Welcome to Michigan. I live in Battle Creek. We have a lot of lakes, trails and state parks seemingly everywhere. Tons of biking opportunity. Glad you had a great time.
I’ve lived in Traverse City area since 99, and Fife Lake since 2010. I love watching people enjoy our area, and you crushed that. I also appreciated the Samuel Jackson Beer ‘mmm, mmm bitch’ while eating burritos on the river 👍👊🇺🇸🤘
Hey David, I love the mindset you bring. The joy and satisfaction of solo riding and just the experience. We need more of this energy in today’s world. There is a difference between GEAR and STUFF. Gear can be the experience and emotions you generate as much as a drone rotor or rain cape. Keep it up man! The energy and message is as important as the experience!!!
Bikepacking found me this summer. I started riding my bike again in 2019 and found my way into gravel biking and my first overnight this summer. Ive been thru a lot personally and adventures like this are the absolute greatest. I cant wait to do a ride like this!!
@davidlamb4298 hey thanks! I'm totally going to follow you for inspiration. I road thru my first truly intense rain/ thunderstorm a few weekends ago. I think the dichotomy between feeling like a bad ass adult who can overcome obstacles and the sheer childlike joy is what is so addictive. Exploration is definitely powerful. Also, thanks for sharing your routes.. that is super helpful. Keep it up!
Cool video David! I live in Grand Rapids Michigan, it was cool to see someone bike pack the NCT! My wife and I just spent a weekend camping and riding to a bunch of wineries in Traverse City recently, it’s such an amazing area to ride!
With the exception of that sandy part at the end, this one was very bikepacking friendly. I keep telling myself that I would take someone on this route who wanted to do a longer ride as an introduction to bikepacking.
Hey David, glad you were able to enjoy and spread the beauty of NW Lower Michigan and my home town of Traverse (TRAV-errs) City, and yes the sand around the VASA can be brutal as you are practically riding on a sand dune with a thin layer of dirt on top. I ride a 3" tire just for that reason.
Enjoyed your video. Michigan gravel can have lots of sand. Did a tour in the UP this year, some spots were like riding through a sand dune. Did plenty of walking and pushing. The popular four wheelers can make hard packed sand soft and fluffy 😭. Thank you for sharing your experience. 🙏🏻
Your impactful statement was the recording and sharing of your fabulous adventure. Well done, young man. Keep up the good work. And my, what an appetite you have at the end of a ride!
Awesome Video! This is a ride that I'd like to do. While we were watching I was impressed with the drone shots in the woods, I even commented, that it was so close to the trees and nerve-racking. Then BAM! 🤣 Ride On!
Nice job. You really captured the essence of the solo bike packing experience. So simple, so fun, and so satisfying with all the challenges to overcome.
Awesome job! I appreciate your sharing the good and the bad. I’m hoping to do this trail someday (I live in MI, a few hours away)-maybe this fall. This will be so helpful! Look forward to watching more of your adventures.
I’ve hiked & backpacked many of those same exact trails, countless times over the past few decades, but never thought to bikepack them! I know all of those areas like my backyard, but haven’t been up there since my pups passed a few years ago. Maybe next year I’ll do a bikepacking trip to spread some of my pups ashes at a few of our favorite spots. Awesome video, thanks for putting it up! Sub’d for more of these types of trips! One thing to keep in mind if you do ever go back, there are black bears in those woods & cougars. They’re pretty harmless if you’re not stupid, but it is something to keep in mind for food storage & personal protection planning. The wildlife is nothing to fret about though, the trashy meth-head locals are more concerning if you accidentally stumble upon them at the end of a 2-track…
I looked into Michigan's interactive map for the north country trail and clicked on the trail in sections you rode on day one and it says CLOSED to bikes on a 1.5 mile section. I wasn't surprised since it is single track and single track is typically only in loops with a designated direction. I am glad you had fun, but I hope others do not see this and attempt to ride their bike on single track that doesn't have a designated direction and get hurt. Cheers!
I rode bikepacking.com’s route “Michigan North Country Traverse.” My understanding is that the route only uses parts of the NCT that are open to bikes. The route has brief detours for the sections that are not. That is what I recall from the route description
Some time you need to explore the Leelanau area. I live a short ride away, and there are so many wonderful rides even starting at my house. I'm mainly writing as a roadie. Sadly, and the moment, I'm a roadie recovering from a hernia operation, so no real joy on the roads for way too long a time.
@@christopheroliver148 I hope you get well soon! Thank you for watching! If know of any established routes there I love to see them. Looking for any reason to go back to MI
I live in Hillsdale county where the North country trail comes into from the north and enters Ohio in the south, and the trail is complete through the county.
