Moving with Time: The Evolution of the Stagecoach 400

With additional photos by Evan Christenson

The 14th annual Stagecoach 400 took off from Idyllwild, California, on April 4th this year, following Meg Knobel’s newly revised “Figure 8” route, a significant departure from the event’s classic “Lollipop” shape. The Figure 8, unique for the 2025 grand depart, is a fitting update for a ride that’s seen a lot of changes over the years. I tuned in to this year’s event with eyes and ears focused on this theme of evolution—for the event and for myself, the Stagecoach 400’s creator-turned-observer.

Personal Evolution

I created the Stagecoach 400 bikepacking route in 2012 after noticing that some of my map tracks from various impromptu bikepacking trips could nearly be put together to create a “grand loop” to highlight the area. My bikepacking in those days was mostly motivated by reaching destinations from Idyllwild. 

I had a large printed map of Southern California back then, about six feet wide. I would look at that map, imagine where I’d like to ride, and just go there. I could ride anywhere I could dream up, given enough time, and I had all the time in the world. 

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I enjoyed many side quests in those early days of route development: bikes blowing up with mechanical issues at inopportune times and learning life lessons from old folks and young ones alike. I once met Larry Roeseller, the winningest Baja 1000 racer of all time, and talked about bike camping over beers at the Iron Door Saloon.

I look back at those times now through the perspective of a new life situation, both as a rider and as a person. Time moved slowly. I spent my days pondering new routes and riding hard. Weekends were long, and I owned a bike shop where our motto was, “Ride Fast, Live Slow.”

Today, time is accelerating. I feel like I’m an hour or two behind with whatever I’m supposed to be doing, and most of my free time is a tradeoff between running errands or doing the things I enjoy—and neither choice is entirely correct. There’s never enough time to do it all. 

I’m less integrated in the bikepacking community these days, though not totally apart from it, either. I haven’t ridden the Stagecoach 400 since the Sideshow in 2023, but I often like to troll around the route during the grand depart. I usually come out for the pre-ride meeting, aka the “puffy jacket convention” that’s typically held in a public space in Idyllwild, followed by some socializing at the Idyllwild Brewpub. I can usually keep up when the conversation centers around the general concepts of bikepacking—how to ride in the sand, the best strategies for finding a campsite in suboptimal conditions, and so forth—but I tend to fade off when the convo shifts to recent years’ individual rider performances, new changes to the route, or access issues within certain land management areas. In years past, I was the one fielding questions from new riders or strategizing with return riders on approaching the current year’s new challenges. Today, I find myself a bit out of the loop with the latest who’s who and what’s what. 

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Although I’ve let go of Stagecoach for the most part, I’m not leaving it entirely, either. I still enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth with Meg, and I’m enjoying creating the new bikepacking routes like The Desert Collective, which could interact with and complement the Stagecoach 400 in the near future.  

Riding with a Changing Climate

Much of the Stagecoach 400’s organization over the years has been mired in climate issues: wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and “unseasonal” snowstorms. The route has never fully realized its potential for singletrack, especially in the Idyllwild area, where most of the trails we included in the first grand depart were burned in 2013 and again in 2018– both times by explosive “historic” wildfires that profoundly changed access the nature of the trails in the local area. 

Climate change affected our 2019 grand depart, too, after a “hundred year flood” hit Idyllwild on Valentine’s Day, destroying two of the three roads in and out of the area and severely limiting access to the remaining road.  We were forced to start the event in San Diego that year to compensate.

Other grand departs were affected, too, from dangerous cold, a global pandemic, and heavy snow that necessitated last-minute route changes. The climate has been so volatile that “good weather” is now the noteworthy exception to an event often quantified by extremes. The new “non-manager” of Stagecoach 400 Meg Knobel observes, “The weather is getting weirder and weirder in unpredictable ways. The storms come at the wrong time now.”

Meg mentioned how climate woes have affected the route in meaningful ways during her tenure so far; an early season rainstorm in the mountains that was warmer and wetter than expected washed out a large section of Coyote Canyon below the Middle Willows, closing it to auto traffic for the past two years. This, in turn, changed the rideability of this section, making it softer and slower than years past, which affected riders’ expected finish times, especially those gunning for the FKT. 

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Other sections she’d added in San Diego flooded as well and needed to be removed just before the depart, shortening the course to about 360 miles and lowering finish times. The requirement to change the course for weather reasons inspired Meg to change the route altogether and to make it “FKT-proof,” with the 2025 course taking on an entirely new shape and adding more mileage. 

Meg had been receiving emails from prospective riders asking about the route changes, particularly regarding adjustments to make a comparable course to chase the FKT. “At 360 miles, there was no way I could make a route to compare for FKT time. That was the inspiration to fully get rid of it. I was finally done [catering to] that. [FKT racers] are part of it, but they’re not most of it,” she said. 

This year’s Figure 8 route was well received, with multi-year route finishers reporting appreciation for the change and first-timers noting a more level playing field as a result of everyone going into the new route without established information.

