Bikepacking the Sunshine Coast Watching the ferry set sail before we head out onto the Sunshine Coasts' singletrack.

Most of the gear for 6 days ride up the Sunshine Coast. We used homemade frame bags sewn out of an old raincoat and dry sacs held on with ski straps as the bar bag.

Wheelies through Vancouver to the bus.

Who do you think is better off road?.

The first climb was basically riding up a boulder-strewn creek.

Along with wet roots on the "Sunshine Coast" trails.

Features were all in good condition.

Navigation is not our forte. Thankfully there's Trailforks.

Wet skinnies made for fun climbs and flat sections.

Trails seem like they get a lot of love here. There was only 1 tree down over the trail along the 60km we had ridden so far.

Cooking up some hot food now that we had matches

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Had to put a tube in it for the rest of the day.

Stumbled upon the brand new Hangar Climbing lounge in Sechelt. A really cool place to go to for a rest day from riding.(Note the crouching frog technique.)

We were too busy riding CGP to take pictures of CGP so this will have to do. Also, the climb to CGP is not fun.

The look of disappointment as you realize your trip is over

It had cracks like this in a few places around the rim on one side. If you know why this happened please tell.

Taking a bus back to the ferry is not the way we wanted to get back.

Back at the ferry terminal just on time for more rain.

It felt like the vault doors were opening when the ferry doors swung open.

Road to Squamish.

Basecamp

Finishing touches at Commencal

Another one of those "rest" days. They had ping pong too.

Testing out the new wheels on Credit Line

Sending it down Credit Line

One of the highlights of the trip, night riding Half Nelson.

Maybe next time I'll do a little more relaxing like this guy.

Bye for now to that west coast loam.

