Horsen’s Fjord, East Greenland
OWPG AWARD WINNERS 2017
OUTDOOR TRAVEL FEATURE
Winner John Metcalfe for Bikepacking Broadens the Mind
Judges Carlton Reid, executive editor of www.bikebiz.com, and Elizabeth Multon of Bloomsbury Publishing
Bikepacking Broadens the Mind
John Metcalfe
M
any years ago I was transfixed
by a prescient magazine
image of two dreadlocked
bikepackers riding ladened Konas
across a sunbleached landscape.
I forget the magazine, maybe it
A formula for the best bike-
packing experience does not exist
was MTB Pro or Mountain Biker
International, it doesn’t really matter.
What does, is the image spoke to
me of freedom, exotic places and
rebellion. Perhaps, even heroism. The
thousand yard stares, being in control
of one’s destiny. It fuelled my dreams
and tuned me into the harmonics of
18 Outdoor focus | winter 2017
travel. Shortly after, I read Jupiter’s
Travels by Ted Simon. That book put
me over the edge. The lure of travel
was mainlined via the pages into my
psyche. I wanted in.
Prolonged travel has had an
irreversible effect on my life and its
lessons are far reaching. What follows
are a few observations from my time
spent in the saddle.
At its rawest, the experience
of travel transcends the mode of
transport. The mode is a tool, an
instrument to enable you to tap into
the source. Yet it is not a blunt tool, far
from it. Your choice of transport and
how you use it has an indelible impact
on your travel experience, so it is worth
giving it some thought. Hitchhiking
forces you to interact, pitching you
headlong into the vagaries of other
people’s schedules, and of course it
is internationally cool. Walking is the
ultimate self-sustained slow-travel,
This is where the noteworthy stuff
happens...Where stories are born
and although the daily distances are
curbed, each mile is intimately earned.
For me though, it is bikepacking that
hits the sweetspot. It’s the overlap
between sizeable distances, self-
sufficiency and intimacy with my
surroundings. It is where my learning
proliferates.