There were sections that were heavily grown in, to the point where we had to get off our bikes and push through or abandon the trail all together. In particular parts of the Blue Mountain section have become impassable, to the point where we decided to just thrash around in the river bed instead of pushing through the willows.

While there is a fair bit that is washed out or overgrown there is a surprising amount of good roadbed considering that it has been abandoned for almost 70 years. If you gear low enough to ride the uphill grades loaded you can ride at least 80% of the route and when the road is good, man is it good.

I'll try to track down some of this helicopter tape.

Kind of surprised there isn't more talk about bar bags and head tubes. My bag took all the paint off my head tube on one 8-day bikepacking trip. I'd like to use my bags on my good bike but not sure it will work at all as I have a really burly head badge that I don't want to remove.

I figure most people here would have seen the post on MTBR, but I thought I'd share it on bikepacking.net as well. Four of us recently did an 8-day bike/packrafting trip on the remote Canol Heritage Trail, from Macmillan Pass in the Yukon to Norman Wells, NWT.

Here is Paul's trip report and photos:
http://yukonfrolics.blogspot.ca/2012/08/bikepacking-north-canol-heritage-trail.html

My pics can be found on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delorenzo/tags/canolroad/

A few pics:


Caribou Pass by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr


Floating the Twitya by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr


Dodo rock slide by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr


Canol truck park by Anthony DeLorenzo, on Flickr

I have a big tube of the Silnet seam sealer... I might just try a few layers of that to create some kind of a grippy spot. I could probably glue a Silnylon patch on there as well to provide a little extra protection.

That would be a good idea although I'd have to hand-sew it and frankly, I suck. I would hate to ruin a nice tarp with my butchery.

I'm hoping to glue a patch of rubber or some other grippy material to a tarp to create a spot for a pole or paddle to sit without sliding around.
Seems like this is a tall order. Any suggestions?

Would just laying down a couple of layers of Silnet work instead? 

What are people using to protect their head tubes from handlebar bags? I probably should have done this before I took off all the paint but frankly I don't care all that much. Was thinking some kind of a slippery surface would be best, rather than tape or inner tube that would probably cause friction.

Scary story, glad you are able to tell it. A few thoughts:

Did you ever think about starting a fire? Thinking rationally, of course, a big warm fire would have been my first move.

Hard to believe that those two people left you out there like that. Glad to hear a fellow racer stepped up.

In terms of your questions of how racers respond to this situation, up here in the North the code of the trail is that you always help a fellow racer in need. There are many stories from the Yukon Quest (dog mushing) of this happening even at the highly competitive front of the pack.

My wife was in the Yukon River Quest (700 mile river race) this year and their boat found a solo kayaker in a similar state. They helped him out and made sure he got fed and safely to the next checkpoint. They would have done it regardless but that race has a rule where, if you do not assist another racer in obvious distress, you are banned from the event for life. If I was a race organizer I would adopt a similar rule.

17. Teams in Distress
Any team witnessing another team in obvious distress is compelled to render all assistance possible
until a safety boat arrives. Failure to offer assistance in an emergency situation will result in a
lifetime disqualification from Yukon River Quest for all team members.

I have played with these Easton tents at the local shop and they are pretty impressive. Less than 2 lbs and packed size of  40 cm. No real world experience though, sorry.

http://eastonmountainproducts.com/tent/kilo1p-tent

I use an Integral Unishelter and it's a great solo option IMHO. The one-pole area around your head and shoulders is quite spacious. A bit heavier but it is burly and packs down small.

http://www.integraltactical.com/product_detail.cfm?id=834&CFID=6640893&CFTOKEN=71712704

Your saddle needs to be adjusted relative to the cranks, not the bars. Get your saddle height and fore-aft position dialed and then figure out where you need to be with the bars.

A couple of guidelines for your bars... Keep in mind that these get you in the ballpark and you have to figure it out from there.

One is if you are riding normally and look down and the handlebar blocks out the front hub.

The other is that, when your arms are at a 90-degree angle from your body, the angle of your hips should be 45-degrees. 

Eric, thanks for posting that information. Heading out for a test run with our bikes/rafts on Monday and will try out your bike loading technique.

I'm not sure about southern Canada but here in the north the 'trail' is a few sections of actual trail connected by hundreds of km of roads. More bike touring than bikepacking. 

Any serious blue dot junkies might like to check out this one:

http://www.yukonriverquest.com/yrq/app/12yrq/results.php

I'm following a friend in a 715 km paddling race on the Yukon. She is in one of the magenta two person kayaks.   The display is pretty entertaining, though no call-ins.

My wife is in one of the voyageurs, The Unsinkables. Which team are you following?

The technology is out there now to have street view on the whole route. Just needs somebody to hike it with a 40 lb. backpack.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/google-shows-off-new-backpack-worn-street-view-capture-tool/

Hard to know what is happening but I would think at this point I would happily buy an entire bike just for the pedals, along with some skate shoes, and just try to get to to the finish line. Hope he figures something out!

Not sure of the model, but know it was an Easton. He looked at getting new bearings the first time he was in Salida but seem his model takes a non-standard size, or something, and they didn't have it in stock.

As the owner of a new set of Easton wheels, which are otherwise amazing, I can vouch that they have terrible bearing issues. The fronts are tiny, odd-size bearings that didn't last a month for me. The rears didn't last much longer and they are also not the most common sizes, and might even be different left and right.

I ride the shit out of these wheels around here and I can manage the bearing problems (at least they are simple to service at home) but definitely would not take them out in the bush for 20-30+ days.  

I'm in there like swimwear!

The rider from Whitehorse, YT is Wade Larson. He seems to have scratched this morning just a little bit north of Seeley Lake

Thanks! Too bad he scratched.

Can anyone point me to the start list? I can't seem to find it anywhere on tourdivide.org or the trackleaders site. I know there is a racer from Whitehorse but don't know who he is.