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PACKDURO: Bikepacking Overnighter, Twelve Mile Creek, Golden, BC (Video)
Project Freewheel is back with their latest “packduro” film, which documents a short but challenging overnighter into the Dogtooth Range near Golden, British Columbia. Find photos, a short summary of the trip, and the 14-minute film here…
Packduro: (Pack·duro) bikepacking + enduro.
Cheryl McClorey and Michael Jobbo of Project Freewheel are back with their latest “packduro” adventure. Mixing multi-hour hike-a-bikes with steep, scree field descents, they set their sights on the Dogtooth Range, the northernmost range in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. More specifically, they ride and push their bikes to Twelve Mile Creek in search of valuable beta before attempting a longer week-long traverse of the Dogtooth Range from Hobo Ridge to Gorman Lake. Watch the video below, and scroll down for a quick recap from Cheryl.
Words by Cheryl McClorey
In 2021, roughly a year from the big five-day bikepack into the Canadian Rockies with the Packduro team, Michael and I set off to bikepack Twelve Mile Creek on the recommendation of Packduro member Logan Hurd. It’s a short 8.4-kilometre out-and-back trail through two alpine bowls, past a tarn, and onto a ridgeline. Inspired by Max Berkowitz’s film No Quarter: Unridden Lines Crossing the Purcells and chat amongst the Packduro crew, the purpose of this trip was to scout the terrain and get some footage for a more significant 5-6 day trip, traversing the Dogtooth Range from Hobo Ridge to Gorman Lake.
We couldn’t resist, as the view of the Dogtooth Range beckons from our log cabin south of Golden. It was an opportunity to explore more of our backyard and capture, on camera, our reason for settling in the Columbia Valley. Fire season in BC had started by the time we set off on this quick overnighter, and an unexpected wind blew through, causing some trepidation to continue. The view of the Dogtooth was barely visible from our home. A quick chat with more knowledgeable mountain friends calmed our worries, and we set forth up the Twelve Mile Creek FSR to see what conditions were like at the trailhead.
This short video documents our mini-epic, a unique gem of a trail that packs everything you could want in an alpine adventure. There are more opportunities to connect multiple scree bowls on this route, and the ride-out is exceptional: steep and loose scree chutes, loamy, technical singletrack that is, quite frankly, over too soon. It’s an absolute local favorite; even better, you will likely have the place to yourself.
The Packduro team attempted the traverse about six weeks after this trip. However, they got smoked out by a devastating fire season throughout BC. They’ll be back for another attempt soon!
Further Reading
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