My First EVER Bikepacking Tour
After cycling for over 30 years, I’ve been fortunate to cover a lot of aspects of the sport. This includes cross country racing, endurance racing, countless trips to the mountains, riding in the Alps of France, mountain biking in Arizona, and downhill days in Colorado, North Carolina and Canada. Up until recently bikepacking was not on my list of cycling adventures. That changed in 2024.
For quite a while I have been wanting to start bikepacking. Many years ago I was really into backpacking and loved transporting self supporting gear into the woods on my back. It’s a whole new way of experiencing the outdoors. I knew that bikepacking would combine my love for riding and my love for self-supported camping, allowing me to get away from things and spend extended time outdoors.
In early 2024 I decided I would make the commitment to bikepacking. As fate would have it, I was on a group gravel ride and talked to a buddy of mine who told me about the Forgotten Florida Bikepacking Tour put on Singletrack Samurai. Karlos, the founder of this organization, is notorious for putting together some pretty wild and epic events. I went on his website, signed up and started my preparation.
The Forgotten Florida tour covers about 210 miles over three days, starting and ending in Steinhatchee, Florida. Being that I had never headed out for three self-supported days on a bike, I decided to take my preparation seriously. Preparation included two main components: fitness and gear. I began ramping up my mileage every weekend and worked up to an 80 mile gravel ride. Two weekends before the tour I did back to back long rides to simulate what I would encounter on the tour. I primarily stayed in zone 2, as I knew that would be the effort to maintain over the course of the tour. Fitness goal achieved. Now onto the gear.
The first thing I focused on was the bags I would need to carry all my gear. I began doing research, and the two brands that rose to the top were Revelate Designs and Ortlieb. After reviewing the features I decided to go with Ortlieb. The next thing I focused on was my sleep system. I have recently gotten into hammock camping, and had done a kayak camping trip about a month before. My setup was a Warbonnet Ridge runner, which is a bridge style hammock with spreader bars. The main advantage is you can lay flat in the hammock without having to worry about getting into a diagonal position. I do not sleep well in a gathered-end hammock. Over about two months I slept in my hammock in our backyard, For those not familiar with hammock camping, dialing in your insulation is crucial, as you can get much colder than sleeping in a tent.
Video of my the bags I used on the tour and first test ride
My coldest night in the backyard was in the 20s, which I knew I would not encounter anything below that on the trip. With a zero degree top quilt from Outdoor Vitals and a zero degree under quilt from Warbonnet, I was very comfortable in those temperatures. Ratings on sleeping backs and quilts are guidelines, and I have to add about 20 degrees to a rating to sleep comfortably. My son and I did an overnight backpacking trip so that I could test other gear such as my stove and water filter.
Video of my backpacking trip to test my gear
Final gear check was to do a local gravel ride with all of my bags loaded down on the bike. I really wanted to get a feel of how the bike handled on gravel roads fully loaded. It was a little awkward at first, but I quickly got used to it. I also wanted to make sure that the bags were secure over bumpy gravel roads. I knew we would encounter a lot of gravel roads on this tour (which we definitely did). The only tweak I made after that ride was to not use a frame bag, as my knees rubbed it. I replaced it with two front panniers (known as fork packs) from Ortlieb. After that, all gear was prepared and I was ready for the tour to begin!
Video of the gear I brought on this first tour. I did pair down the list after this trip.
Tour - Day 1 - 61 miles
The Forgotten Florida rolls out at 9 AM on a Friday morning. I arrived in Steinhatchee on a cool Florida, April morning about 30 minutes before the ride began. I thought that was plenty of time to get the bike off the car and load up the bags. It ended up that I needed more time and I was really really rushed to roll out with the group of approximately 38 riders. I made it in the nick of time.
The tour started off on a paved road but soon turned onto a gravel road that eventually turned into bumpy doubletrack. It was on this section that one of my fork packs fell off the bike. It turns out I had used a little plastic piece included with the bags that goes between the bracket and the fork (designed to have the mounting brackets flush-mount against the fork). It turned out this piece caused the bolts to not thread deep enough into the fork. This was five miles into the tour and I’ll admit it was a moment of slight panic. Without these bags I would have to reconsider my entire setup. I removed those plastic pieces and remounted the brackets. Thankfully they ended up holding just fine for the rest of the tour. Disaster avoided!
First few miles of the tour and already off the beaten path.
