Taking my friends bikepacking for the first time
Ten hours after the Knicks won the NBA Finals
It’s Sunday, June 14th. The Knicks won their first title in 53 years last night. I’m hungover. Everyone I know is hungover. I’m pretty sure Madison woke up in Herbert Von King Park. But we’ve got a train to catch.
I’ve been bikepacking, bike touring, or whatever you want to call it, for five years now. It started as a way to emerge out of the isolation of Covid, but it’s a hobby that has since stuck with me. My friends have noticed too, they’ve seen how much fun it can be and a lot of them have either joined me or asked about joining me.
There is one group of friends that I just hadn’t managed to get together for a trip yet, a mix of RISD grads and a bunch of North Carolinians. They all upgraded their bikes three years ago in preparation, but it was difficult to get everyone to commit to a weekend. To take charge and make it happen I set aside a weekend in April, made a whole fucking PowerPoint about bikepacking, and presented to a group of friends with the goal of making plans on the spot.
We ended up choosing Saturday, June 13th - the day the Knicks closed out the Spurs. I guess everyone wanted to keep the good vibes going, because all twelve of us took Monday off and shifted the trip to Sunday night.
None of us made the 7am train, but Jimmy and I made the 9am. Most of the rest of the group caught the 11am, and those who woke up in the park managed to catch the 1pm. With 22 total miles each day, a cute town on the way, and a deep blue swimming hole waiting for us at the campsite, there was nothing to stress out about. Normally, I don’t like a group larger than myself and five others. But this entirely car-free route made it easy to not be constantly thinking about the safety of the group. It really was the easiest possible trip.
My goal is get my friends comfortable with mapping and leading their own bikepacking trips. It is such a rewarding experience because you can cover tons of ground in a day but it’s much easier to stop and appreciate the mundane than it would be in a car, and it’s much easier to cover ground and keep moving that it would be while hiking. I asked everyone in the morning how comfortable they would be if they were to bikepack without me, and I was thrilled to hear that many of them were already thinking about their next bike adventure.
That first trip is the hardest. But once it’s done you realize how easy it can be. Your first bikepacking trip doesn’t have to be a 10-day journey across New York State (like mine was, oops) or a loop around Vermont’s Green Mountains (sorry Nelly). It can be a four-mile trip to your closest campground if you want, hell you can camp in a cemetery if you’re stealthy enough.
While this was a great trip and it was amazing to get out of NYC with 12 friends, I’ve come close to completing my route backlog. Most of the overnighters I’ve had planned in the Hudson Valley have now been ridden, and I need to head into New Jersey or Connecticut if I’m looking for a new overnight trip. There’s nothing planned yet, but maybe I’ll have some fun trip reports in the fall.
