on a bikepacking adventure we go

Hi there, me again. I’m still getting familiar with this blog thing, so things are still feeling a little awkward on my end. Let me be honest with you, I haven’t spent much time writing anything.

Okay, I take that back.

I write things for social media posts, but it’s typically a sentence or two so I can’t say it counts for much. It’s been years since I’ve sat down and attempted to type anything more than that. Something that feels a little more personal rather than a short caption of what’s going on in my life. So apologizes in advanced for long run on sentences, or maybe if things feel a bit clunky. Hopefully practice will help that out!

Last week I got the opportunity to join a ladies weekend bikepacking trip. The planned route was to pedal from Flagstaff to a lakeside camp near Parks to camp out for a night and then head back to Flagstaff the following day for celebratory beers. The group was led by two amazing women, Cami and Allison. Actually, all the women on this ride were amazing. What a crew of rad ladies.

I’ve been wanting to try bikepacking for a while now. I figured I had spent enough time camping and riding my bike that why not combine the two together? The night before the ride, and friend and I sat down in her garage to pack and re-pack our bags. There’s something about trying to tetris gear together that’s cathartic for my mind.

The following morning we pedaled out from her house to our group’s meet up spot. A few miles into our ride we came to realize that we both may have packed just a bit too much. Every corner and decent felt wobbly and awkward like it was the first time we’d ever ridden bikes. Probably could of gone with less than the 5 liters of water we were both carrying, but it’s engrained in me to always take more water than necessary and I couldn’t find it in me to dump any of that precious liquid. We did finally settle into the new sensation and by the time we made it to the rest of the group we felt ready to go.

After some unexpected mechanical issues (huge shoutout to the Flagstaff Bike Revolution team for helping me out!) our group was ready to go grind some gravel. There’s some about pedaling through a forest of Ponderosa Pines. Hearing the crunch of pine needles and dirt underneath the tires of your bike, it’s quite the satisfying sound. And not to mention how humbling 25 lbs of gear can feel when trying to crank through your granny gear to make it up a hill with seemingly no end in sight. (Turns out it was only another 300 feet away when I had that thought).

We rolled into camp and quickly dropped out gear. Most of the group headed to the nearby lake for a dip before sunset. I decided to stay behind and relax in my camp chair. My sore ass was very appreciative to no longer be in the saddle. Eventually the ladies of the lake returned and we huddled together for dinner. The rest of the night was filled with laughter as we played rounds of telephone and heads up. Remember that last great sleep over you went to as a child? Yeah, this felt just like that. But instead of trying to stay up as late as possible we all crawled into our sleeping bags before the stars were even fully out. What a great day.

While the day was great, my night was not. That following morning huddled in fetal position I made the decision to cut my trip short. I was exhausted and feeling raw from a night of what I presume was food poisoning from the dinner I had packed. I couldn’t see myself attempting to pedal another 35 miles back to Flagstaff. An honorary group member had driven out the day before to meet up with us for our campout and I was able to get a ride back. I still feel very grateful that I had that option, it would of been a pretty rough day without it.

So I’m not saying that this was a failed trip for me, but it feels more like an “attempt” than a “summit” to paraphrase things. Technically, I did pedal all the way out to our group’s designated camp spot and spent the night with everyone. Worst part? I’ve got no one to blame but myself since I’m the one who made the burrito I ate for dinner.

Aside from the damn dirty burrito, this trip was a great one. Thanks ladies for the fantastic trip and memories. Here’s to the next one.