A Bikepacking Story - FULL Film
February 2021 After 8 years of elite and pro racing, my cycling career was at a crossroad. My coach asked me to answer this... "At the end of the year, I want to be able to say that..."
So I thought I had to do something worth remembering A Bikepacking Story A 5 week ride Self-Supported Through Nevada, Utah and Arizona I started in las Vegas to Zion and Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon finishing on the summit of Mont Lemmon From pro road cyclist, to bikepacker, in 3 weeks preparation Hello, my name is Marie-Soleil. I'm a road cyclist and I took on my first bikepacking project for training during the pandemic. I had never camped before, I had never slept in a tent, let alone in a remote location or in cold weather. I had no idea what I was about to put myself into. I was pretty scared. But the desire to do it, and to overcome my
fear, it gave me goosebumps. I had to do it. So, this is my story. Day one. I was on a small road. Everything's fine and then my GPS says: "turn right here". I was like, are you kidding me. It was like this massive endless desert. I didn't know what remote meant until I saw this. The first few kilometers in the desert, I was pretty nervous. I mean being alone here,
it's not the safest decision I've ever made in my life. Three hours later, I fell. Like a slight fall. That was the only fall of the whole trip. But I bruised my knees and I was like, "okay this little fall was here to remind you, to be careful, and that you should walk with your bike when you're not sure". Sunset was coming very soon, and I knew there was going to be water at the campground but I wasn't sure if I was going to make it before dark. Just an hour and a half later, I made it to the campground, it was pitch black, so I set up my tent. But then, once everything
was set, the rain started. I was actually lucky. And I woke up with these amazing views. And then once everything was pretty much packed, the rain started again, and then it started pouring. The RV next door was like "Come on in, you can't leave like this!". So I jumped in the RV, and we made the best soup ever. This park, Valley of Fire State Park, was so worth it. Hello, day three already! It's pretty white around my head because, that's the sky.
The sky is not blue today, it's pretty... it's pretty grey actually. And pretty dark over there! Okay this is nuts again, I'm in the middle of nowhere. At least we have a blue sky now. There's a massive crack right there, I kind of want to see. Oh gosh, I don't want to go closer! Look at this! I'm getting a little worried that the sky is going to fall in my head. And I'm still pretty far out. But, it looks nice over there!
And then, the air cooled down suddenly. I unclipped, I grabbed my jacket, I grabbed my tent cover, and I got on the ground with my tent cover over me and it started hailing! Um so I'm pretty scared right now, I put my tent over me and my bike, I'm sitting on the ground, in the middle of the desert. Waiting for the storm to pass... Jesus Christ. And then there was loud thunder and lightning, and so I was under my tent cover and I could just see the light in the sky. And I remember my first thought was, you know when they say that you have more chances to be hit by lightning than to win the lottery? I was like, "Well, some people do win the lottery!" But you know, after the storm passed, there's kind of a shift that happened. I had just
been through a storm, and it was fine. I didn't have to fear storms anymore. But then sunset was coming now, and I still had 30 miles (50km) to go on my route, but this was never going to happen. So just a mile later, I see this guy, he was packing his camp van. So he gave me like two gallons [of water]. I was like, awesome, so I could camp right there, just
before it gets really dark. It was actually really cool, how it unfolded. Day number five! Today is a little climb, I should be climbing to 4500 feet today, and this should get me to St-George, finally! I took the road today, because I need to get there. I arrived in St-George on the fifth day. That was two days later than I expected. That was the end of the first segment. I didn't have much planned further than that because, well, first of all, I didn't have enough time to plan everything, and mostly, I didn't know how it would go. So from there, I planned segment by segment.
Next, I was hitting the Zion National Park, and fingers crossed that the weather would be good enough to go see Bryce Canyon after that. My bike weighed about 50 kilos. I was carrying my laptop because I needed to work from distance, I also needed winter gear which is heavier, and because I was riding in the desert, I had to carry more water, so I had the capacity of carrying eight liters of water. And I would always carry about a day worth of food. Day 11. It's a beautiful day, I stayed over at Robin and Tracys', my hosts from the Warmshower.org website. They've been so generous, so helpful. The next-door neighbor, like right next door,
they are backpacker guides, so they knew all about, you know, camping and food and tips all the stuff that I didn't know very much. And also, there's a couple that has been staying with them for the last year, or the last six months, basically because of Covid. They have been traveling by bike for six years! So it was really cool, in the last two days, I learned so much from all these people. It's another world. I wanted to tell you a little bit more about this trip, and why I'm doing this thing.
