Building a Gravel Adventure on the Fly
How the Garmin Edge 530 can get you deep in the woods
How the Garmin Edge 530 can get you deep in the woods
Garmin’s getting serious about mountain bikes. Well, all bikes, really. For years, products by the Kansas-based company have been very well prepared for any situation on the road. Now Garmin is looking to provide options for mountain bikers as well. That push is helping gravel, too. Not that gravel needs its own cycling computer, but the confluence of improvements to road and mountain bike features on the Edge 530 makes for a great gravel-ready computer. It
makes sense because gravel is basically road racing on ’90s mountain bikes anyway, right? In June, after a couple rides testing out Garmin’s new mountain bike features at Whitefish Bike Retreat in Montana, with the miles (we were close to Canada, but it’s the U.S., so “miles”) of singletrack stretching out from the small lodge, it was time to hit the road less travelled. We traded in the fat tires for slightly-less-fat tires, loaded up a route and head toward Glacier National Park. We shared a van with the trail runners, who unceremoniously dumped us and our bikes out on the side of a gravel road and continued driving toward their trailhead. We had no cell service on the way to the ride, so we were on our own with only the Edge 530 maps and a Garmin inreach satellite communicator for backup.
Soon after, our group of five was rolling beside a stunning blue river. Occasional bends in the hardpack dirt road revealed the Rocky Mountain peaks we were riding toward. The infrequent traffic got even thinner, and we spread out across the road, dodging potholes. With several of our group riding with Garmin’s radar-equipped Varia rear lights, we were safe knowing cars could see us. We also knew when they were coming, giving us plenty of time to slide back to the road’s shoulder like the polite Canadians (and Kansans) we are.
Years of riding on the road have conditioned me to shoulder check constantly, but only once did I manage to spot a car before the Edge 530 delivered a warning beep from the Varia. It was on a long, perfectly straight stretch of road. The vehicles were still so far off that it would have been awkward to yell “car” just to prove that I could still beat the computer.
After sampling a selection of Montana’s choicest gravel surfaces, everything from hardpacked dirt to loose, fine gravel, and even a bit of deep chunky dirt for fun, we arrived at the outpost town of Polebridge. We were about 26 km south of the Canadian border, but there were several signs warning that there was no escape – sorry, I mean no access to Canada at the end of our route. Instead, at Polebridge Mercantile, I got the most delicious bearclaw I’ve ever tasted. With temperatures a little hotter than 30 C, the pastry was paired with a local craft beer.
Along with the huckleberry bearclaw snacks and beer, we got a tip from the locals that the alternate route back to town had been repaired, but is not yet open to motorized traffic. Kenny Carlson from Garmin created a new route quickly on his Garmin and transferred it to several of our Edge 530s so we’d all have turn-by-turn directions. Full of huckleberry bearclaws, we headed off. Once we hopped a gate, the four people in the group were the only humans we’d see for 40 km.
The road devolved from deep gravel to doubletrack the minute we left the main route. At times, it was a soft organic layer that was like riding on a cloud – cloud with occasional stones lodged in it. Other times, it was a morass of small stones too big for our tires to cut through, but too small to provide any platform to pedal on.
Carlson – who helped design the new Edge 530 and 830 and, in his spare time, put in a crushing performance at Dirty Kanza 200 – was unfazed by the heat or power-sapping surfaces. As he approached each hill, he used Garmin’s new Climbpro feature to let us know how long and hard the climb would be before disappearing up the doubletrack in front of us. At the top, the rest of us would dive for shade, while Kenny would relax in the “cool” breeze.
Our efforts were rewarded with a long, winding canyonside descent through a recent burn. The blackened trees gave us a clear view of the surrounding peaks, and a reminder of nature’s power. With the Edge 530’s ability to remain flexible and adapt routes far from home, and far from the nearest human, the device added a level of comfort on the unpaved road. Along with old-school maps and planning, it’s another tool that you can use to make your next adventure more Type 2 fun instead of a Type 3 misadventure.