The cool cats over at Bikepacking.com threw out a worldwide challenge “inviting everyone to sleep under the stars, have a good night outdoors, and send off an otherwise crappy year.”

Challenge accepted.

First, I must admit I am not much of a winter bike camper but the challenge issued was intriguing to me, especially because getting one more night on the woods was a big draw in a year we can all agree was remarkable for so many reasons.

Here is Alberta, we get real Canadian winter - the intimidating version with serious cold temperatures and potential for big snows so whether we are able to go or not was very much dependent on the forecast. Lucky for us, the overnight low was forecast to not go lower than perhaps -10c and the road conditions to get to the campsite were expected to be safe.

The plan was hatched. We’d drive out in our vehicle to secure a camp site, drop off firewood then drive back to Bragg Creek and ride out from there. I’m glad we chose to do that because when we got to the the Maclean Creek Campgorund is was completely full save for just one empty site. Good timing.

We setup our tents and filled them with firewood and drove back to Bragg Creek where we left our vehicle for the night. Setting off, the temperature was hovering around -1c dropping to around -8c by the time we got to the campsite.

Clear skies offered up an incredible full moon and a sky full of stars. The evening was often punctuated with fireworks going off and people obviously having a great time saying goodbye and good night to 2020.

Happy New Year everyone. We hope your 2021 is good to you and yours.