The MEANEST Link | FULL DOCUMENTARY | Ontario's 400km Bikepacking Expedition in and around Algonquin
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- čas přidán 5. 12. 2021
- "The Meanest Link" A Bikepacking Expedition. Self propelled by bike for 9 days and over 400 km.
This is Algonquin Provincial Park and the surrounding area. In 2004, a route was dreamed up to connect the 4 Algonquin Outfitters stores throughout the park - Hunstville, Brent, Opeongo, and Oxtongue. That summer, The Meanest Link was officially invented, and is a canoe route created to honour the memory of Bill Swift Sr., one of the founders of Algonquin Outfitters. It linked the lakes, rivers, and portages between the 4 Algonquin Outfitters stores, and has traditionally been done by canoe…until now. Self propelled by bike for nearly 9 days and 400 km, I would overlay and stitch together a land route consisting of crown land, atv trails, logging roads, abandoned railways, rural backroads and highways to achieve the same general path throughout and around Algonquin, connecting the original stores together into one bikepacking expedition.
This version of the Meanest Link will be an expedition level trip requiring off trail, remote, extreme navigation skills, and individuals on this trip will have to be self supported for the entire duration. The route takes the traditional water path and converts it to a land route, utilizing logging roads, old rail beds, and the famous highway 60, linking the Algonquin Outfitters stores in Huntsville, Brent, Opeongo and finally Oxtongue before returning to the start. Participants must be prepared to encounter logging work, bears, wolves, and moose. The days will be long and painful, often disorienting with the various trails leading in numerous directions. Successful completion of the route will mean you have earned the great accomplishment of such a trip, and go down in history as the only ones able to sustain the agony of such an expedition. If the route does not break you, there will be little in life that will.
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Greatest Algonquin Park bikepacking trip of all time
Yes! It was super fun....but only in hindsight...
This has me so excited for summer 2022!
I'm excited for you man. Really interested in your experience on those off trail sections.
This will never be repeated lol. But it has still inspired me to get into bike packing.
Hahaha. Probably not! At least, not by someone sane. It's a bad example of a bikepacking trip, I assure you there are more fun routes out there!
Great video Steve. Makes the canoe version of the Meanest Link look like an easy paddle in the park!
Thanks! It was a battle on some days, but I'm not sure, I just watched Stephanie's series on canoeing the link and dang it looked tough 😁
I really enjoyed watching this very different version of the link! My friend and I just did the “full link” this June. Your video although very different than the traditional canoe route captured the essence and struggle of it. Thanks for sticking with it and sharing!
I actually watched your entire series over the holidays, Just finished the last one yesterday. it was awesome. Oddly enough, when I did this trip a bunch of the linkers thought I was crazy, and when I watch videos of people canoeing the route, I think they are crazy 🤣🤣🤣 I guess we are all a gluten for punishment. Nice work out there, I was happy to see you were able to pull it off with the injury and such. Swing by and say hi if you are at the outdoor show this February.
@@Suluk46 sorry I missed your reply. I’m horrible at this social media thing 😂. Thanks for watching ours too. So funny, we each have our own preferred way of suffering hahaha! The injury definitely made it more difficult than anticipated but we’re both glad we ended up pulling it off. We are in the process of buying our outdoor adventure show tickets right now. Do you have a booth? We’d love to say hi!
Yep, we are booth #430 this year. It's usually a pretty fun time. Hope to chat with you all.
@@Suluk46 awesome! We will be sure to stop by and say hi! We already have our tickets
so much fun! Love your attitude, very inspiring!
Thanks! It was a fun but challenging trip. I'd love if someone else did it as well.
A really cool video ❤
Thanks - it was a great trip.
such a great trip! a lot of recreational park users well know that the logging infrastructure is there, yet the management does such a good job of the two solitudes thing that few truly appreciate it, myself included. until I see a video like this. is bikepacking today at where canoeing was in the 80's? if so, park management simply has to find a way to leverage that vast network of decommissioned logging roads. they span the entire spectrum from smooth to rough depending on how long they've been dormant, so the variety is great. throw in a few purpose-cut single track sections for connections, and it'd be awesome!
