Following up on his gear-centric Q&A, this article explores everything food-related from Kurt Refsnider’s 3-month adventure last summer riding the length of the Continental Divide Trail (the bike-legal sections, that is). That trip was documented here on The Radavist in a series of articles – if you want to read more about the adventure, you can find those here.
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Continental Divide Trail Q&A Part One: What Did I Pack For My Toughest Bike Trip Yet?
Last summer, Kurt Refsnider rode the length of the Continental Divide Trail (the bike-legal sections, that is) over the course of three months and documented the journey in a series of articles here on The Radavist. You can find those here. This article is the first of a two-part Q&A series about Kurt’s gear choices and bike setup. The subsequent second part will be all about food planning and eating on a 3,000-mile singletrack adventure.
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Offroad to Unbound: What if We Rode There?
Pedaling 1,400 miles from the highlands of Arizona to the plains of Kansas for a gravel race might not seem like the ideal lead-up to a long event, but ultra-endurance bikepacker and regular Radavist contributor Kurt Refsnider was convinced that taking the long way to Unbound was a journey worth pursuing. Join Kurt and Kait Boyle on an off-road ride to the world’s premier gravel event in Emporia.
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Kurt Refsnider Answers Your Questions About Riding Across Alaska on the Iditarod Trail
With its high consequences and steep gear-barrier to entry, winter bikepacking and backcountry travel can be an intimidating pursuit. After touring the complete, nearly 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail across Alaska in early 2023, Kurt Refsnider answers the questions he got from followers along the trail. Read on for a brief history of this legendary trail, Kurt’s complete gear list, and the challenges you can expect to encounter along the way.
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Radar Roundup: Fabrica de Rosas Grand Opening, Cedaero Moon Lander Hip Pack, RWGPS QuickNav, Tout Terrain in North America, King Cage Dust Pans, MASON Winter Solstice Social, Kool Stop Triple Compound, Princeton Carbon Works Rim Brake Wheels, and Kurt’s CDT Tour on Bikes or Death
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Updates From the CDT Part 4: Resistance and Enchantment Through the Final Miles
What does it mean to ride the 3,300-mile spine of the Continental Divide, from the Canadian to Mexican border across the United States? Very few people can say, but Kurt Refsnider can now count himself among them. In his fourth installment from the Continental Divide Trail, Kurt writes about the final miles through a geologist’s lens and how New Mexico held just as much resistance as it did enchantment.
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Updates From the CDT Part 3; Wyoming – The Easiest and Toughest of Miles
Now nearly two months and 2,000 miles into this journey, Kurt Refsnider shares more stories from his progress so far riding the entirety of the Continental Divide Trail.
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What’s on Kurt Refsnider’s Bike? How to Pack for Self-Reliance in the Backcountry
Members of our editorial team have shared multiple looks into “essential ride kits” this year, including one from John and another by Travis. Today, Kurt Refsnider – ultra-endurance bikepacker and backcountry trail adventurer – takes a different approach to detailing what he carries on big rides where his priority is self-reliance regardless of the scenario. Read on below for a trove of helpful information about one of Kurt’s most requested topics!
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Updates From the CDT: 1,000 Miles of Singletrack Across Montana
One month in, 1,000 miles ridden and with Montana in the rearview, Kurt Refsnider shares stories from his progress so far riding the entirety of the Continental Divide Trail. As Kurt tells it, it’s been slow going but he hasn’t yet once questioned his desire to take on this monumental backcountry route.
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Following Decade-old Tire Tracks: Kurt Refsnider Sets out on the Continental Divide Trail
As you read this, the last remaining dots on the 2023 Tour Divide are probably still trickling towards its southern terminus. Meanwhile, Kurt Refsnider is gearing up for a parallel but far more ambitious adventure of his own. An adventure that only three other humans have ever completed on bicycles. The Continental Divide Trail, like the Tour Divide route, runs from Canada to Mexico and tracks along the Continental Divide. But unlike the Tour Divide, the CDT is almost entirely singletrack.
This article will be the first of many that Kurt will be sharing about his ponderous trek. He starts by outlining the route, telling us where the idea came from, and detailing the years of planning that got him ready to take the plunge. Stay tuned. We definitely will.
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Liquid Gold: How to Find Water on Big Desert Rides
The remote arid lands of the United States’ West have always called strongly to me – the sandstone canyon country of the Colorado Plateau, the broad detritus-filled valleys and formidable ranges of the Great Basin, and the cactus forests of the Sonoran Desert to name a few. These characteristically dry landscapes all exude a unique, powerful beauty and a particularly intimidating shared aura arising from the scarcity of water. Beyond that, broad swaths of these regions are sparsely inhabited, and that remoteness combined with the aridity can be especially challenging for anyone looking to adventure in the backcountry, whether it’s for single- or multiple-day outings. But in many areas, the water is out there if you know where to find it and plan your route with that in mind, and in this article, I am going to walk through my process for planning out trips in the desert.