On the double track we had to do several stream crossings that required walking through knee-deep water, carrying our bikes. Because temps were mild I left my shoes on for these crossings, allowing my shoes and socks to dry as we rode. We took our first scheduled break by viewing a section of the Steinhatchee river and continued on. The ride was a little bit of pavement with the most being gravel through very remote sections, all of which were new to me. This continued through the entire tour, covering gravel roads I had never ridden, though they were just an hour or two drive from my house. It was amazing.
One of our first of many water crossings on day 1
On one particular gravel road I heard the distinct sound of a tree breaking, with the cracking getting louder and louder. I looked up to my left to see the top of a pine tree falling down right in the middle of the road! It crashed down just in front of a woman about 100 feet in front of me.. Fortunately no one was directly in the fall zone, which was a huge blessing. It could’ve been a disaster.
Soon afterwards we found ourselves on a gravel road that ended at a deep section of water. When I arrived there were several people in the water, waist deep looking for a way through. Heavy rains the day before made this section, which I hear is normally rideable, into a river. After about 15 minutes, a few of us decided to turn around and take the paved road into Mayo, Florida, which was the scheduled town of our lunch stop. Those who did not turn around did end up making it across, albeit carrying their bikes in chest deep water. I rolled into Mayo with a group of about five to six riders. We found a Mexican restaurant called Mi Viejo, which had surprisingly good food. I custom-ordered a vegetarian burrito, since a veggie burrito was not on the menu. It was absolutely massive. I think they felt sorry for me since I was not eating meat and stuffed it the size of a small pillow.
The river-crossers started trickling into town, some of whom joined us at the Mexican restaurant. With very full bellies, we headed out for the last 20 miles of day one and ended up at our campsite for the night. This campsite was a church camp with quite a bit of room for the group to spread out. I found a secluded spot in some trees and set up my hammock.
One of the tour attendees and I began gathering some firewood for the group campfire that night. As nightfall arrived, I wandered back over to the fire ring area, with the campfire in full blaze, and chatted with some of the amazing folks that were on the tour. One of the great things about these bikepacking tours is getting to know new people and building new relationships.
Camp set up on night 1. I was the only hammock camper.
Wanting to make sure I was well rested, I got into my hammock around 10 PM. Although there was a road fairly close to where we were, I ended up getting a great night's sleep (I was glad I packed earplugs). As a side note about my Ridgerunner hammock, it is the most comfortable night sleep I get in the outdoors. I also love being off the ground and not having to worry about packing up a wet ground cloth.
Hangout around the campfire on the first night
Day 1 VLOG
Tour - Day 2 - 72 miles
I had missed the announcement the night before that we were rolling out a half hour later, which was apparently made at the campfire after I went to bed. A few of us were ready to go so we got an early start ahead of the group. A few miles in the tour stopped at a very old cemetery from the mid-1800s. We read a few of the headstones (which felt like stepping back in history) and then headed back out on the gravel road. The more we rode on this day, the more remote the roads were. Although we did go through a small town just off interstate 10 in North Central Florida where we had a scheduled store stop, we were on remote road for most of the stage. Although there were a few wet spots on some of the gravel roads, this route was mainly dry.
Loaded up for day 2
Stopping at a cemetery from the mid 1800’s
We ended up at a lunch stop that was a very nice convenience store in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Although this store was well stocked, I opted to cook one of my camp meals. It was a bit inconvenient to unpack my bags to dig out my stove and cooking pot and food, but it was well worth it. It was a curry dish that was supposed to be my dinner the night before. But thanks to the pillow-sized burrito, I was stuffed and never cooked a camp meal
Cooking lunch at a rest stop, using up one of my camp meals
I heard that the campsites for this second night were a bit smaller. So a few of us headed out from the lunch stop ahead of the group to get our choice of a campsite. As the only hammock camper, I needed to make sure I found a spot with appropriately-spaced trees. After about 45 minutes I found myself riding alone at the front of the group. I took advantage of the solitude to clear my head and enjoy the scenery around me. There was a scheduled detour off one of the gravel roads to view some rapids that would have added about 8 miles to the day. However, after experiencing the flooding the day before, most of us skipped this detour, since it covered some off-the-beaten-path “roads” that were likely wet. It turns out this was definitely the case. When my Garmin told me to turn right on this detour, I looked to my right to see the road covered in mud and water. That would have not been fun on a loaded gravel bike with 45c tires.
