100,000 Miles and Beyond / Calling all Route Creators

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By Logan Watts

Founding Editor & Routes Director

2,140 Posts

Bikepacking routes are the backbone of the resource and community we’ve built throughout the past decade, and we recently marked the milestone of 100,000 miles worth of routes around the world. To commemorate the occasion and look toward the future, we’re calling on new and experienced route creators to share exciting routes of all sizes. Learn about the history of our bikepacking routes archive and help it grow by submitting yours here…

We first launched our bikepacking routes map back in 2014—the Bikepacking Routes Project, as it was called back then. Our goal was simple: to collaborate with talented route creators and share routes that we were excited to ride ourselves. We started with established routes from a handful of intrepid route creators and became the first organization to curate, support, and publish community-contributed bikepacking route guides. We were also the first to focus primarily on off-road bikepacking and develop new routes and maintain them through dedicated Route Stewards and community support. Our bikepacking route network has expanded considerably since then, and it now showcases nearly 400 routes that span 100,000 miles throughout the world. The varied routes in our archive range from approachable Local Overnighters to weekend loops to multi-month expeditions.

First and foremost, we’d like to offer a sincere thank you to the many route creators who have put time and energy into these resources, and to all of you who are riding them and sharing the stoke. We acknowledge and truly appreciate the work you’ve put into creating them, sharing those efforts on our platform, and getting the word out to the community. Countless people have enjoyed these routes over the years, and we love seeing reports come in from folks who were inspired to follow them on adventures of their own.

We value these routes and see them as a means to sustaining our unique platform for future generations of bikepackers. We also want to extend an invitation to both new and experienced route creators to submit work for review and possible inclusion within our network. We’re looking for locals interested in sharing their knowledge through overnighter and weekend routes, as well as established route makers working on aspirational week or month-long routes that could benefit from financial assistance to fully develop their concept and start attracting riders. In addition, we want to continue to fill in the map with top-quality existing routes that have yet to be added to our library.

To accomplish this, we set aside a significant percentage of annual Bikepacking Collective membership dues to fund the creation of new routes and route guides, and this funding is bolstered by our longstanding track record and expertise in design, creative, editing, and platform support, as well as potential corporate sponsorship made possible from our wide-reaching viewership and network of likeminded brands. Additionally, routes in our network benefit from built-in tools such as Route Alerts, Bucket List, comments and conversation driven by our readership, and other forthcoming functionality.

To suggest your route or pitch an idea, check out the guidelines below and use the form at the bottom of this page to submit it.

• We’re looking for routes that are well-researched and have been ridden, re-ridden, and refined to create an exceptional multi-day bikepacking experience; Or, routes that are in development and being created from a passion and deep knowledge of the area in which they travel;
• We prioritize routes that emphasize conservation and environmental stewardship, humanitarian storytelling, historic representation, and advocacy for lands or communities;
• Routes developed by route creators who are local to the area and have deep knowledge of their local trails/dirt roads are also prioritized;
• Similarly, we like routes created by individuals who have a passion for maintaining and advocating for the routes they create as ongoing Route Stewards;
• We look for route design that demonstrates careful attention to logistics with accessible start/end points, marked and documented resupply points, and clear, well-placed camping options;
• The route must consist of at least 50% unpaved surfaces (we prefer over 65%), and any paved roads should be relatively safe with low traffic; the route must be fully legally accessible by bike; In the interest of promoting ride-to and not drive-to routes from urban areas, overnighters and weekend loops that leave from a city can include bike paths as ‘unpaved’ and factor in some ‘free’ paved miles to the starting point;
• If the route is finished, it must be well-documented with inspiring photography or have the potential to be ridden and photographed by a Route Scout;
• If the route is in the development phase and shows great promise, an additional photography/planning budget may be allocated to help cover costs of putting it together.

Our 100,000-mile Bikepacking Route Network was made possible through the generous support of our Bikepacking Collective members. As with all of our detailed in-depth reviews, and daily news, stories, and event coverage, these route guides are available to the public for free. If you appreciate what we do here at BIKEPACKING.com, consider joining to support our efforts.

Further Reading

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