Passport to Texas

Bikepacking is the new bike touring.

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This is Passport to Texas

When you combine backpacking and cycling you get bike-packing. And that’s the focus of an article by Brandon Weaver for the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

Touring the countryside on a bicycle isn’t new. Cyclists haul their gear and supplies using racks and saddlebags.

However, bike-packing is the next evolution of bicycle travel. Brandon says it differs from traditional bike touring by eliminating the need for racks.

The packs, he said, are specifically sewn and engineered to fit in and around a bicycle’s frame and distributes the weight equally across the bicycle. That makes it lighter, faster, and more efficient than saddlebags.

To test this, Brandon joined brothers Jerod and Seth Foster on a 223-mile bike-packing adventure. They traveled from Mother Neff State Park to Possum Kingdom State Park. Along the way, camped at Meridian State Park, Dinosaur Valley State Park, and spent their final night at the future site of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park. And the new pack system made the trip a breeze.

They traveled as many gravel county roads between the parks as they could find. Brandon wrote: We are taking the roads less traveled, which is the essence of bike-packing. Read all about this bike-packing adventure in the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

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For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.