We’re constantly monitoring route conditions and incorporating feedback from our Route Stewards and the greater community, and we’ve made several major updates to our global network in the last few months. Read below to see what’s changed…

We’re never one-and-done with a route. Bikepacking routes on our website are living things we care about, not just stories we publish. They are a corridor to exploration that we hope to keep viable through stewardship, advocacy, and constant improvement. It takes a long time to make the rounds on 150,000 miles of bikepacking routes, but we’re always making updates in the background thanks to the tireless work of our Route Stewards and Architects. Here are some of the notable updates we’ve made recently.

Veneto Divide

Route creator Andrea Securo incorporated rider feedback and updated trail-use rules to refresh this venerable weeklong route in northeast Italy. I scouted the updated route for Andrea and confirmed that all the updates worked great. On a personal note, Veneto Divide is one of the best bikepacking routes I have ridden anywhere in the world. I highly recommend everyone with an interest in history, Italian culture, exceptional food, and mixed-surface riding with something for everyone put this route on your bucket list!

Trans-Dolomiti

After scouting the Veneto Divide route, I made my way back to the southern half of the Trans-Dolomiti route. Unfortunately, there have been some permanent trail closures, but I was able to scout some alternatives. I worked with Franzi and Jona to ensure my suggestions maintained the character of the route they had designed. The resulting updates make navigation much easier and add some extra fun and flowy singletrack through the Sellaronda circuit.

The Steel Triangle

Route creator Griffin Haywood has been gathering feedback from riders and also incorporated some new details into his route guide to make the route more enjoyable and easy to navigate. A little bit of new singletrack helps riders avoid a busy road, and another reroute makes the route safer for riders year-round by avoiding a popular hunting ground. An alternate route included in the Must Know section will help riders be prepared just in case a rising river overwhelms a bridge, and Griffin also provided links for riders to stay up to date on potential route conditions.

The Eastern Divide Trail (S5): Hellbender

Thanks to reader Geoff Patterson, we added a reroute around an unmaintained section of the Terrace Mountain Trail near Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania. Geoff did a lot of research and scouting to suggest a good alternate for us, and we appreciate his passion and effort to help riders avoid an unnecessarily troublesome few hours. We hope we can engage some local trail advocates to see about revitalizing this great resource. We’re also working on some other reroutes for this segment in West Virginia. Stay tuned!

Michigan Off-Road Expedition

Another big help came from reader Indy Shulz, who had some suggestions for Matt Acker’s recently published Michigan Off-Road Expedition (M.O.R.E.). We were able to incorporate some changes to avoid private land and make a few directional recommendations to help remove surprises for riders.

Lost-in-Brandenburg Loop and Havel Wetland Wander

Contributing editor Josh Meissner spent a ton of time refining and re-envisioning both of these routes based on years of feedback and changing conditions on the ground. In his words, “The Lost-in-Brandenburg Loop was my first published route, and it’s received a major refactor to take into account rider feedback, my changed sensibilities, and the huge surge in popularity that bikepacking has seen in the last six years. It’s now repositioned as an intermediate 3-4 day route for more experienced bikepackers. In particular, hints for where to wildcamp have been removed, as it’s legally quite tricky in this area. Legal campsites have been added, along with an expanded explainer on wild-camping. There are significant changes to the track. The difficulty of the route has been normalized to match the Brandenburg Odyssee and properly differentiate it from the Havel Wetland Wander. By contrast, I’m emphasizing the Havel Wetland Wander as an easier, beginner-friendly route. The changes are modest; the main thing is the significantly updated description and more POIs on the map, along with a few tweaks to the track.” Thank you, Josh!

Salmon River Solitude and Warm Lake Wanderer

We were alerted to mining activity several months ago along these two routes. Route creator Cody Heiner did a ton of legwork, working with local land managers and even the mining company to confirm details like hours of operation and equipment size on both routes. This underscored the importance of sharing these public roads with recreational users and allowed us to determine recommendations to help riders avoid most, if not all, of the additional traffic. Unfortunately, we decided to temporarily unpublish the Warm Lake Wanderer route. This exceptional route by creator Matthew Wordell will see intense and sometimes dangerous mining traffic for at least a couple of years. We hope to republish this route when traffic subsides.

Chauga River Ramble

Route creator Tanner Arrington made some route updates to include more singletrack and move the route off a mile-long highway climb. We also updated the route guide to provide even better information for riders planning to explore this surprising and unique area of South Carolina.

Trans Mexico Norte

Unfortunately, the security situation along several sections of this route has deteriorated to the point that we cannot recommend riders follow it in its entirety. We want to thank our readers who reached out to let us know about this, and we are thankful they were able to have a safe and enjoyable trip through this wonderful country. Additionally, there is a hard closure through the crux of the entire route, Nevado de Toluco. We have posted a warning on the route guide, and we are actively working with a few locals in Mexico to seek some alternative unpaved route options.

The Queen’s Ransom

Route creator John Schilling made some small but significant updates to get riders off some shoulderless roads and add more dirt in Queen Valley.

Echo-Titus Circuit

It’s open! After several seasons of devastating floods, all the roads that this route uses are open to bicycles as of this writing. Hopefully, these conditions hold as we enter the ideal travel seasons of late fall and winter.

More to Come

We are working on updates to some of our Trans Andes routes, Eastern Divide Trail, Trans-WNC, and Colorado Trail route guides right now. In addition, we’ve got a slate of new exclusive routes we’ll be stewarding in partnership with route creators, local advocacy organizations, and land managers across the globe.

Maintaining the more than 500 routes in our first-of-its-kind archive is made possible through support from our Bikepacking Collective members. Want to help us care for and grow our global route network? Become a member today!

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