Great write up and pictures. Thank you for sharing. With only reading about this full route is does seem to give all those who attempt it a run for the money. I love the idea of this route but every time I read a trip report about it I totally second guess myself of ever considering it.

The Ortlieb medium seat bag apparently works with 6" of room. Per some forum digging. Also, the new Rogue Panda Highline will most likely work once they come out.  Up to 13ish liters.

 I have been digging into this for a bit now.  If you are only looking for an option with a few liters of space you have a couple of options. Rogue Panda, Rockgiest, Porcelain Rocket (6.5"), Ortlieb and Bedrock all make bags the should fit within 6ish inches and seem to range in the 4-8 liter capacity. If you need/want something lager it seems like the options get much fewer. So far I have only come across Rogue Panda (not yet available) and Ortlieb (not confirmed by me, but might pick one up to see for sure) that make larger bags that have minimal tire clearance. This is at least what I have come across so far.  I am in the same boat as you.  I have 6 maybe 6.5" of clearance from my seat rails to tire when the suspension is fully compressed.  This gets tricky.

I do need to just pick one of those up or even the Camelbak longneck bladders and see how it fits.

Looking forward to some serious dot watching this year.  It appears to have another strong start list.  This route is definitely on my bucket list for someday. Good riding to all of you out there.

Has anyone ever made their own water bladder to custom fit their frame bag?  I can’t help but think this would be a good idea. For me in particular my frame bag is not all that large and being on a full suspension frame the shape is odd enough to make it hard to get a stock bladder to fit. It got me thinking that since the bag itself was custom made to fit why not a bladder to match?

If anyone has, what material and parts did you use? I’ve got plenty of old bladders laying around. I could probably use pats from them if I could track down the same material to make the bladder. I’m sure there would be some trial and error. I’ve started looking at a seamer / welder to join the materials together.

Thanks for the info. I have read about and would like to do the Denali Hwy someday.  I think for my first trip up there I would ideally like to include singletrack.  Right now I would be looking at Bikepacking the whole Kenai 250 race route over a few days.  We will see what I can put together.

Thanks for the info. I will dig into some of the things you suggested.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to make the trip happen.  One.  Trying to find a person to two to join. Two.  It's not a cheap trip but seems like it could be pretty sweet and worth it.  My time frame is mid-July.  Do you think things would be crazy overgrown by then? Sounds like the bears will more likely then as well but that might just be part of the trip. 

I just wish I had been a pioneer. This will be the biggest ride of my life though and I'm expecting it to be just as amazing and just as rugged and just as hard as it was for anyone who has gone before.

Woodland.  You could help pioneer the new Wild West Route.

https://www.bikepackingroots.org/wild-west-route.html

I was able to get a sneak peak of Payton's film at the Bikepacking Summit.  It was great to watch and the amount of work that had to have gone into it is pretty crazy.  Worth watching for sure.  Great work Payton.

For me it is usually a combination of snacking while riding. I like having some of my “yummy” snacks readily available in my feed bag or top tube bag. For example peanut butter M&Ms or dried fruit. And then stop for a short break every few hours for something more substantial. This is for non race mode as I’m not much of a racer. I do like to be efficient with my time though. When I do stop I try to make sure I’m doing other things like filtering water or what ever. I also make it a point that when ever I stop or get off my bike I’m also eating something immediately.

If I were racing,  since this was asked in the racing category, I probably make a point to snack regularly and then every house or so pound down something more substantial using a timer or an on the hour kind of idea.

For me I often find that I’ve been slacking on drinking enough water. I think I drink regularly enough just need to take more in.