Frances Hacker said of the new route, “One thing that felt really unique about the experience was taking on a race where I had not ridden any of the course previously. This was a totally new experience for me and brought a whole new level of challenge. I took for granted how much metal energy is relieved by knowing what’s ahead, terrain-wise, and having all the best resupplies dialed in. It was also so cool to have this new experience. It was a grand adventure!”

Notably, the 2025 Grand Depart was exceptional in that this year’s weather was ideal. No last-minute route changes, no stressing about high heat or deep snow… nothing. It was remarkable in its unremarkability, and it went off without a hitch. 

A Cultural Shift: Who’s Riding Now?

Today’s Stagecoach 400 rider community is bigger, more inclusive, and faster than ever. The riders are younger and more diverse than in years past. Whereas we used to have occasional women finishers, women now make up a significant portion of the field, and a non-binary category ensures all are included. Back at the start in 2012, we’d promoted the ride as a viable shakedown for riders heading to the Tour Divide in June, but that sort of prep for other events is pretty much an afterthought these days. The shift away from a Tour Divide focus has allowed the Stagecoach 400 to fully stand on its own as a destination event that riders prepare for in and of itself. 

Rider speed, on average, is increasing as well. The front of the pack is larger, with approximately 30 percent more riders finishing around the three-day mark or faster. Notably, many of these lead pack riders are non-male. Meg Knobel attributes the shift toward a faster front and mid-pack to a variety of factors, including the downward-trending average age, more ride “beta” available online to help prepare riders’ logistical expectations, and a widening breadth of other middle-distance bikepacking events for riders to attend. With more events comes more experience, and with more experience comes faster finishing times. 

Some riders get hooked by the experience of doing this and other events. That experience can be community driven, or it can be race driven, or it can be both. Gregg Dunham, age 46, from Thousand Oaks, California, first took on the Stagecoach 400 to test his abilities. Like many others, the ride got under his skin, and he was called to return again and again. Reflecting on his experiences, he said, “After that first ITT, I was hooked. I kept coming back, chasing time, chasing something deeper. It became a ritual; show up, break yourself down, build something stronger.” 

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Incidentally, the ride also sparked a friendship between Gregg and Jason Shafer, who together created the Escape LA bikepacking event, a 300+ mile ride that takes place in November. Gregg says of their event, “We hold the belief that the harder you push into the unknown, the more alive you come out.”

Sam Johnstone, 68 years young, from Julian, California, began riding Stagecoach in 2013 and has returned almost every year since for friends he’s met along the way. He says he feels a camaraderie on the ride, as well as a personal peace on the occasions when he’s riding alone. “Being on the trail for hours at a time gives you ample time to think. It’s taught me to be patient with my surroundings and myself. I have learned to be comfortable with myself no matter the circumstances through riding my bike on this route,” he added. 

The Event as a Moment in Time

With a changing climate, a route that’s often in flux, and a rotation of new riders, the Stagecoach 400 sometimes feels like a snapshot in time. There’s always the story of what’s at the essence of the Stagecoach 400—what it is to ride this event—but there’s also the story of what happens in a given year with a unique set of conditions and group of riders. We had a film crew this year, headed by Gregg Dunham, out on the course to document the experience and tell those stories. 

“I’m making the Stagecoach 400 film to capture this moment in time. To show what it feels like to throw yourself at something hard, to get broken open by it, and to find belonging with the people who do the same. This film will be a snapshot of a time and culture. A time when we are still strong, still reaching, still wild enough to believe a few days in the dirt can change everything,” Gregg said. 

That sentiment resonates deeply with me. The 2025 Grand Depart coincided with a major life change, as I was preparing to relocate away from Idyllwild, my home of 19 years, and move to the high desert of Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. Like the Stagecoach 400, my personal evolution with this relocation is affected in part by climate change and shifting priorities in my personal life. I gave my film interview with Gregg inside my Idyllwild home on one of my last days in that house, on furniture that is no longer there, at a home address that is no longer mine. That house is now empty and is currently listed for sale. 

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Meg Knobel, too, recognizes the temporal nature of the Stagecoach 400, and our gratitude for Gregg’s spearheading of the film documentary. Meg and her husband Peter, who are well-known to be animal lovers, lost their dear dog Javi shortly before the grand depart and then suddenly lost their cat, Izzy, during the event. 

“The loss of two pets parallels all the changes we’re afraid of in the world. Our stability was ripped out from under us. I’ll get what I need from this, going camping and putting my head into the event,” Meg said of the unexpected heartbreak and her desire to spend a night in Coyote Canyon as the riders were on course. To be present among friends in a beautiful canyon with her bike and some camping gear. 

Meg further explained her appreciation for the documentary film, now underway, “I want to make sure we can remember something before it goes away. I have no intention to get rid of Stagecoach, but who knows what will change. We are happy and healthy now, and I want to tell that story.” 

A Future Unwritten

While Meg has no plans to get rid of Stagecoach 400 anytime soon, we don’t know how it will evolve in the future, either. It was among the earlier big bikepacking events, all of which are still relatively new in the grand scheme of things. We don’t know the story arc of these events. We don’t know where this is going or how long it will last. As we evolve, so does the event. Many of us have become keenly aware of the importance of the now; what it feels like to celebrate the long weekend in spring when we commune on the trail no matter the route or the weather. We get together for the now

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