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The Gamble of Winter Bikepacking in Wyoming’s Gros Ventre
The peaks of Wyoming’s Gros Ventre Range might not be quite as photogenic as the towering, craggy summits of the nearby Tetons, but snaking through the Gros Ventres just west of the Continental Divide is something the Tetons lack – a substantial network of mostly-groomed winter trails. I didn’t know much about the trails, but looking at topo maps of the area, it looked impressively rugged terrain, much more so than other places where I’ve done longer rides on a fat bike. Last January, I was in the nearby Teton Valley, and looking for a change of scenery and trails, Kait Boyle and I decided to venture over to the Gros Ventres for a few days to see just what the winter riding was like.
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A Shop Visit to Wildflower Cycles in Superior, Wisconsin
Back in June of 2021, I found myself way up north in Duluth, Minnesota. I was there with my teammate Kait Boyle for a Backcountry Bike Challenge fundraising event for the local advocacy organization, Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores (COGGS) and to ride the Duluth Traverse. COGGS had been working on the 45-mile-long Duluth Traverse for years, building and linking together trails on the highlands above town, and we wanted to experience what they had created. But this was also a trip back to where I spent quite a bit of time as a kid that grew up just a couple hours to the south near Minneapolis, albeit in a decade when there were far, far fewer trails in the area. I’ll save the story of just how impressive the Duluth Traverse is for another time since you’re probably here to read about Wildflower Bicycles’ beautiful bikes rather than beautiful trails. But first, let me share why I was especially excited to visit the shop of a new-to-the-Midwest frame builder and the only one in the Duluth-Superior area.
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A Bicycle Tour through the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
Across the road from a sprawling old corral with a dozen or more cattle pens constructed from creosote-laden boards and discarded railroad ties stood a small stone monument. It commemorated an earthen dam, behind which was a very small but empty reservoir at the foot of a butte called Coyote Peak.
“If it were not for strongmen like Bob Crowder,” the metal plaque read, “with the fortitude and ambition to develop water in these vast desert areas, there would be no game and no livestock today.”
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Nine days, 350 miles, and Awe: Bikepacking Southern Utah’s Henry Mountains
The Henry Mountains of southern Utah have fascinated me ever since one of my geology professors in graduate school eloquently described their unique setting and their unlikely stature in the field of geomorphology. As a student, I found myself eagerly diving into a century-old geologic report to learn more, and then as a professor, I found myself taking my own students to the area to experience its grandeur in person. But a deeper understanding of the landscape could only come from moving through it for days on end. I finally had the opportunity to make that happen in late November with the company of my friend Chase Edwards – nine chilly days, 350 miles of pedaling, climbing six range’s most prominent peaks, and endless awe.
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A Recap of the Bikepacking Roots Go Bikepacking! Event in the Teton Valley
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Bikepacking Roots “Go Bikepacking!” event put on in conjunction with Mountain Bike the Tetons in Idaho’s Teton Valley. I was asked by my friends and mentors, as well as the co-founders of Bikepacking Roots, Kurt Refsnider, and Kait Boyle to come and ride bikes and take photos of the event. Reconnecting with rad folks, riding and camping in a new place, and busting out the camera after a hiatus of doing most of those things sounded like a great way to spend a weekend.
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Fastest for Now: Kait and Kurt’s FKT on the Kokopelli Trail
We’ve featured Kait and Kurt’s stories here at the Radavist over the past few years and today, we’re proud to host the short film, Fastest For Now, chronicling their 2020 FKT on the Kokopelli…
“Two of Ultra-Endurance Mountain Biking’s best seek temporary records in a timeless place. Traversing 137 miles of majestic high-desert, the Kokopelli Trail is one of the most iconic long mountain bike routes in the West. Wrought with as much challenge as beauty, the rugged Kokopelli provides passage from Moab Utah’s La Sal Mountains to Loma, Colorado. The trail is popular with day riders, bikepackers, and guide groups, and once in a while, a rider will attempt to complete the full trail in a single day. Athletes have tested their endurance on this trail for more than 2 decades, occasionally redefining the possibilities with Fastest Known Times (FKTs) that may have previously seemed impossible. FKT culture grew substantially in 2020 as Covid-19 cancelled most organized races. Long-standing records were being challenged around the world, and the Kokopelli Trail inspired many to test themselves across its desert miles.”
If you’re interested in FKTs and rugged bikepacking experiences, check out Backcountry Bike Challenge.
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Full Circle on the Grand Loop: Part IV – A New Record, 12 Years in the Making
This is the fourth and final part of an ongoing series:
Full Circle on the Grand Loop: Part III – A Cyclocross Specialist Turned Ultra Racer
Full Circle on the Grand Loop: Part II – The First Modern Bikepacking Race
Full Circle on the Grand Loop: Part I – Trail Visions Ahead of Their Time
2020, the year that virtually nothing has panned out as expected, delivered an unexpected opportunity for me to return to the Grand Loop. I flew home to Arizona in late March after an aborted tour across Alaska as the Covid-19 pandemic worsened. My body was exhausted from winning a 4-day-long Iditarod Trail Invitational – conditions were challenging enough that the race took twice as long as it does in “good” years. After the race, I continued touring farther along the trail for another 250 miles before Native villages began closing to visitors. When I returned home, my body was worn out. The next month was devoted to recovery as I watched in awe as the world as we knew it ground to a halt amid the worsening pandemic.