Rout3: Bikepacking Routes Challenge

Bikepacking routes are the crux of BIKEPACKING.com. They’re why we started this site in the first place and we take pride in managing the first and largest network of bikepacking routes on the web.

We already have a core group of talented route designers and contributors to thank for the wonderful collection of rides on this site. But we’d love more folks to be involved as we grow and improve this resource. We’re calling upon bikepackers with great local knowledge of their own trails and dirt roads. And riders up for the challenge of devising ingenious, inspiring trips for others to experience and enjoy.

To help spur this growth, last year we held our first bikepacking routes competition, concentrating on weekend adventures. We shared the ten best entries over the summer to great success. This year, we’re stepping it up with bigger prizes and a longer timeframe, thanks our site sponsors Revelate Designs and Surly Bikes. We hope you’re up for the Route3 Challenge!

Three is the Magic Number!

As much as we all love both big trips and easily accessible overnighters, there’s a lot to be said for three-day or three-night bikepacks. Such experiences are long enough to glean a real sense of journey and a genuine feeling of escape. Yet with a little extra planning, the three-day timeframe is one that slots within most people’s day to day lives. Plus, it’s long enough to allow the creative freedom to weave together a fantastic, uplifting, and inspiring route.

What are we looking for? In short, we’re after the very best routes you can come up with, accompanied by evocative, inspiring photography and reliable mapping. Routes that share the very best of your favorite local bikepacking destinations with like-minded visitors. Routes infused with beautiful landscapes, fantastic terrain, fascinating history, or great campsites. 3 days/2 nights or 3 nights/4 days… you decide! As ever, our emphasis is on trails, dirt roads, and where necessary, low-traffic pavement. It goes without saying that all routes must be 100% legal. As an example, here’s a link to last year’s winner, by Colt Fetters. Also, two that were runners up, here and here. Note: we expect this year’s routes to be a little longer for a full three or four days, as mentioned.

Routes can be submitted from all over the world. Ultimately, we’ll choose one Best in Show, three Runners-Up, and three Honorable Mentions. Contributors have three months from today to plan, ride, document, and submit your route. We’ll showcase and publish the top seven in August and the winners will each receive a prize package (outlined below), as well as having their bikepacking masterpieces published on BIKEPACKING.com. In addition, the winning route will have a custom badge designed to help promote and commemorate it.

(1) Rout3 Best in Show*

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(3) Rout3 Runners-up*

Given how hard it was to choose last year’s winner, for 2017 we’re offering 3 runners-up a second tier prize package:

• 1 Revelate Designs MagTank: This is Revelate Designs’ interesting new take on the top tube bag, check out our review here.
• 1 Surly Tool Bag: A little ditty sack for your tools and spares.
• BIKEPACKING.com stuff: One Ride. Camp. Repeat. t-shirt; dark gray with skull on front and badge on back. A Ride. Camp. Repeat. patch kit — includes three patches and stickers.
• Grab Bag Bonus prize: Something from the BIKEPACKING.com vaults; could be a bag, might be a new pair of tires! It’ll be good though.

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(3) Rout3 Honorable Mentions*

And because we appreciate how much hard work goes into creating a great route, we have a further collection of prizes to offer too…

• 1 Revelate Designs MagTank: This is Revelate Designs’ interesting new take on the top tube bag, check out our review here.
• Three BIKEPACKING.com patches

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Routes will be judged based on several factors including the above concepts, quality of photography, and general inspirational radness. If you can think up a good route name, so much the better!

To submit a route, click here and fill out the form. Include a link to at least 10 sample photographs (we prefer Google Drive), a link to the map (we prefer RideWithGPS), and a 150-300 word description. If your route is selected, requirements for the published route include at least 20 quality photographs of the route (30-40 is preferable), final copy and bullet points (we’ll provide a template). Here are a few more things to consider while documenting your ride:

Is the route one you’d ‘write home about’?

There are countless potential bikepacking routes in the world. We’re looking for high quality, well conceived routes — the best routes that are worth the travel time and expense to get there – such as the Kokopelli Trail in Colorado/Utah, Arizona’s Black Canyon Trail, the Green Mountain Gravel Growler in Vermont, or New Mexico’s Chama Charmer. They can be themed around singletrack, challenging or otherwise, or forest roads and gravel. But just because they’re hard or have never been done before… doesn’t necessarily make them great routes!

Route photography

Inspiring, high-quality photography is important to us at BIKEPACKING.com. Your route needs to include photos taken on a decent camera (a step above a mobile phone). Photos should cover several aspects of the route including trail shots, riding shots, camping photos, and other interesting details (see below for specifics).

GPS File

An unbroken GPS file of the full route is required for submission. We use RideWithGPS for embedding, so it’s preferable for you to load your route onto RWGPS, add POIs (Points Of Interest), and send us the link. Keep in mind that you can also tweak the GPX on RWGPS, or just fully record it using a Garmin or other device.

*Contest Rules: We’ve tried to keep it simple for this one. The competition is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. Submissions are due at 11:59PM EST on August 17th, 2017. Within the US, all shipping costs are covered. However, should overseas shipping/taxes/duty exceed the values set below, winners are responsible for covering additional costs. Grand Prize included shipping value US$75; Runners-Up included shipping/duty/tax value US$25; Honorable Mentions included shipping/duty/tax value US$25. In joining this competition, please ride at your own risk; neither BIKEPACKING.com LLC, Surly Bikes, nor Revelate Designs are responsible for your actions as they pertain to this contest. Minimum 20 entries required; we reserve the right to extend dates.

SUBMIT YOUR ROUT3!

Thanks to Gabriel Amadeus for the main photo…