Planning a first bikepacking overnighter

1. 1

   Step 1: Settle where you will sleep first

   Before the route, because it constrains the route and because the version of this decision made at dusk is always worse. A campsite is the simplest answer and costs less than the conversation you will otherwise have at six in the morning.

   You will know it worked when: A destination you are entitled to be at.

2. 2

   Step 2: Pick a route with escape options

   Fifteen to twenty-five miles, on ground you partly know, passing at least two stations or main roads. The point of a first trip is that abandoning it is easy.

   You will know it worked when: A trip you can stop at any point.

3. 3

   Step 3: Load the bike you own and ride it locally

   Strap dry bags on before buying anything. Ten miles around home with the full load tells you whether the weight is in the wrong place, which is almost always too high and too far forward.

   You will know it worked when: No surprises at the first junction.

4. 4

   Step 4: Plan by hours, not miles

   Loaded and off-road can halve your usual pace, and daylight is the real constraint. The day planner tool on this site costs the day including climbing and stops.

   You will know it worked when: A plan that survives contact with the route.

5. 5

   Step 5: Eat before you go and carry more than you think

   Village shops in Britain keep awkward hours and the good ones close on Sundays. Water is heavy and refillable; food is light and the shops shut. Beginners reliably get this the wrong way round.

   You will know it worked when: You are not rationing at nine in the evening.

This differs by nation and it is worth settling before you leave. Scotland’s statutory right of responsible access extends to lightweight camping on most land, subject to behaving responsibly and to byelaws in some areas. England and Wales have no general right: camping without the landowner’s permission is trespass, tolerated in parts of the uplands by long custom rather than by entitlement, with Dartmoor a much-litigated exception. Northern Ireland is more restrictive again.

For a first trip, a campsite removes the question entirely, and the full position is set out on the bikepacking activity page.