My First Bikepacking Trip… a 460km epic through Slovenia!!

Experience an epic bikepacking trip through the alps, lakes and valleys of Slovenia’s West Loop in Europe. On board my Vitus Rapide, I took on 8 days with 460km distance and 9500m of climbing for my first bikepacking trip. It was tough but an amazing adventure and I loved it!

Happy to share (and take!) tips on my experience as a newbie on setup, bikepacking gear and anything from the route. We had some wild weather with a heatwave at the start followed by severe rain and thunderstorms… literally got it all! The route had many high mountain passes to climb and also a good bit of singletrack and offroad paths too. In this video you’ll see the full route from the Julian alps across through the Adriatic sea and all the wonderful forest trails and clear blue lakes in between.

I was glad I chose an XC bike for the route as there was a decent bit of loose or rough terrain each day and it was way more versatille! Especially being able to lock everything out for the climbs. It was a toss up between this or a gravel bike. We camped 6 nights from 8 and had no shortage of places to stock up on food and water each day! I had my own tent rather than sharing which was a good decision for me!

Hope you enjoy the vlog! I’ll definitely be doing more bikepacking around Scotland and Europe now! Maybe need to up the gear for the cooler weather! If you’re new to the channel then vlogs on here are mostly enduro but with trips and different adventures like this featuring too. Hit subscribe for gnarly trails, races and adventure vids!

Chapters:
00:00 Intro, Gear & Route
01:55 Off we go
03:27 Day 2
03:57 It got gnarly!
05:04 Lake Bled
06:13 Day 3
06:44 Waterfall!
07:47 River crossing & mountain pass
10:45 The Soca river
13:08 Air Bnb!
14:45 Towards Italy & more gnar
16:20 River FAIL!
16:29 Italy!
17:52 Caves
18:16 Final Stretch
19:50 Outro & thoughts

Bike: Vitus Rapide FS 100mm suspension
Tyre choice: Michelin Wild XC
Filmed on: Go Pro Hero 11 Mini

#bikepacking #adventure #slovenia #mtb #outdoorexploration

Hello and welcome back so today’s Vlog is a bit different it’s different for me it’s my first ever bike packing trip and it happens to be Slovenia for eight days so I am in beautiful Slovenia right now and I’m just gonna give away flavor what’s to come and then take you on the

Journey from from start to finish I’m doing it with my brother gav and Frank Conan who are currently eating their breakfast in this Tower so the loop we’re doing starts with Ljubljana and it’s about 420 kilometers and between nine to ten thousand meters of elevation we’re heading up through

Lake bled the national park the Alps uh then the Socha River with the electric blue water over through Italy and back in from the south it looks in such an epic route I’m really excited to share all the moments with you at the highs the lows

The heat waves the the crazy rain refuge and Mountain Hearts it’s it’s really quite an adventure so my weapon of choice is my Vitus repeats full suspension 100 Mil travel front and back a rock shock said Forks schmanno XT Drive training brakes and tires are

Mitchell and wild XC so I’ve got a bit of traction and also a bit of puncture proof well they still roll fast bike has really cut it up got a 20 liter handlebar bag I think a 12 liter sad 9 or 12 liter saddle pack and then all

Sorts of frame bags in between and a couple of water bottle pouches on the bars it is a stacked bike and it weighs about 23 kilos so it’s not your not your average rate it is heavy I’ve managed to get a book uh two parabanks and yeah some other non-essentials on there but

It’s looking good so hope you enjoyed the route just go from the start right through share all the the highlights with you have arrived in Ljubljana just made pretty late and we’re just sorting out the bikes this morning on the street you have getting his stage ready

It’s sweating away it’s 32 degrees it’s absolutely insane Conan’s picked the nice shitty spot sensible about mechanic issues already two hours probably more than two hours to get this machine ready but we’re setting off now for the flight and I’m pretty sure uh yeah unseated the dribbler so yeah it’s