With the pandemic, it looked like most of the races would be postponed to later in the season, like July, August, September. So we still had a lot of time. I had a conversation with my coach, about mid-February I think. I really want to thank my coach Dan, I don't know if he's watching all of my videos. He's been so helpful at helping me figure out what I want out of cycling. It's been more about finding the joy of cycling, and the joy in the process of training, more than the actual intervals and all that stuff. He allowed me to....
to choose myself, to choose what I want to do To choose what would make me happy. Rather than what cyclists would normally do. It's after our call that I thought, you know, I I love riding this mountain bike so much, (the mountain bike that I just got this past winter because I wanted a bike to ride in the snow!) I wasn't planning on doing this at all when I bought this bike! And so I thought, you know, I would like to do a training block on the mountain bike, and go somewhere I've never been! It's funny because my first childhood dream was to ride across America by bike, so it's not out of nowhere. And then I got so excited, and almost like, scared! I realized, it makes so much sense. This is what I want out of cycling. I want to push myself, I want to ride my bike, I want to see places.
So from all the things I could have done, that was the only thing I was going to do. I was so decided. I'm heading to Bryce Canyon right now. I think that it will be most north part of my trip. That's going to be I think 9000 feets so... That's higher than Mount Lemmon, Mount Lemmon is like 8000 feet. So there will be snow. This morning when I looked at the weather over there, it was like -10º C, so...
Good morning, I just made warm coffee because, it snowed last night. Um it's, yeah, snow all over my bike and everywhere. I was maybe 12 miles from Bryce Canyon. But it's still pretty far, there was still another hill to do. So that was going to be another hour or two. And it started getting cold at like 4:30 p.m. And I couldn't find a good place to stay in Bryce Canyon anyway, So I was like...all campgrounds, everywhere I called, it was closed.
I was like, I might as well set up camp now, and... yeah, I'm glad I did because... it started snowing and yeah. So I stayed warm, so far so good. I think I'll try to get a hike in. That's something I really wanted to do, to hike in the Bryce Canyon National Park, and... and get out of here because yeah, it's cold. Now I see why people were like "oh my gosh what are you doing?". So after Bryce Canyon, I headed toward the Grand Canyon, using a route called the Grand Staircase Loop. That route was voted the #1 bikepacking route in North-America just a
few years ago, so I was pretty excited to check it out. It's called the Grand Staircase because, it's the biggest sequence of rock layers, forming like a serie of plateau. So between Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon, is the biggest sequence of different types of rocks. So it was basically a downhill ride for two days.
This segment was amazing, I think I had my best time on the bike of the whole trip. So, going to the Grand Canyon was a bit of a puzzle because, the north entrance was closed because of the winter, the east entrance was closed because of Covid, but there was a chance they let me go by bike? It wasn't clear where I was allowed to go and where I was not. I'm going to go to the Grand Canyon, super excited! But, there are quite a few obstacles, like route-wise, I have a plan A, plan B, plan C. I think it's going to take me four days. The weather looks really good for this week, so... and I know where to get water. I'm ready for this! There was a sign, saying "No trespassing , no camping, no hiking" but, look at this.
So, Plan A didn't work out, already. About an hour into the park, like I was completely alone, on this super nice dirt road. And this dude drove up to me, in his big pickup truck, and he told me he works for the, he's a ranger, and to get out of here! "Oh okay, I'm sorry I didn't see the sign."
Plan B was to go to Tuba City. There was supposed to be somebody there, that I could text. But there's no service! And, there was like a hill. Meh. So basically I just did Day 1 and Day 2! I was like, I still have... about two hours of daylight, so I'm just gonna go! With my legs.
Yeeeha, it's a little bit rocky... My... this morning... (laugh) I'm a little tired.
I'm almost in Cameron! And I still have maybe an hour of daylight. Look at this super nice road. I'm.. I'm pretty tired... I finally made it in two days I just had a little emotional moment, and, like, I'm at pretty high altitude, so I'm a little tired... Umm I just left this point of view, the desert tower, and so it was full of tourists, and I come here with my bike! When I tell people that I rode from Las Vegas, people are so inspired. I didn't realize the impact it would have.
There was this kid, he shook his head, he was like "WHAT!" His mind was blown. It's just so cool. I'm actually proud of myself too, because, I had never done something like this like, I was scared. I can't believe I'm here! So I'm just riding along this road that's going to take me to the Grand Canyon Village.
I should be there in maybe two hours. And then, here and there there's like spots where you can see, it's like massive, MASSIVE! Here's the Grand Canyon, I'm just running into some traffic here. So we'll slow down and appreciate the view! Look at this. From the Grand Canyon I headed toward Flagstaff, on the Western Wildland Route. That's a route that goes from the border of Canada, all the way down to the southern border of Arizona, all on dirt roads.
