Spring 2021 rolled around and I found myself itching to get back on my bike for a little tour. The ongoing pandemic had all but smashed my plans (like everyone else’s) for long tours outside of my home state. Continue reading Sonoran Desert Scouting
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Idaho Hot Springs bikepacking loop. It’s a multi-day bikepacking trip that weaves along gold-medal trout streams, flower-dotted meadows, self-made towns, and of course, hot springs. Unfortunately, the season for enjoying this route is getting much shorter and riskier due to climate change. Continue reading Bikepacking the Idaho Cold Springs
Perhaps like everyone, we had PLANS for 2020: international research (a collaboration with a Palestinian cycling club), bike tours, laid back bikepacking trips and more intense races. We planned to ride around things (Great Salt Lake, the Cedar Mountains, and Minnesota), through things (really big trees in Big Sur and the arches around Moab), across things (the Flint Hills of Kansas and the state of Utah) and over things (clear sandstone in Capitol Reef and endless gravel roads of the West Desert). In short, we hoped to ride the Waheela Cs through as many adventures as we could. Continue reading Etter Olson 2020 Look Back
Over the nearly four years we’d been on the road for our Alaska to Argentina bikepacking journey we’d anticipated our arrival in Patagonia. The southernmost region of South America is famous for its soaring granite spires, tumbling glaciers, alpine lakes and sprawling forest. A wild frontier land where humans have tamed only the fringes of its terrain. A place with untold possibilities for adventure. Continue reading End of the Road — A Transcontinental Bikepacking Tour Cut Short by COVID-19
There’s a bikepacking adage that says “it’s not bikepacking until something goes wrong.” In a previous post, I wrote about a bikepacking trip that had almost nothing go according to plan at a humorous level. But what about when everything goes right? No rain, late departures, wrong turns, closed kitchens, etc. This is one of those trips–okay, we made one wrong turn, but we figured it out before going too far off course. Continue reading Bikeglamping
Otso Ambassadors Mark Watson and Hana Black have been on the road for the past three and half years, slowly making their way along the American Cordillera from Alaska to Patagonia. With 44,000km of riding behind them they have racked up a wealth of experience in conditions ranging from the highest Andean passes, to the Atacama desert, the Amazon jungle, and everything in between. Continue reading Traversing the Andes on the Otso Voytek: Bikes and Gear
Bikepacking laughs at the best laid plans. That’s just how it is. At least that’s how it’s been in the half dozen or so trips I’ve been on. Extreme heat, severe weather, closed restaurants, miles of mud, just so many bugs, full campgrounds, also wrong turns. This particular trip had four of the aforementioned inconveniences. Continue reading Bikepacking on a School Night