There are many people who believe, given how congested the primary areas of Algonquin become in the summer, that the old logging roads would help alleviate that and give people broader access to portions of the park. Then there are others who are on the other side of the fence. For me personally...I just ride them 😀
@@Suluk46 you did more than just ride them. I've just watched your followup video, and I thought it was a skillfully nuanced take on a serious can of worms. we all know the logging jobs are as protected as any other endangered species. but just as resource extraction opens up crown land to recreational access, it seems fair to me that the same principle apply to our parks. but politics aside thanks for the upload, I'm quite intrigued by this bikepacking trend and hope to try it one day.
I've been tripping in the backcountry since I was a young kid and only started to bikepack over the last few years. It's a great sport, definitely worth trying. Hiking and packrafting are still highest on my preference, but man, traveling on a bike through untouched areas is a fantastic way to see the earth.
So true. I've been saying this for years and I haven't ever bike packed, only mountain biking. Hopefully one day, with pressure from cyclists and other interest groups, they can somehow make it happen. Bike packing isn't going anywhere and only getting more popular and not much more impactful than backpacking.
What an adventure! surprised me not too much mosquitos
It was quite the trip! I did it late August so the heat had killed most stuff off by then. Mosquitos and blackflys were gone, mostly just flies and only in certain areas.
Such a cool trip!
Glad you liked it. It's a bit of a challenge but worth the effort!
@@Suluk46 Really cool gear that you make and sell, which I’ve been checking out and sharing with my longtime canoe trip buddy!
@@RodMurray Thanks man. I love designing and building cool stuff.
Fun video! I watched the whole thing while on Zwift. We know some of the main roads and Algonquin Outfitters spots you connected as we spend time in the park every year. ❤️ great adventure. Makes me look forward to my next bikepacking trip.
From start to finish? Awesome! That's commitment man, I hope enjoyed it. There is a video I did a few weeks back explaining everything I did to plan, pack, aswell as the route in detail. If you watched this whole thing, you might find it interesting.
@@Suluk46 Thanks. I'll check out the prep video too. I shared a link to this video via Instagram and got a few responses from friends looking forward to watching it as well.
Awesome video! Watching it with keen interest to see if you mention how the Vertice jacket worked out. I figure your video is the epitome of "real world " use case 🤣
Lol, it definitely got some use. It's better than my Luke UL setup, and still works fine for Ontario summer trips. It's when you get into the high mountains or far north where the sustained cold rain just wets it out. That said, it's coming with me to the arctic this summer.
2:38:16 I want to hear from the RV people haha. I think that’s so weird to bring snobbery to camping.. I thought the point of camping was to escape that mentality..
It's possible to avoid Highway 11 by going through WIlliamsport, and taking the ATV trail to Mews Hill Road. There is a swampy area there at the corner which is the only tricky part.
Awesome info. I'm doing some searching over here and have a fairly big ask. Want to draw out the route and email it to me? There is already another bikepacker planning the route for next year, and I'd love to give it to him. And does your route differ much from the dirt bike route I posted in my post trip summary video?
I’m pretty sure that route is usable and you can either follow the snowmobile trail up to Foote lake and around to Kearney or head up 592.
@@jcypounder Good to know. Lots of people interested in doing it next year at this point.
14:56 don’t you have to filter and boil it? Genuinely asking, I’m new to this
There are a few ways to purify water. My preference is to use something like Aquatabs. They are purification tablets, and you drop one of the tabs into a liter of water and about 20 minutes later it is safe to drink.
Bike packing is just a word.
About five years old.
Nobody can explain what it means that makes it different from touring.
Screaching noise .... sounded like red fox atleast thats the noise they make here in scotland .
You're probably right. A few people mentioned that it was a red fox.
that is the only thing that scares me is maybe encountering a bear
Pretty rare, and even more rare to have a negative encounter.
Why do keep saying we ?
Because there is no "I" in 'team".
this looks like fun but not for me ill just watch your videos lol
Sounds good to me. Lol.