30 August 2023
Seasoned adventurer, renowned photographer and PRO Community Rider Dan Milner shares his six tips to help you plan your own mountain bike adventure.
There’s a delicate balance between ‘Type 1’ and ‘Type 2’ fun. Cross that line and real-time enjoyment quickly descends into the kind of experience that makes you wish you were anywhere else. When you’re in the moment, Type 2 ‘fun’ is never actually all that fun, but something you look back on with a smile. In fact, given enough time, long after the bruising, anxiety or frostbite has waned, you might even think about seeking it out again.
Type 2 fun is just part of the deal when hauling bikes through some of the world’s most remote places. Hanging from a vine while fire ants devour your fingers is the kind of thing we’re told defines adventure, although it sure isn’t the real reason we go looking for it. Adventure’s true rewards are way more pleasant, a chance to push yourself into new experiences while learning a little more about a new place, the people who call it home, and yourself.
Planning an adventure can seem a daunting task but today we have the tools at our fingertips to do so, no matter what we’re setting out to do.
No matter your experience, adventure is simply defined by having an uncertain outcome, and luckily our beautiful planet is packed with incredible singletrack with awesome views that provide the opportunity to find it.
But at times working out how to reap adventure’s rewards can seem inaccessible. So here are my six steps to planning an adventure to help you get started.
The challenge of following this old, disused railway line once became the excuse for finding a unique adventure in northern Argentina.
What entails adventure depends on your physical and mental starting point. It’s easy to think that exotic locations steeped in cultural experiences and dramatic landscapes – like Morocco’s Atlas Mountains or Nepal’s high Annapurna – are the only places to find adventure, but local destinations can easily deliver adventure’s rewards too if approached in the right way.
Towing bikes behind kayaks for 3 days to find adventure in Scotland.
For example, a simple summer night’s bivouac slides further along the scale of adventure if you choose a wilder location and throw in some cool autumn temperatures. Alternatively lashing your bikes to cheap inflatable dinghies and towing them behind kayaks to reach a lochside trail, as we did in Scotland, or floating down a navigable river on a truck tire innertube or a packraft, as we did in France, can unlock the kind of challenges and experiences that dish up adventure without long-haul flights to remote places.
Wherever you choose, the important thing is to start your journey with a challenging but achievable aim. Do it in an accessible location with safety close by, and build from there.
Adventure is about pushing your comfort zone, so be prepared for some unexpected challenges along the way, like carrying bikes through a wild forest while exploring the most southern trail in the world.
Inspiration for adventure can come from many sources, and finding it is usually just a click away. An online photo of a spectacular ridge line or flowing mountain trail might be enough to spark your imagination.
Or perhaps the simple need for winter sun might have you poring over Mediterranean island trail maps. Googling phrases like “long-distance hiking trail in…” is a great way to find adventure-orientated trails, and I often hunt long-distance trekking routes on sites like Wikiloc to form the basis for my bike adventures, such as my 6-day circumnavigation of Russia’s Mount Elbrus.
Resourcefulness is key to surviving adventure, and keeping dry feet, wherever it is needed.
Cheekily rummaging through the websites of guided trekking companies can bring about location ideas for your own bike adventure. Look past the photos of smiling hikers at the backgrounds to see the terrain and topography and ask yourself whether it looks too technical, easy, steep, or even death-threateningly exposed to ride.
Once you have an idea in place, Google Earth is a useful tool for double-checking terrain and trails, but what looks good from the air doesn’t always translate to good quality riding on the ground: both hard-pack and sand look the same from space. Still, satellite imagery lets you get an idea of where a trail leads and the kind of geographical challenges it’s going to throw at you, whether you’re trying to follow a 100-year-old disused railway in Argentina to traversing Wales off-road.
Local knowledge is gold when riding in remote locales, as is accepting an offer of help to cross glacial rivers in Kyrgyzstan.
The biggest challenge to transporting a bike is likely the excess baggage fees now charged by airlines. Once on location, it’s usually an easy task.
A simple starting point is to consider the kind of riding you prefer. Find some appropriate trails and add an extra challenge into the mix. This could be the requirement to sleep out overnight or find your way back in the dark.
A simple overnight bivouac on a hillside brings a little adventure, and a lot of rewards, to even a modest ride.
Now you’ve got your destination in mind, the next step is to look at getting there, when to go and how you’re going to get about and eat and sleep when you’re there. Prep work in your home country is an easy affair compared to overseas, where it can seem daunting and impenetrable.
When you arrive at the start of your journey, a PRO Travel Case makes moving your bike about easier than when using a cardboard bike box that becomes a useless soggy lump when it rains – but it will need stashing somewhere while you’re immersed in your multi-day ride. Most accommodations will have a luggage room to store your bike bag if you stay with them at each end of your trip, even if they charge a little extra for the service.
Hostels and refuges make light work of overnight needs, but there’s always something special about sleeping under the stars.
Are you planning a multi-day point-to-point or a collection of day rides out from a village hub? Using one base simplifies travel logistics, while a point-to-point brings a bigger sense of achievement – although this often adds a need to hire a porter, mule, or jeep support for your luggage – all easy to arrange in many places by asking locals.
Seeing the location of this tiny tin hut was enough to lure us to it for a 3 day adventure high in the Alps.
Nobody plans for adventurous Type 2 fun to slip into ‘we’re screwed, Type 3 fun’, but sometimes things do go wrong. Depending on the plan and location, a simple change in the weather, a mechanical issue or a person’s physical or mental collapse can rapidly become a life-threatening situation that needs addressing.
The implications of altitude, temperatures both hot and cold, stomach sickness or an injury might require a quick way home. This may be on the back of a mule to the nearest road, so go equipped with the right tools, clothing, and knowledge to avoid trouble ahead or to get yourself out of it.
Packrafting doesn’t have to mean wild, Arctic rivers, and in this case France’s Tarn gorge ticked the adventure box.
Mobile phones are handy emergency communicators but only if you arm yourself with a local emergency number and have a phone signal. If you have any doubts about coverage, then equip yourself with a Satellite Locator Beacon for emergency help and buy insurance before you go – helicopter rescues aren’t cheap. And no matter where you’re going, before you set out, have a group chat about what to do if things go wrong.
Finally, if things do go awry, be willing to change your plans. Floods, mudslides, blizzards, or heatstroke can frustrate even the best-made plans, but unless you have an expedition goal to achieve whatever the cost, flexibility could mean living to ride another day.
Adventure us about finding and riding new places and soaking up the experiences that come with them, along with embracing a few early starts.
If you want to head further afield but are wary of the unknowns, then a guided trip is a great way to introduce yourself to the challenges that come with adventure. Whether it’s a ride across the stunning Scottish Highlands or through the Indian Himalayas, trusting an experienced guide with the logistics and safety aspects can deliver you an authentic taste of adventure without the stress.
While the curated feel of guided trips might lack the same sense of achievement as a home-grown, self-planned adventure, it does allow you to focus on enjoyment while dipping your toe into the dark mysterious waters of adventure without so much risk.
A guided trip can deliver a solid introduction to adventure without the stress of organizing logistics, but you’ll still have to pass your own bike up to your guide.
Hopefully, that first adventure, however, and wherever you do it, will ignite a passion within, and launch you into a world of untold rewards infused with just a little Type 2 fun.
Dan Milner has been riding and photographing mountain bike adventures across the planet for more than 30 years. He uses his bike to connect to people he meets along the way.
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