hot and treeless Snake River Plain. Then it’s back into the mountains of northern Utah, where the forests are drier and we’ll see hints of the desert landscapes ahead. In southern Utah, we’ll cycle for a while at heights over 10,000 ft (3,000 m) on the Colorado Plateau, famous for its colorful, rugged beauty. Finally, we’ll pedal into the true deserts of the southwestern USA, where the lowlands are dominated by saguaro cacti, and the isolated mountain ranges harbor rare plants and animals. Along the way, we’ll probably encounter every type of weather condition imaginable.
Part of the fun is that the Western Wildlands route incorporates a number of renowned backcountry trails that we’re particularly looking forward to. A few of the more famous stretches include:
The Hiawatha Trail, an ultra-scenic rail trail in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
The Magruder Corridor, which according to bikepackingroots.org is “90 miles of rough and taxing dirt and 4x4 roads sandwiched between two of the largest Wilderness areas in the Lower 48.” Nice.
Skyline Drive is one of the highest elevation roads in the nation crossing 100 stunning miles of the Wasatch Plateau in Utah, and spends most of its length above 10,000 ft (3,000 m).
The Mogollon Rim Road hugs the precipice on the edge of Arizona’s San Francisco Plateau and offers some of the most incredible vistas in the state.
Be Prepared
All of this adventure brings with it some special challenges. In planning for our trip, there have been a handful of key factors that occupied our thoughts and influenced our decisions about how to prepare. Here we’ll just list a few of the top concerns. (On our upcoming equipment page, we’ll go into a lot more detail about how we’ve adjusted our gear to meet these challenges.)
Rough terrain. Our trusty old Surly Long-Haul Trucker bikes are masters of the open road, but they are not as well suited to rough unpaved conditions. New, off-road bikes seemed like a smart choice.
Hills, and more hills. There are hardly any flat sections on this route. And even though we plan to average 40 mi/day (64 km/day, the minimum recommended for this route), there are still two days with more than 5,000 ft of climbing, and nine others with more than 4,000 ft of ascents. Average elevation gain will be about 2,600 ft per day. It goes without saying that we are trying to keep the weight of our gear down.
Few services. There are relatively few resupply points, with some sections of the route being quite remote. We plan to filter water out on the trail to minimize the need to carry a lot of water (which is very heavy), but there will still be at least 17 days where there will be no reliable water sources available along the way. And we will make at least 8 dry camps. Although we have crossed the Sahara Desert in Africa on bikes, and have some experience with harsh dry climates, water management will likely be one of our largest challenges. Food sources will be even more scarce, with 21 multi-day sections where the only food will be that which we can carry.
Personal safety. When we overlaid the route with coverage areas from our mobile phone carrier, it became abundantly clear that we’ll be out of communication for long stretches of time. But what if we need help? For the first time, we will take a PLB (personal locator beacon) with us. The PLB can send our GPS location via satellite to rescue personnel, in case of an emergency.
Bears. Black bears can be present anywhere along the route. And it will be possible to encounter grizzly bears within the first 20 days of riding. For the first time ever, we will be traveling with our food in bear-proof containers and carrying bear spray.
Luckily, a big fence stood between this grizzly bear and us, at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas. We’ll be taking precautions on the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route to avoid getting this close to any wild bears. Copyright © 2019-2021 Pedals and Puffins.
With careful preparation and a bit of good luck, we hope to be arriving at the Mexican border sometime in the fall. There’s always the possibility we won’t make the whole distance, since unexpected things like worldwide pandemics sometimes arise during bike tours. But even if we don’t make it all the way to Mexico, it will be an amazing journey.
