We are tandem riding the first section of the GDMBR to Fernie then picking up the BC Trail to Vancouver.
The first hurdle is getting the bike and all our gear to Calgary. I booked space for two bike boxes, but in the end I just went with one because the allowance for both size and weight for a box with Air Canada is so generous it all fit in one box fine. It cost just £30 for the box that was paid at check in. Our panniers just went in suitcase sized cardboard boxes. I got all the boxes online for a cost of about £20. But in the past if I was just after boxes for normal sized bikes I would have managed to get them free from local bike shops and reused the boxes that they get new bikes delivered in.
On the tandem I just removed the rear mech so as not to bend the hanger, removed the seats and rear bars. Took of the pedals and wheels. From the wheels I removed the disc rotors as these have a tendency to get bent in transit. In the cockpit I removed the front bars and zip tied it to the side of the frame. The rear rack had to be removed to save a few inches.
In the box I put all our camping gear, spares and dry bags. The allowance for the box was 32kg we can in at about 35kg so check in said to make sure ground staff don’t refuse it, it would be better to have done stuff taken out. As we have been through this before I anticipated this and had a roll of parcel tape in my carry on. I removed the tent and sleeping pads which was in a dry bag, re-taped and all was good.
In my experience at the other end in Canada oversized is always waiting for you before any of the cases get to the conveyor belt, so all is good.
THE PLAN – Rachael’s brother and sister in law have lived in Canada for about fifteen years, raised their family here and they are having an amazing experience. We were very fortunate to have their generosity of picking us up from the airport to take us to their beautiful new home. From here we can spend a couple of days getting setting up and catching up with family. Seeing the local area and generally chilling out together.
In a couple of days we will start in Banff and head to Ferne on the GDMBR at which point we will jump on the BC Trail and ride this in reverse to Vancouver. The beauty is the amount of time we have. Four weeks, I am hoping I have got the mileage correct for the type of terrain so we can chill out, stop, take pictures, take detours and days off. Generally, I always try to do that but my plans can be a bit ambitious and we need to push on every day. We will see, both scenarios will be cool. When I have allowed for a non biking day I am always happy with just the one as you get a bit restless and want to start cycling again, even if you think you have found the most amazing hidden gem.
The main difference with this trip is management of food so as not to attract wildlife to camp. I love bears, cougars, wolves and raccoons, but I don’t want to share a tent with one. Bear spray, food bags and tree hanging will be all new. but we will take the threat seriously to mitigate any danger. I bought a nice outdoor speaker in the airport so we can play music on the trail so wildlife knows we are coming. In the tent at night it might be nice to play some sort of podcast or music as in the still of night those sounds of the forest seem to get louder and louder.
I have experienced the use of bear boxes before when I cycled from Vancouver to the Mexican border back in 2010 or something like that, but it was a road tour so slightly different. One thing for sure, if I get to see half as much on this trip as I did on that one I will be one hell of a happy bunny.
The GDMBR and the BC Trail routes, information and images can be viewed on the two links below.
https://bikepacking.com/routes/great-divide-mountain-bike-route-gdmbr/
https://bikepacking.com/routes/bc-trail/