I'm now on my way to Flagstaff. So yesterday, I woke up just outside of the Grand Canyon village. It was like frigid cold! Super windy. And I just needed to double-check on my route because, there's a mountain that, if I was going to take like this super popular trail, well there is people skiing on it right now. You can see there's definitely a lot of snow! So I went back to the McDonald's (for wifi) and, like it was so cold, my laptop just froze, and my phone was so slow, I was like okay, this is not working. Maybe some people are wondering why in Arizona it's so cold. It's because it doesn't really have to do with North or South. It has to do with altitude.
The higher you are, the colder it gets. So I think in Flagstaff, the peak is at 10 000 feet? I'm maybe at 6 or 7000 feet right now. It's kind of the limit. Like Grand Canyon was 8000 feet, and then after that, you get snow. Just like at home, you know. Uh oh there's more, oh [ __ ] Once in Flagstaff, I stayed with Teo, he's a super cycling fan, he knows everything.
So I shared a bit of my story with him. His best riding buddy passed away in the year prior. They would ride to the overlook by Sedona, and have lunch there. He told me he had never ridden there by himself since then. And that's where I was heading the next day. So I was like, "why don't you come with me tomorrow, we'll have coffee in town and we'll ride to the overlook together, and we can have lunch there!". Afterward we said goodbye and I hit the descent into Sedona.
In Sedona, I met two hikers, and one of them was local. He was like, do you want to see something cool? Oh man this cactus, look at that, hello! Whoa! Wow! There was this small passage, where we had to kind of slide on a rock, but like, without falling on either side! Man... man... I am a bit scared! Oh mom, what am I doing! [voice in the distance] ...you think? Whoa! My god! My! Oh gosh! All right be careful there. There you go! "Très bien!" I am in this little spot, that I found on the side of the road. So, the road is... I don't know if you can see it...
I was riding there yesterday. And so now I'm heading toward that mountain over there! So that's going to be my climb for today. I was looking at all the route options, it makes more sense to go around Phoenix and then, I might as well just continue to Tucson. So I might try to make it all the way if I can, but it's maybe like a 500 kilometers segment. I think this is going to be the hardest segment. I sent the route to a few people, just to make sure that it's feasible.
And somebody said, "Whoa that's a brave ride". I was like, oh wait, what do you mean? He said, well, there's going to be a lot of dirt, a lot of climbing, a lot of elevation... So I was like, okay! Yeah that's kind of why I picked this route! And it's funny, it made me realize, I always pick the hardest route. That's just in me, that's just what I do. If I reflect on cycling, like sometimes, I blame cycling for being so hard. Like "why"... "this is too hard". But it's not cycling, it's me. I always do it the hardest way. I'm just attracted to the challenge
to pushing myself, to just push the limit. That's just what I do! So I'm just realizing, learning this about myself, that it's not cycling, it's me. So I'm pretty excited, like, every time that I reach a new destination, it's like "okay, I have to plan the next segment". It's a big puzzle.
But then once I have it all mapped out, I'm super excited to go and ride it! I'm pretty proud of myself today, because it was a huge day on the bike! I thought I would never get to Payson. I want to be, out of here, very soon. So far my fastest time has been like, 2 hours and 20 minutes, from wake-up time, to getting on the bike. You know you've reached a pretty good attitude when you see the this! The first mountain pass of this stretch, wooh! I just finished this massive climb, 7000 feet of altitude. So I'm just going to have lunch
right here, on the edge! Today was really hot, like 36º celsius, that's... 90º F? I don't know. I rode in heat before, but it was just a big change from the cold. Every day, I have a bit too much water, and, so I was just trying to be more efficient... Two people gave me water today. I went through the Tonto National Forest. I don't know why I didn't know about this area! This road! was probably the most beautiful road, ever! I think I've said that before, but it was really amazing! There was like canyons and cactus and a lake! I was like there's a lake, and canyons and cactus all in the same picture, woaahhh! So I think I want to finish this trip by climbing (the backside of) Mount Lemmon.