Great video. I had a similar trip solo in September 2023 and also climbed that hill. You can barely see the trail to the right. Check out the M.O.R.E. Route Michigan that Matt Acker created. My goal is to do all of it.
That was an awesome video of this area in Michigan. Can you share a link to your relive account so I can find that overlooked and the campsite by the water in day 3 of your adventure? Thanks for sharing your adventure.
Hey there! Thanks for watching. This was probably my most fun route of 2023. I made a separate video detailing my whole setup it’s on my channel! Let me know what you think
Yeah I got corrected as I got closer to traverse city. I don’t have gpx but I just followed the route from bikepacking.com. It should be in the description
Love the video - good resource for sure! I'm hoping to do this on my Priority 600HXT later this year. You need a bikepacking sidekick like John and Mira to round out your videos ;-) Great content! Do you have any other plans to do any upper midwest routes? I'd love to do this route and some of the northern Michigan or Minnesota routes.
@@chuckfessler2652 thank you Chuck, I’d love to have a friend who does this with me but none of mine will sign up for it. Right now no, but I know there are a few good ones and I’ll head back there someday! Next up is Scotland in august.
Hey, thanks for the comment! I did the ride in august. Temps were perfect! Anticipate some sandy sections but otherwise things are smooth. You are in for a treat!
![Megan Thee Stallion - Mamushi (feat. Yuki Chiba) [2024 London Performance]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pxTCJUuorKc/mqdefault.jpg)
Great video. It’s funny has hell listening to non-Michiganders try to pronounce the names of our towns and cities 😂
@@jeffhiatt4455 I’m learning lol. Thanks for watching
Michigander here- Northern Michigan (and really along all of the lakeshores) is truly special. Glad you got to experience it.
It was so amazing. thanks for watching
Welcome to Michigan. I live in Battle Creek. We have a lot of lakes, trails and state parks seemingly everywhere. Tons of biking opportunity. Glad you had a great time.
@@radiosaladstudios4656 it was wonderful! Thank you for watching.
Really enjoyed your video of the trip and more happy you had a great time in our great state of Michigan.
@@travelingfella1 thank you for watching! Michigan is a wonderful place
I’ve lived in Traverse City area since 99, and Fife Lake since 2010. I love watching people enjoy our area, and you crushed that. I also appreciated the Samuel Jackson Beer ‘mmm, mmm bitch’ while eating burritos on the river 👍👊🇺🇸🤘
@@given0fox968 haha you got it! It’s such a wonderful area. I’m so glad I got to visit and am trying to find any excuse to come do the ride again!
Beans, tortillas, nutella - sounds like someone else also watches Ryan Van Duzer's adventures. :) Great documentation on the ride through Michigan.
You caught me! Not carrying a stove is a great idea to reduce weight.
I also noticed the Priority 600X and a use of the word "whammy" 😂
Amazing, I am on the verge bike across USA soon. Thank you for few things pointed out I needed ! Happy biking! Wuhuuu !!! ❤
@@ZoltanSzaszBenedek good luck that sounds amazing!
Thanks so much for making this video. What an amazing trip. You are an inspiration for those of us who would love to take such a journey.
@@kentv999 thank you for watching Kent!! I sincerely appreciate the kind words
My wife is from traverse city. We visit often and I have done the north country trail. I loved the section you rode.
@@hug8956 hope I make it back someday. Thanks for watching!
@dlambbikepacking I saw that you also did the southern california desert ramble. I live where you finished
@@hug8956 oh nice, yeah that was a fantastic ride
Hey David, I love the mindset you bring. The joy and satisfaction of solo riding and just the experience. We need more of this energy in today’s world. There is a difference between GEAR and STUFF. Gear can be the experience and emotions you generate as much as a drone rotor or rain cape. Keep it up man! The energy and message is as important as the experience!!!
Thank you! I feel so happy when i do these trips, even when they suck and there is a lot of physical pain involved.
So awesome! I live just a couple hours from here, I will be checking out this route soon! The workshop for pizza and beer was a good choice!
Thanks for watching!
Bikepacking found me this summer. I started riding my bike again in 2019 and found my way into gravel biking and my first overnight this summer. Ive been thru a lot personally and adventures like this are the absolute greatest. I cant wait to do a ride like this!!
Keep it at it!! It’s one of the best things in life
@davidlamb4298 hey thanks! I'm totally going to follow you for inspiration.
