After a crazy first half of the year with work taking me to Madrid, Brisbane, Osaka, the Bay Area, and Las Vegas, I haven’t had as much time on the bike as I would like. But I’m itching for an adventure and some alone time on the bike. So I’ve planned a three day adventure before summer arrives.
My plan is to catch the Victoria Clipper ferry to Victoria, BC so that I can ride the Cowichan Valley 8. I plan on riding the route in 3 days/2 nights, returning on the evening Clipper on Day 3.
Although the ride is non-technical and I could take my gravel bike, the Pink ‘Rona, I’ll be riding on Hobbes since I find it’s upright stance to be more comfortable overall. I recently upgraded the wheels on Hobbes to a set of Hunt Trail Wide MTB 29 along with the 2.6″ Vittoria Mezcal tires. I expect to have a nice and cushy ride.
Packing is still a work in progress – I’m definitely taking a lot less gear than I did in Mexico. I haven’t exactly gone ultralight, but I did minimize my gear for this trip. I recently started using PackWizard to manage my gear, replacing the overly complicated spreadsheet that I had been using. While I can manage my pack in PackWizard, it doesn’t allow me to tag items with where I plan to store them since it’s designed for backpackers, not bikepackers. Oh well.
One of the benefits of this loop is that I’ll be able to spend two nights at the same campsite. Although day 2 of the ride has less climbing and mileage than I’ve planned on day 1, it will be nice to ride mostly unladen.
More to come soon…
Bikepacking for Nerds 
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