I don't know, I might change my mind. I need to analyze the route a little bit more because, the backside, well, it's dirt, but I think it's steeper. So I have to make sure that I'm actually able. I think it's going to be really cool to finish with Mount Lemmon because, I feel like, like my first time on Mount Lemmon was in 2017. And... I was just starting on the road, even though I had been racing since 2013. I didn't even know what altitude was at the time. I remember it was like 16º celsius, 60ºF maybe?
in Tucson. So I just wore like a short sleeve jersey, no gloves! I thought I was just going to go climb Mount Lemmon! And then, there was like a snowstorm at the top. In my head, I thought it was 60ºF so I should be fine. But I was like shivering, and like, I never turned around because I never turn around! You know at the top, it starts to descend and so you're like, "is this the top?" and then it climbs again. There were some people in a parking lot. I stopped, I was like shaking! I remember they gave me hot pads. I put them in my helmet,
and I was holding them in my bare hands, so that I could finish climbing Mount Lemmon and get warm coffee at the top. But anyway, So that was my first time on Mount Lemmon. And then how many times I trained on this mountain. I have just so many memories from that mountain. But this time, doing it, climbing it from the backside, and then having my last camp night on the top of Mount Lemmon, that sounds really cool! The last four days have been really big, and so it would be two more big days, to get to Mount Lemmon, and then, Mount Lemmon! It's gonna be like, the biggest week ever.
It's funny, it feels like... it feels like a stage race. And I think it's my favorite week! Because, the focus it takes, to being efficient with everything... I'm a racer! I'm really enjoying this week, it's just so obvious now, that I'm a racer. I love to do that stuff. And there's no way I should stop, I'm just gonna keep going. What a wonderful place! I'm just two miles until I'm back on the road. So I'm just exiting. I thought I would never get out! It's like 4:30 p.m., I was like "okay, you need to press the gas!"
and I still have 35km to go until the next town where I can find water, which I need... Mount Lemmon, backside. Here we go! It's Day 31 [it was 32], it's April 11. It's been exactly one month since I left. I was wondering, would I be tired of this? Happy to go back to normal life? Or if I would want to keep going. I'm a little surprised to see that, I could do this for another month for sure, or like, I don't feel like I need to go back to normal life.
It taught me a few things about myself, and reconnected with my passion for cycling. I had complete freedom on this trip. To ride whatever distance, to go wherever I want, whenever I want. And just by eliminating everything, it just made me realize how much I love to ride my bike and how, that's the core of my passion for cycling. It's just to ride my bike. Bikepacking-wise I also learned a lot and I could definitely see myself doing a bigger project in the future. I have a few ideas... but that's for later.
I'm just so glad, that I went past my fears, that I committed to do it, even though there have been so many obstacles, and things to learn. I was like "wait, this is way too difficult to organize", it has been 3 weeks of preparation, like a marathon. I'm just so glad I did it because, it's like, these memories are going to stay with me forever.
You know sometimes it sucks like, there are tough moments but you think of, like, how amazing it's going to be, to remember this for the rest of your life! So the backside of Mount Lemmon is definitely as hard as they say. Oh no, harder! (I had to film from my phone because my GoPro was full!) Here's, the top. "At the end of the year, I want to be able to say that..." "que j'ai fait quelque chose vraiment cool." Thank you to everyone who followed my adventure, who cheered me up. Thank you to all of my angels who came along the way to help me, and thank you for watching! And you? What do you want to be able to say at the end of the year ? Do it Almost every day, I met someone who either made my day, or saved my day.
I started calling them my angels of the day. My angels of the day Day 1: strangers gave me water after an epic day in the desert Day 2: Alan & Philly provided shelter in their RV during rain storm Day 3: Lewis saved my day with 2 gallons of water Day 5: Pete and his wife in St-George offered a shower and to camp in their backyard. Pete fixed my stove, his wife fixed my bike! Day 8: Rob got me out of a bad road situation and called his friend to host me Day 9: Robin & Tracy welcomed me in their house and fed me a lot of food Day 10: Adriana & Victor showed me how to use the navigation app they used for bike touring - and plenty of tips Day 11: James & Sam gave me a whole bag of (so good) backpacking food - and hitch-hiked my bike across the tunnel Day 14: stranger paid for my laundry after the machine ate my change Day 18: couple helped me find a free camp spot near the Grand Canyon Day 19: The librarian at the Grand Canyon who made an exception to let me in (despite Covid) Day 20: Victor gave me his personal 3L hydration pouch after I found mine was leaking Day 23: Teo, best cycling fan, offered warm welcome in his house in Flagstaff Day 24: campground in Sedona is full but they found me a place Day 29: Lina, then Shy, pulled over to give me all their water in the brutal heat Day 31: stranger offered pizza, another offered a cookie from the Cookie Cabin, to celebrate the completion of my trip on the summit of Mount Lemmon Thank you Thank you Robin & Tracy, and Teo for your warm welcome Chris Haag for tremendous guidance in planning my trip Léandre Bouchard for your advices To Dan my coach, who fully supported and encouraged me in this crazy training project To my sister, for letting me use your tent, and showing me the way into the adventure world Thank you mom & pop, for allowing me to believe that I can achieve anything To LUX Image Solution, for your generous support in editing this video. Without you, this video would not exist!
2021-11-12 23:55