Snow was melting, ski hills were closing and ski season was over. That meant it was time to hit the trails. The only problem was that where I live in Lethbridge, Alberta the only trails worth riding are 1 ½ hours away and still partially snow-covered being at the base of the Rocky Mountains. That meant in order to ride I had to make a pilgrimage to the west coast with my only fellow Lethbridge rider friend. Although this time, we wanted to do something different. Winter gave us the chance to dive into this growing niche of mountain biking called “Bikepacking.” Basically, it's backpacking, but with a mountain bike. You still get to ride off road and you get to go deeper into the wilderness than with regular biking. After some hours spent in front of the computer while the snow wasn’t worth skiing, I came across the Lower Sunshine Coast Route.The route is 120km of (mostly) Singletrack. All of it loamy, flowy and beautifully manicured. A person can ride directly from the busy city of Vancouver, onto a bus to the ferry and over Howe Sound on a short ferry ride to the community of Langdale BC. From there all you have to do is pedal 120km to Earls Cove where a bus can take you back to the ferry to Vancouver just in time for work. All of this in 3 days of riding.We had high hopes for the first day. The plan was to ride from the house we were staying at in Vancouver to the bus terminal, take the bus to the ferry, take the ferry to Langdale, and then ride 30-40km to the first campsite. It was all pretty straightforward until we got to ride on the coast. We only ended up making it 25km of our 30-40km goal (We blame this on the fact that we used our Enduro bikes instead of “true” bikepacking rigs). Also, the first day turned out to be almost all climbing but luckily the beauty of the Sunshine Coast’s rainforest made up for it all.Plenty of well-maintained bridges along the route.At our first campsite, we pitched a tent next to the trail we had been peddling for the last 4 hours and got out of the drenched riding gear we were in. Tired and hungry we went to make a quick meal of dehydrated (or rehydrated?) beef stroganoff only to find out we forgot a lighter or matches or any other way of lighting the stove. If it hadn’t been so wet I probably would have tried to make a fire bow out of my 510’s shoelace. In the end, we settled for some cold, partially rehydrated food before almost instantly dozing off.Into the cloud forest.The second day went a lot smoother. Filled with granola bars, trail mix and the quest for a lighter so we could eat hot food for the rest of the trip, the 25km into Sechelt was a breeze. The first thing we did as we rolled into town was find some burgers. After we were full it was time to explore what Sechelt had to offer. Paul needed some brake pads so our first stop was one of the local bike shops, Off the Edge Adventure Sports. The owner was awesome and the store was well stocked. He seemed like he was super stoked on our trip up the Sunshine Coast. Since we were staying in town for a bit he offered up some local trail knowledge including his secret loam trail that we are sworn under oath not to reveal its location.Baking on the beach and exploring the Porpoise Bay provincial park campground just outside of Sechelt. They also had FREE showers.The third day was a rest day where we rode around town. Discovered some local cafes and rode along the coastal walkway of Sechelt. The town has the awesome vibe of being a tight-knit community. Everybody we talked to was super friendly and helpful. We even stumbled upon an awesome bouldering gym that had just opened that week. The Hangar Climbing Lounge was the perfect place to spend our “rest” day with fun bouldering routes. The owner was super friendly and was excited to hear about our trip. He talked to us about how he brought his passion for climbing to Sechelt and is now trying to teach local kids to climb and bring rock climbing to this part of the Sunshine Coast.Brapping a tire off the rim at Sechelts skill park. It looked like Sechelt was putting some serious effort in improving the mountain biking scene in the area.On the fourth day, we rode the world-renowned Coast Gravity Park. Built by the "Intern" and his crew the Coast Gravity Park has gained worldwide recognition by being not only a great place to sample some west coast loam, but it is also open year round. Normally I'm not a bike park kinda guy. I've ridden Silverstar and Whistler and most of the time I find that it was worth it but not as good as just pedalling out into the hills and riding like a real enduro. Coast Gravity Park was different. It made the climb from Sechelt to the bike park well worth it (this was not an easy climb and I recommend you save your lungs and legs for the park and find another way up). We had a killer day riding Devils Elbow to Handjob and then Doggers.The next morning we woke up to head out to the next town but disaster struck. Paul's tire was flat and upon closer inspection, there were cracks all the way around one side of the rim at the end of the spokes. We are guessing this happened at CGP with all the berm brapping action that was going on. The rim was toast and our bikepacking trip was cut short.We though our plans were over until we came up with a backup plan. We packed up and rode to the bus in town to take us to the ferry. From there we decided we would go to Squamish, get the wheel fixed, and then ride the local trails there for a bit. Not a bad backup plan if you ask me.Lots of flying things on the coast.After getting back to Vancouver by bus and boat we spent the night there before setting out the next day. Squamish is only an hour outside of Vancouver and is another great place to escape to. It is home to some of the world's best trails and those trails are a household name in mountain biking. We set up basecamp at Allison Lake provincial park which has some of the cheapest campsites in Squamish (23$ for a walk in) and is only a 5-minute ride from the trails. With the crappy tire tent up and the slackline set up as a drying line, we went to go find a wheel. Thankfully since Squamish has a big mountain bike community finding a wheel was no problem. Paul ended up picking up a set from the Commencal store that was, at the time, still under construction. We walked in and the only people there were a couple of construction workers who let us have a look around and said we could come back tomorrow for the wheels.Squamptons trail network is killer.In the end, the trip was a huge success. Despite wrecking a wheelset, a couple tires and having to bail on plan A things worked out in the end. The Sunshine Coast has a lot more to offer than I originally thought. There is a growing climbing scene, the mountain biking and the level of trail maintenance is some of the best I have seen in all of BC. Squamish is also as awesome as people say. From sick climbing gyms with ping pong tables to the some of the best trails out there, it seems like the possibility of adventure is endless. Some of the best parts of the whole trip were the people we met along the way. The owner of the bike shop, the guy who opened the new climbing gym, the Pole ambassador (he is seriously fast). Both the Sunshine Coast and Squamish are amazing places to go if you are in need of an escape from the city and your regular life and I can't wait to go back.