I have been wanting to travel to Alaska for years.  It just never happened. Then, I recently came across the Kenai 250 route / race and it looks super intriguing. I think I might try to make this happen for a summer trip this summer. I have started to dig through the info that is out there and still need to look at the detail for each trail section. But I would appreciate any feedback any of you might be able to provide on this route. I see that the record is just over a day and a half and that bikepacker.com has 7 days listed for the trip. That’s a big range. I’m thinking 4 days of riding. That does not seem to crazy does it?  It does not appear to have a ton of climbing or HAB. For reference, I have done things like WRIAD solo and Kokopelli Trail with all the add ons in 3 days self-supported.

A few other questions just coming to mind:

-If timing required it are there any sections that one would maybe skip over another?  It looks like there are  loops and out and backs that could b e bypassed if necessary. Just would hate to miss something epic.

-How about bear safety?  Is hanging food an option and typical practice or are bear canisters a must?  I’m in Colorado so I have some experience with this but we are talking about Alaska now. Bear spray for sure.

-I am thinking of renting a car or catching a ride somehow to Hope and then ride to Seward and back. Thus being able to use Seward as a good resupply option and maybe less travel time to start and end of ride.  Does this seem like a logical idea.

I am sure I will have more questions and most of which I will hopefully be able to answer myself. But thank you in advance for any information.  This would be my biggest trip to date. I am excited about what this could look like. 

Brian

Cool trip and great write up. The night star shots are great. That’s one of the reasons I love desert trips.

I cannot speak to the pad. But here are a few ideas to be a bit warmer. My wife sleeps cold. If you have a stove with you, you can warm some water up and put it in a leak proof bottle. Stuffed at the bottom of your bag does wonders. Also be sure to have a warm clean pair of socks for night. I’ll often stuff any of my extra clothes at the bottom of the bag as well.

Looking forward to how your trip goes. Some day I hope to make this one happen

Anyone following Justin Simoni on his Highest One Hundred trip?  Looks like is has one down, Pikes Peak, and back on the bike. This will be cool to see how he does this is no small feat he is taking on...

http://trackleaders.com/highest100-17

http://highesthundred.com/

Good to know.  I have not ridden Canyon Creek before.  I might just stick to the main 125 route.  Thanks.

So I am planning to attempt the Vapor Trail 125 route as a bikepacking trip with a few guys in September as a 3 day 2 night trip.  In looking at the route I saw that there appears to be an option to hit up the Tunnel Lake Trail by connecting with it west of St Elmo.  Then instead of going towards Hancock pass get on the CDT all the way to Marshall Pass.  In doing this it looks like I would be on more single track and up higher longer.

Any thoughts on this?  It would be a bit shorter and a bit less elevation gain.  But then there is also the option to start and finish in Poncha Springs and maybe do the loop as 2 days 1 night.

Or, is the standard Vapor Trail 125 loop already sweet enough and a cool enough for a bikepacking trip that its not worth messing with? I have only done Monarch Pass in this area in the past.

https://www.strava.com/routes/9286994

Thanks in advance for any ideas or thoughts.

+1 on the Sawyer.  I had the mini but just got the squeeze.  It's a lot faster and only an ounce more weight.  Worthy upgrade IMO.

Is the platypus you use the one where the threads don't exactly match the sawyer?  I used one of those as well with good results for a couple years.  It would leak a little sometimes, but at a critical point on the AZT300 it suddenly failed and water poured out of the threads.  Fortunately I had a spare water bottle with threads that did match, otherwise I would have had to pull out of the race.  I'd strongly suggest getting something with threads that match perfectly. You can buy 64oz sawyer pouches 2 for $9 at REI.  Where threads don't match, it may work...but only until it doesn't!

You are right the Platypus bags do not fit perfectly. And I actually use Evernew bags. I had forgotten that. They have matching threads with Sawyer. It does seems as though Sawyer has improved their bag quality over the years.  But so far my Evernew bags have been flawless.

I'm not a CTR racer but I do spend a lot of time in the Colorado backcountry. I have been really happy with the Sawyer Squeeze and Sawyer Mini filters. I do use a Platypus bag with it bit the filters have been flawless for me. Small and super quick.