After about 2 hours of solo riding, I was caught by a group of four to fiver riders. We rolled into camp together, which was a fishing camp called Scouts Lodge, located on the Econfina River. This camp had cabins but also had some space for tents. Hammock spots were sparse, so I was glad I arrived early. After looking around for 15 minutes I found two appropriately-spaced trees, set up my hammock and then showered in one of the cabins. Riders began trickling in during the afternoon, most notably a couple who rolled in right at nightfall. He had been taking his time, as the longest ride he had ever done before the tour was 25 miles. Way to go! The owners of Scouts Lodge cooked a spaghetti dinner for the group that night, and it was delicious. I turned in about 10 PM again, a bit tired but also excited about completing the tour the next day.
Day 2 vlog
Tour - Day 3 - 68 miles
This third and final stage was reportedly the most epic of the tour, and that was true! Most of this stage is in the Big Bend Wildlife Management area, a huge tract of land in the armpit of Florida. We rolled out of Scouts Lodge, turning right on a gravel road. We rolled gravel along the marshlands of Florida’s coast. A few miles into the ride the road crossed a beautiful, paved landbridge with an observation tower on the other side. I pulled off and climbed the three story tower and took some time to take in the marsh landscape that ended at the Gulf of Mexico. After saddling back up I continued on mile after mile of pristine gravel roads. I opted to carry my bike through several water crossings that were calf to knee deep. Although incredibly flat, much of the roads were through wooded areas with welcomed shade. This was the third day in a row of sunny, blue skies. April is typically a perfect weather month in Florida. Temperatures are still fairly mild and humidity is low by Florida standards.
Crossing a land bridge next to Florida’s coast, just a few miles into day 3
I soon caught Ryan, a rider from south Florida who I had ridden with the day before. We kept a similar pace so it was nice to have company at times on the tour. Ryan had a bluetooth speaker on one of his bags which amped up the mood as we covered mile after mile of remote gravel roads (I added a small bluetooth speaker to my bikepacking gear list after this ride). The first 30+ miles of this stage were some of the most remote gravel roads I’ve ever ridden. We saw barely a vehicle, human or building for most of the morning. Ryan and I rolled into our lunch stop together, which was a dive bar in Keaton Beach, Florida.
View from the observation tower
Walking out of the brilliant sunshine into a dark, empty bar & restaurant was quite a contrast. The restaurant was just opening and we were the first customers of the day. I was greeted by a couple of life-sized cutouts of Donald Trump…no hiding political affiliations in this place. I grabbed a menu and went back outside to hang with my new bikepacking friends, who began trickling in and adding to the group of hungry riders. I glanced over the menu, which was a fare of burgers, hotdogs and fried food. This was not my style of food so I opted to lighten my load by cooking another camp meal. I repeated my humourous task that I had performed about the same time the day before and began unloading my stove, cooking pot, water and camp food.
Viewing a river from a bridge on day 3
I really enjoyed getting to know the various riders on this tour, which covered ages from 20’s to 70’s and from several different states. At this lunch stop I talked with a couple in their late 60’s who, just a few years before, had done a wandering, self-supported tour across the United States that covered thousands of miles. Talk about inspiration! After about an hour of rehydrating, refueling, resting and chatting, we headed out for our final miles of this tour.
The sun was in full blaze with very little shade for the next 15 miles, which covered a fair amount of payment. I joined another rider, Kat, who was having trouble with her rear tire. We pumped it up a few times with not much success. I had a small bottle of Stan’s tire sealant that I dumped into the tire, and that did the trick. We were joined by Ryan and a few other riders to form a gear-loaded peloton. We turned onto more really nice gravel roads that fortunately had some more shade, still in the Big Bend Wildlife Management area.
We finally rolled back into Steinhatchee late afternoon. Some of the riders turned off into a restaurant to grab some lunch before driving back home. Although I wanted to hang with them a bit longer, I was really missing my wife and was ready to make the 75 minute drive back home. I had work the next day and also needed some time to put away my gear and chill.
After three days and 210 miles with like-minded individuals, I would say my experience of completing first bikepacking tour was a huge success. The sunny and mild weather definitely eased me into the world of bikepacking tours. I know three days of pure sunshine and fairly mild temperatures is never a guarantee... but I’ll take it! A rainy three days (as well as a host of other things that could have gone wrong with this many miles mixed with camping) might have changed my opinion. But I can confidently say bikepacking is now another dimension to my cycling, and this is the start of new adventures. Thank you so much for reading and remember to keep exploring!
Day 3 vlog
