Equipment
Having spent the better part of 10,000 miles bikepacking and touring across different states, countries, and continents, you'd think I'd be a well-oiled machine when it comes to packing for a trip like this. And you would be wrong. Each trip requires careful thought and planning regarding the bike, bag setup, and camping gear, as well as food, water, and resupply options along a route. Below is a detailed breakdown of my setup for this ride; I will give a briefer summary of my dad's setup
The Bikes
I will be heading north on my trusty Novara Mazama, a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sort of bike that has slowly evolved into a light-duty bikepacking rig. This bike is comfy; it makes riding miles across forest roads and pavement a breeze. This bike has served me well in all of its different forms, from full-on touring rig on the Transamerica Trail and Pacific Coast Bike Route to a mellow gravel bike on the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route. I love the simplicity of it: steel frame, mechanical disc brakes, friction bar end shifter, 1x10 groupset...you get it. I currently have it outfitted with 44mm Rene Herse Manastash Ridge tires which should be perfect for mixed riding on paved roads and gravel backroads. These were installed rather frantically after finding my previous tires to be quite dry-rotted. They were a collosal pain to set up tubeless but should hopefully work well now that the bead is set and they are topped off with Bontrager sealant.
My bag setup will include a Blackburn frame bag, Swift Zeitgeist saddle bag, and a Rockgeist Meanwhile basket bag set in a Wald 137 basket. I'm particularly excited to try out the front basket setup, as it should lend itself well to carrying bulkier items and putting up bear hangs where necessary. My bike will be featured later this year as a "Reader's Rig" on Bikepacking.com, so keep your eyes peeled there for more pictures and a comprehensive breakdown of my build.
My dad will be riding on his Trek 520 that he purchased from a bike shop for $120 several years ago. He snagged it for such a low price due to a fused seat post, but after several hours of labor and a modified impact wrench he managed to break it free. My dad's setup is a more traditional touring setup, with a rear rack and panniers as his primary means of carrying gear. He will also have a frame bag and two dry bags mounted on his front fork. His bike has 38mm Schwalbe Allmotions which may be a tad narrow for some of the gravel roads, but we are confident that it can handle the route if we take sections slow and air down as-needed.
Camp
When packing for an extended trip in remote locales, I tend to break my packing list into three critical categories: shelter, cooking, and clothing. If I can cover my bases in each of those three areas I am less likely to forget anything important, and anything minor I forget I can usually source along the way.
For shelter, I will be carrying my Tarptent Bowfin 1S. This tent is lightweight and packs down nicely, which frees up space for bulkier items like my 19 degree REI sleeping bag. This sleeping bag is rated to 19 degrees in name only at this point, as it has been well-used on countless nights under the stars. Still, it is durable and continues to work for me and should be sufficient for the mild summer weather that Vancouver Island is known for, so along it comes. I will stay insulated from the ground with a Nemo sleeping pad and a small inflatable pillow I bought for a couple of bucks on Amazon.
Cooking is generally easier to pack for. I am bringing along my trusty JetBoil cooking stove, along with a ligher and a titanium mug and spoon. Snacks and meals generally consist of carb- and calorically-dense foods like nuts, bagels, peanut butter, and oatmeal, and are supplemented with trips to local eateries and farm stands as I pass through small towns. As of this writing, I am still figuring out the best way to pack my food so that I can easily set it aside for bear hangs or lockers at campgrounds.
Last but not least is the topic of clothing. While Vancouver Island is known to have the mildest weather in Canada, we must still be prepared to encounter rain, wind, mosquitoes, chilly nights, and whatever else Mother Nature may dish out at us. We will therefore each be packing 1-2 sun shirts, riding shorts and pants for camp, a warmer base layer (e.g., puffy or fleece), rain jacket, wool socks, riding shoes and sandals for camp, and riding gloves.
Other pieces of miscellaneous gear include my phone, passport, Garmin inReach and smartwatch for navigation and emergency communication, 10,000mAh battery bank, DJI Mini 2 drone and Fujifilm X-T3 camera for documenting life on the road, and bug spray.
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