Off to a good start already but we are yeah we’re off in the route let’s go look at that reward for the mass of like seven eight hundred meter climb 2000 and it feels like it wait we made it to dinner stop and we get 600 meters to go got lost twice

Already good start yeah it’s been pretty good so far but it’s been really tough going in the heat I think tomorrow’s another hot day and then it gets a bit cooler so I’m gonna get some good Slovenian food get up to camp and then wake up for blood tomorrow

Good morning this has been the camp spot for the night just packed up ready to go to bed it’s already roasting as soon as the sun came up yesterday was really really tough going ended up doing 1600 meters uh over pretty much two climbs in that heat it

Was it was a real struggle I was getting a bit bit concerned about the rest of the trip but good to seeing that every day is going to be like that so we’re off to to blood now all right we’ve got a gnarly selection so I’ve put on the head Cam For the

First Time 25 Kilo bike very unbalanced Third Way everywhere on the seat right up my arms oh my God oh my God holy oh just turned in our bike packing Style wow came from a good road to say now wow look at that iced coffee stop pretty good

There’s any ice creams off to leak blood is 16k now fake blood just as beautiful as expected look at that water so clear gonna go Furby depth you got it you got it you’re laughing now I will not be cramping this evening There you golovsky now Rodney Park enter International Park after horrific amount of more climbing what’s your station fell enough and then where are we off to next must travel yes more Strava for the night decent climb oh quarter past six in the evening been going since about eight today

With a few chilled stops almost at destination for tonight good morning from Camp day three today so we’ve got an 800 meter climb today amongst other climbs up to a 1900 meter mountain pass with a World War II bunker at the top although we’re supposed to

Get the proper heavy rain later so we’ll see what what happens I think we’ll do how many mils are we due the worst 30 mil so yeah it’s gonna be it could be has a potential to be Savage we shall see what we get so yeah onwards with the day

First stop of the day short details today Oh boy on the way to Grand scalora hey time for an extra drama it’s looking like we may have to cross the river which could be an issue we’re just off to investigate yeah yeah maybe out there okay but yeah well that was pretty Epic [Applause] we stop on the way up

700 meters tall to go to get to the top of the mountain pass 700 down I think 800 down maybe that’s cool but bleak the final stretch oh so we got up to the top of the mountain pass the bunker was not really appropriate yes

So that was a no-go I decided to put up a soggy tent after I get totally soaked we found a mountain hut and it’s pretty awesome so we’re warm we’re dry we’re showered for the first time in several days and we’ve got some awesome food and

Beer and Uno is out for the rest of the night so it’s all good but we did get sold we did get absolutely soaked we had a 1 900 meters 900 meter Mountain Pass uh all the way up there in the like touring showbane thunder and lightning

So yeah it’s really good to be here oh yeah you’re supposed to say cheers Oh it’s warm yeah that’s why I had the gold one off we go this is as descending down and out of the triglavsky national park probably within the next couple of hours oh my bag is open that’s not good oh no that’s my book Gone Essentials you know

Checking out the Viewpoint look at those views year Road open seven months a year yes hi that’s amazing it really is wow we’ve reached the soccer or the Socha the river here we see Laura faffing it’s one of her specialties oh oh stunning oh my God oh my God it’s getting a bit

Wobbly she was a bit sketchy of it Wally just had lunch in bullvex and continued on and climbed up to see the most one of the most amazing waterfalls in Slovenia check this out wow weather’s starting to take his toll a bit tired it’s been peeing with rain for two straight days now

Soak through a little bit cold yeah they’re not so happy side of bike parking got an Airbnb tonight which I’m really looking forward to and just need to get through the next couple of hours of more heavy rain hey short break in the weather just in

Time to see the river and the Sun hilarious okay on the way to cabard it’s been pretty chunky so I’ve turned on the GoPro because I got pretty sketchy yeah it’s more Gravelly here back there we had a lot of Boulders in a few moments almost offs oh look at that

Arrives at the accommodation for the night so good check this out we have a sauna right in the middle of the room so weird get this on Dyson kit nice apartment this is as in corporate or covered you welcome it looking forward to some rest tonight let’s crank this up