I road thru my first truly intense rain/ thunderstorm a few weekends ago. I think the dichotomy between feeling like a bad ass adult who can overcome obstacles and the sheer childlike joy is what is so addictive. Exploration is definitely powerful. Also, thanks for sharing your routes.. that is super helpful. Keep it up!
Cool video David! I live in Grand Rapids Michigan, it was cool to see someone bike pack the NCT! My wife and I just spent a weekend camping and riding to a bunch of wineries in Traverse City recently, it’s such an amazing area to ride!
So much fun, thanks for watching!
Glad you (mostly) had a great trip. I live in TC and ride a lot of those trails. Sorry you hit all that sand. Sand sucks.
Thanks for watching! The sandy section was rough but brief
Cool video. I live in Michigan so now this trip is on my bucket list. Also I subscribed to get you past the mark of the beast subscriber number.😄👍
Hahaha thank you Walt!
My backyard, its on my "one day" list. Michigan seems to have more backpacking routes than bike-friendly bikepacking routes. Loved this video.
With the exception of that sandy part at the end, this one was very bikepacking friendly. I keep telling myself that I would take someone on this route who wanted to do a longer ride as an introduction to bikepacking.
Hey David, glad you were able to enjoy and spread the beauty of NW Lower Michigan and my home town of Traverse (TRAV-errs) City, and yes the sand around the VASA can be brutal as you are practically riding on a sand dune with a thin layer of dirt on top. I ride a 3" tire just for that reason.
Thanks for watching Thomas! The North Country trail was truly amazing! VASA was rough at the end but it didn’t last too long
Nice man,
I love the screw ups along the way. I was laughing out loud about climbing the wrong hill. Not an easy feat but you made it look easy.
Thanks James. My goal was to depict all aspects of the adventure, good and bad.
Enjoyed your video. Michigan gravel can have lots of sand. Did a tour in the UP this year, some spots were like riding through a sand dune. Did plenty of walking and pushing. The popular four wheelers can make hard packed sand soft and fluffy 😭. Thank you for sharing your experience. 🙏🏻
Of course! The sand was only bad at the very end of this one. Just remember wide tires if you ever choose to ride it 🙂
I’ve back packed and paddled some of the same areas. Great stuff. Love my home state and glad you enjoyed it.
Honestly it was my favorite ride I did last year. Thanks for watching!
Your impactful statement was the recording and sharing of your fabulous adventure. Well done, young man. Keep up the good work. And my, what an appetite you have at the end of a ride!
Thank you! Eating is a totally different experience at the end of a long ride lol.
Awesome Video! This is a ride that I'd like to do. While we were watching I was impressed with the drone shots in the woods, I even commented, that it was so close to the trees and nerve-racking. Then BAM! 🤣 Ride On!
@@tinkeringcyclist9314 yeah I learned my lesson about doing that. No more drone shots in the woods. Thanks for watching 🙂
@@dlambbikepacking Yeah, I bet you did! Would you mind sharing your route for this ride?
@@tinkeringcyclist9314 bikepacking.com/routes/north-country-traverse/
@@dlambbikepacking Awesome, thanks man! Ride On!
Nice job. You really captured the essence of the solo bike packing experience. So simple, so fun, and so satisfying with all the challenges to overcome.
Thank you!
Really enjoyed your video. Well done and thank you.
Thank you!!
Great video!! I would love to try this one day.
Can’t recommend it enough
Thanx for sharing your adventures and your thoughts 😃
Thank you for watching!
Keep up the good work. Loving the chilled informative style 👌
Thank you for watching!
Excellent video just subbed looking forward to seeing more
Thank you!!!
Awesome job! I appreciate your sharing the good and the bad. I’m hoping to do this trail someday (I live in MI, a few hours away)-maybe this fall. This will be so helpful! Look forward to watching more of your adventures.
Thank you! I can’t recommend it enough. The fall would be an even better time to do it
I’ve hiked & backpacked many of those same exact trails, countless times over the past few decades, but never thought to bikepack them! I know all of those areas like my backyard, but haven’t been up there since my pups passed a few years ago. Maybe next year I’ll do a bikepacking trip to spread some of my pups ashes at a few of our favorite spots. Awesome video, thanks for putting it up! Sub’d for more of these types of trips!
One thing to keep in mind if you do ever go back, there are black bears in those woods & cougars. They’re pretty harmless if you’re not stupid, but it is something to keep in mind for food storage & personal protection planning. The wildlife is nothing to fret about though, the trashy meth-head locals are more concerning if you accidentally stumble upon them at the end of a 2-track…
Thank you for the sub! I’d love to go back and do it again someday and will keep this in mind when I do. The north country trail was great!
