When Logan Watts started getting into long mountain bike rides in the mid-2000s, he didn鈥檛 call it bikepacking. That term hadn鈥檛 really taken hold yet. But now, little more than a decade later, bikepacking is a thriving segment in cycling, with major manufacturers building bikes (like the or the聽) and packs dedicated to it. The sport is almost as widely accepted as its better-known namesake, backpacking.
Thanks to that growth鈥攁nd perhaps as a source of it鈥擶atts has built his personal blog, originally constructed so he and some friends could trade insights and routes, into , a preeminent resource for adventurous cyclists that garners more than a million page views a month.
The site offers gear reviews, advice on how to pack your bike and travel efficiently, and dispatches from the field. Perhaps Bikepacking.com鈥檚 biggest asset is its bank of some 165 routes worldwide, all mapped, indexed, and fleshed out with details including water sources, food resupplies, potential campsites, and points of interest. This means it鈥檚 easy to pick a trip, get inspired by the photos, download the GPX course, and set off. 鈥淲e see part of our goal and responsibility as providing more opportunities for getting people out on their bikes,鈥 Watts writes on the site鈥檚 .
I never wanted to like Bikepacking.com. I felt that it was commercializing something that shouldn鈥檛 be monetized. (I鈥檝e long struggled with such misgivings whenever I write about the sport.) Bikepacking, which partly traces its roots to Mike Curiak鈥檚 2003 individual time trial on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, has long been the realm of iconoclasts and hermits trying to escape alone into the woods. To sell out bikepacking is to sell out the essence of the experience, I thought.
When I started in the sport, about the same time as Watts, there was very little information. Finding your way鈥攑iecing together a route, figuring out which bike would work and how to load it before there were purpose-built packs, and how to manage the variable conditions and terrain鈥攚as a big part of the challenge. Handing over routes as Bikepacking.com does, I feared, would bleed the sport of some of its adventure and put unprepared cyclists in harm鈥檚 way. It would be like giving someone the keys to a car but not teaching them to drive.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 really see that happening,鈥 Watts said, when I put my concerns to him. 鈥淭here are so many places to go. We鈥檙e not going to fill them up.鈥 Watts added that he is making an effort to address the safety component through how-to tutorials and blog posts on best practices. 鈥淎nd on the courses side, we really strive to find a good balance between providing the right information without dictating peoples鈥 experiences.鈥
Still, I was skeptical. So, in April, wanting to get out on a trip but short on time to plan my own, I decided to put one of Bikepacking.com鈥檚 routes to the test. I chose the , from Santa Fe to Las Cruces. The guide called for nine days, but I could spare only four, which I thought would be enough since I hoped to log long days as a base for some big rides later in the summer.
I didn鈥檛 bother to read the route description or download the suggested camping spots, which wouldn鈥檛 apply to my expedited ride. Instead, I downloaded a pared-down version of the route map: just the red course line and the waypoints for water, which left plenty to discover along the way. I pedaled across dusty mesas and through narrow canyons and sheer mountains. I slept in a field of Dr. Seussian cholla cactus, fought 30 mph headwinds for three straight days, and startled herds of deer, elk, and pronghorn. I nearly ran out of water when I arrived at a village I鈥檇 counted on for resupply to find the vendor boarded up. And, except for towns, I didn鈥檛 see a single other human.
鈥淥vercrowding is very relative,鈥 says Cass Gilbert, the rider who created the NMORR route. 鈥淚t鈥檚 what happens in our cities and on highways and trails that everyone drives to. There鈥檚 plenty of space in the backcountry for everyone, as long as we treat it with respect. I don鈥檛 believe the development of routes takes away from the adventure. Rather, it creates more opportunities to get out there.鈥
Gilbert is right鈥攁t least for now. It鈥檚 still early days for bikepacking, and the landscapes are so vast and route possibilities so endless that congestion won鈥檛 be an issue anytime soon. The sport is also somewhat self-selecting鈥攑edaling 40 to 50 pounds of bike and gear over mountains and through the desert isn鈥檛 easy鈥攕o it鈥檚 unlikely many people will get themselves in trouble
On the other hand, there鈥檚 a cautionary note in the trajectory of mountain biking as a whole. The sport began with a few hippies modifying road bikes to pedal around on their local fire roads and has ballooned into a sport of its own鈥攊n the process, engendering conflicts with hikers and other users, overcrowding at popular destinations, and debate over trail modifications and damage. As bikepacking becomes popular, overcrowding and use disputes could follow, too.
Still, being on the back roads of New Mexico reminded me how little of our open space gets used. Spots close to high-population areas may attract steady traffic, but if you鈥檙e willing to turn away from well-known destinations and head where most people do not, there鈥檚 still solitude to be found. Bikepacking.com is shining a light on some of those lesser-known backwoods鈥擨 wouldn鈥檛 have had the wherewithal to plan my NMORR trip without the site. But I suppose if the site鈥檚 routes ever get too congested, which seems unlikely, I can always head out on my own as I鈥檝e been doing for years.