Bikepacking in Cuba and Colorado
Bikepacking adventures in Cuba and Colorado, By Glenmore Lodge Mountain Bike Instructor Emma Holgate
WARNING! Reading this post will lead to extreme feelings of wanderlust and a deep seated need to plan a biking adventure!
Cuba
What is Bikepacking? My interpretation is mixed terrain cycle touring, with more technical luggage carrying systems for sleeping kit, food and basic bike items.
Lucy Scott, Sally Ozanne and I are already cyclists, how hard can bikepacking be? This was our thought process as friends when we chatted about doing a new adventure together in 2018.
Please note before we go any further, we are known for our outrageous ideas. All three of us were trainee Instructors at Glenmore Lodge between 2005-2008, so between us we have many qualifications in the outdoor industry, trained by some of my current colleagues and with experiences ranging from adventure racing all over the world, to climbing at a high level in the Alps, to racing mountain bikes competitively throughout Europe.
We fancied an adventure and we found the website www.bikepacking.com – it is full of inspiration, challenges and useful info, which just fueled our ambition and excitement to use our good mountain bike skills to try something a bit different.
A search of the internet showed that in January 2018 there were some cheap flights to Cuba (remember those days?!), so why not, it ticked the boxes. The goal was a route traveling from one end of the island to the other. It would be warm but not too warm with loads of culture, mountains, beaches and a new destination for us all.
So this is how our bikepacking kicked off. We muddled together some cheap kit and borrowed from my local bike shop ( I promised to make a film for the local film festival in return!). My first ever film oooft, what had I set myself up for?! Answer = an adventure in so many ways.
The film – Bikepacking Havana’s – Cuba 2018 will give you an incite into our adventure and will do more to share the buzz than anything I can write here. I hope you enjoy it.
On this trip we had a month to make it work, and it took us the first two week to work out how to pack our bags, how to fit them to our bikes, how to navigate with very poor maps and learn about how the Cuban culture worked. So by choosing Cuba we had the time to work this out in dry sunny conditions, where staying warm was not a major issue.
If you are restricted to time and have the unpredictable UK mountain weather to consider, then use any spare time you have before your trip to practice packing and fitting the bags, as well as planning your route.
I was amazed at how much practice helped with making this activity slick and an efficient way to travel!
Our first few days in Cuba were faffy, slow, and we did not cover much ground. We wondered if we should have allowed 2 months to travel 1000 miles! Fast forward a couple of years and I have now taken all that learning gained from trips like the Cuba experience. I’ve now raced 550 miles in rugged terrain with huge amounts of ascent each day in under 10 days. This could only be possible due to building familiarity with the kit and gaining a whole host of other skills. Skills such as cooking outside with camping stoves and what on earth to cook to power the legs on the following day, to how to navigate smoothly and effectively. The list goes on!
Laundry day
Since this initial bikepacking trip I have done many more. Two that stand out the most, a 550 mile multi day, self-supported race in Colorado and a circumnavigation of the Cairngorms, in Scotland, a super social explore.
Fish butties
Endless trails
Down in the jungle
End point
Colorado
An experienced bikepacking friend (Annie Lloyd-Evans) who I had come to know through the biking world met me for a cup of tea in the spring of 2018 and she said she had found this self supported race in Colorado that was 550 miles, with a height gain during the route of almost 23,000m and she told me the record for the race was just under 4 days, and how she really wanted to go and do it in 2019.
Oh my goodness, I thought, why would you do that to yourself, you could go to Colorado get loads of uplift and just shred the immense network of trails instead! That was my initial response! Her and her partner Huw Oliver, a freelance member of the bike department at Glenmore Lodge, were going to do it and she added at the end; “you are welcome to join us”. My response “hmm probably not”.
However she had planted the seed, she told me more about it each time I rode and drank tea with her. There was a year to build the excitement and I had a year to convince myself that it can’t be that hard. The next thing I knew I was booking flights for my first ever trip to the US!
This same year I joined the team at Glenmore Lodge; that was a dream come true. The excitement levels for 2019 were high. Within my first week in my new job I asked if I could take a month off to do this ridiculous but incredible race the other side of the world.
It is now July 2019. Annie and Huw had more time than I did, so they headed out to Colorado early and pre-rode part of the route before I joined them. My first message back from Annie after her arrival in country was: “Emma! Colorado is so amazing! Like so much better than anything! Although we are making like 20 miles per day…and riding at 3500m is hard! But we are going to be so happy when you get here. Make sure your setup is solid, there is plenty of chunky monkey style trail. And go as light as you can cause climbing is hard”.
In comparison to Cuba, my prep, packing and kit had to be precise and practiced. I weighed each item I was to carry and what I was carrying it in, I cut unnecessary straps off for my set up to make every gram count. I remained safe with the kit I was to carry in case of incident or accident in such hostile areas I would be riding, but I was as minimalistic as I felt I could be without losing too much comfort in riding, sleeping and eating. A balance that is very personal to each rider and adapted every time you journey and ride. I learnt from others and my own experiences, I sought advice from colleagues with experiences of going fast and light in different sports and made sure my bike was as mechanically sound as I could make it, with good knowledge of all parts in case of requirement for a trailside repair.
This was my biggest challenge yet, mentally and physically. Check out my film for how I got on and the highs and lows of the journey:
ColoRADo Trail Race 2019:
Day One, path across scree
Time for treats
Endless single track
Good use of self timer!
Room with a view
Bike set up
About Emma Holgate
Photo credit Huw Oliver
Emma joined Glenmore Lodge as a Mountain Bike Instructor in 2019 and delivers training on a range of skills and qualification courses including trail riding and bikepacking trips.
Emma races enduro, often with podium positions and has ridden her bike on expeditions all over the world for the last 12 years. Guiding, coaching and tutoring others throughout the north of Scotland on her bike, forming kids clubs, organising festivals, assessing new leaders. Emma is also a partner in a local bike shop, with an in-depth knowledge of the bike industry.
As a British Cycling tutor, Emma is working closely with Scottish Cycling to develop the sport and bring more riders into leadership roles.
Big mountain riding is one of her passions but another is also to be in the mountains on her skis during the winter months.