Day five here we go the sauna was amazing for drying all the kits some of us had more success than others here jars were out on the socks and we’re off to get soaked again but the weather’s looking a bit better today and then we should have Sun from Tomorrow onwards so

We’re going to just getting the bikes ready in the B room here and then we’re going to check out our waterfall and then head on over through the Socha Valley in the river and then on to Richland for the night all right next to the Italian border soon

Got some lovely switchbacks just come up a 1 000 meter climb up to this Ridge line until we own one side Slovenia on the other perfect thanks dinner at the basketball court taking shelter with a smoky tomato paella on the menu and a carbon area here and a chicken tikka with rice

Tasty stuff on the road again so we have the sea just here the Adriatic Coast uh the soccer River here and it’s it’s phenomenal it’s too far away for the GoPro but it’s really really nice um so yeah Italian Coast just over here and we’re off to Italy for lunch all right mornar

Oh my God I think I’ll just walk this foot whoa I thought you’re going to the side sorry I feel like I’m right in a proper mountain bike trail here got the saddle properly oh my God up my horse there’s a hundred mil travel and really really firm suspension because of all the kit it is not easy That is a good speed it’s a good speed oh [Laughter] beautiful we’re in Natalia we’ve been cruising about for a while off to get some ice cream as we need to do had some lunch stocked up and Camp meals it’s been pretty good Italian gelato here we go there were so

Many flavors in there so good passing through Lots Farms when it’s been so we had a lovely lunch today in Idols China as an athlete important to me to make sure I get the right nutrition um we’re now on an even Lovelier 800 meter climb in one go maybe 900 even

I’m not gonna lie really feeling it now we’re almost at the end of day seven coming in 8 000 meters it’s way harder than I thought I converted to my usual writing but of course the bike’s double the weight and a lot of it actually been kind of

Tough going lots of single track as well as steep climbs in the road oh one more day tomorrow we’re at little caves which are not so little so Gavin Conan uh headed down and we’ll pop in some shots it’s pretty Epic made it to the lake gaps inflated his camping that and it’s

Actually working on the way to camp for the final night and then just Cruise morning it’s the final day today and I cannot believe it it’s gone so fast so we’ve got about 20 25 kilometer cruise and back into Ljubljana morning views are really quite stunning proper Blue Sky day finally

My legs are absolutely Juiced like they’ve never been like this before they’re just sore even overnight just lying there it was sore I feel okay a bit tired but yeah the legs just aren’t working anymore so I’m totally ready for a rest day I think we’re gonna end up on

Like 9 500 meters at least me 9500 meters of elevation and about maybe 460 our kilometers I’ll put in the stats at the end it’s been a fair shift breakfast is on what’s in a venue wash baked beans Posh baked beans oh what’s going on got porridge apparently so it’s quite nice

And a fruit snack all the fruit snacks and just like that we’re back in Ljubljana time together and we are at the airport so the trip has been amazing it’s been phenomenal I would highly recommend bike parking really enjoyed it it was tough going at times it was particularly tough

During these rainy days but also in the like sweltering heat when you don’t have access to shower for days as well uh but Slovenia was an amazing country and I was really happy with the choice of bike I couldn’t decide whether to go for a gravel or the fuel suspension and the

BTS repeat was the perfect bike for eight days didn’t miss a Beat Just had that bit of suspension to take the edge off on the technical stuff we had a good bit of that actually and combined with the Michelin Wells XC tires I had the grip and the rolling speed so yeah it

Was a really good setup I was really happy with it we ended up on 460 kilometers and 9500 meters of elevation over the eight days it’s a big old week but absolutely super a lot of claims a lot more climbs and I was expecting and a lot more intense claims than I was

Expecting especially with all that weight on the bike so not an easier route but plenty of places to fill up along the way which helped a lot so we didn’t need to carry too much we didn’t drink weapons each day but that’s it so yeah I just left is what’s next I

Feel like I’ve got the bike pack in bug now and yeah I need to find another adventure