Yes, that sand hill is like a wall 16:53. I could not get my bike up it in 2022, there was alternative route away from the river that I detoured on.
Good call, the sand was brutal!
Pronounced Me Sick. Good footage
I looked into Michigan's interactive map for the north country trail and clicked on the trail in sections you rode on day one and it says CLOSED to bikes on a 1.5 mile section. I wasn't surprised since it is single track and single track is typically only in loops with a designated direction. I am glad you had fun, but I hope others do not see this and attempt to ride their bike on single track that doesn't have a designated direction and get hurt. Cheers!
I rode bikepacking.com’s route “Michigan North Country Traverse.” My understanding is that the route only uses parts of the NCT that are open to bikes. The route has brief detours for the sections that are not. That is what I recall from the route description
This is awesome!
Some time you need to explore the Leelanau area. I live a short ride away, and there are so many wonderful rides even starting at my house. I'm mainly writing as a roadie. Sadly, and the moment, I'm a roadie recovering from a hernia operation, so no real joy on the roads for way too long a time.
@@christopheroliver148 I hope you get well soon! Thank you for watching! If know of any established routes there I love to see them. Looking for any reason to go back to MI
I live in Hillsdale county where the North country trail comes into from the north and enters Ohio in the south, and the trail is complete through the county.
@@FjHenderson I wish you could ride bikes on all parts of it!
This is so sick!
Great video. I had a similar trip solo in September 2023 and also climbed that hill. You can barely see the trail to the right. Check out the M.O.R.E. Route Michigan that Matt Acker created. My goal is to do all of it.
Glad I’m not alone, that hill was insane!
subbed! nice to meet follow you god tier David, i already kno you gon blow the f up fam!!!
Now this is the kind of stuff I want to ride on my 600x
go do it! Was one of my favorite rides ever
That was an awesome video of this area in Michigan. Can you share a link to your relive account so I can find that overlooked and the campsite by the water in day 3 of your adventure? Thanks for sharing your adventure.
Thank you for watching, I'll figure that out and send it!
drone shots go so hard
congrats on the trip. that's my michigan backyard! can you talk about your bike setup/gear? thanks
Hey there! Thanks for watching. This was probably my most fun route of 2023. I made a separate video detailing my whole setup it’s on my channel! Let me know what you think
Hearing your pronunciations of locations in Michigan is kinda funny lol
Also, do you have gpx files?
Yeah I got corrected as I got closer to traverse city. I don’t have gpx but I just followed the route from bikepacking.com. It should be in the description
How are you liking the 600X? I did my first couple overnights with mine this summer and it’s a great tool for the job. Thanks for sharing.
I love it, lots of good mounting points, front suspension soaks up chunking trails and the pinion and gates is reliable in remote areas
Love the video - good resource for sure! I'm hoping to do this on my Priority 600HXT later this year. You need a bikepacking sidekick like John and Mira to round out your videos ;-) Great content! Do you have any other plans to do any upper midwest routes? I'd love to do this route and some of the northern Michigan or Minnesota routes.
@@chuckfessler2652 thank you Chuck, I’d love to have a friend who does this with me but none of mine will sign up for it. Right now no, but I know there are a few good ones and I’ll head back there someday! Next up is Scotland in august.
@@dlambbikepacking awesome! my wife and I had planned on doing the North Coast 500 back in 2020...but then COVID happened
@@chuckfessler2652 I hope you get to do it! I’ll let you know how my ride goes
@@chuckfessler2652 that sounds amazing, I hope you make it sometime!
Great video! How did you get to and from the trail with your bike?
Thanks Abbie! I flew into Grand Rapids and took at uberXL from the airport with my bike. I flew out of Traverse City
Thanks for sharing the video, it's great! When did you do the ride? We're heading out Sunday to start it!
Hey, thanks for the comment! I did the ride in august. Temps were perfect! Anticipate some sandy sections but otherwise things are smooth. You are in for a treat!
@@dlambbikepacking Rad, thanks for the recon!
Nice vid! How did you get so shredded ? Is it biking only or are you hitting the gym as well ?
Thank you for watching! I’ve been lifting for 10+ years. I love doing both
@@dlambbikepacking Thats awesome. Your hard work really shows. Thanks for the great video.
Didn't think you could ride a bike on all parts of that trail.
You can’t. The bikepacking.com route avoids the sections that are not open to bikes
Great video. What bike are you riding ???
Priority 600x!
Come visit in the winter lol, weather not so nice. 🥶
I believe it!