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Slow Coast 2025 (Video)

3 days ago 9

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This fall, 50 riders came together for the second annual Slow Coast event, a bikepacking weekender linking the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, and the Discovery Islands. Tom Powell was there shooting video, and he captured the magic of the weekend in a four-minute video you can watch here…

Last year, Emily and I (but mainly Emily) started Slow Coast to bring people together for a weekend of non-competitive bikepacking. We wanted the focus to be about community and education, rather than speed or distance. We achieved that with guest speakers from local advocacy groups, a beautiful group bikepacking trip on Texada Island, and a donation of over $2,000 to folks doing positive work in the qathet Regional District on the Sunshine Coast.

After we recovered from running a group bikepacking trip, we got busy planning for 2026. Instead of returning to Texada Island, we brought attendees on an island-hopping adventure that connected the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, Cortes Island, and Quadra Island for a funky three-day bikepacking group ride. The education piece was a wonderful tour of the Dillon Creek Wetlands, courtesy of Autumn (a project from FOCI), and a chat with Charlie at Bike Lund. Sarah Hornby led a workshop on creating custom natural dying kits for all attendees and guided us through responsible foraging and the dying process. Each attendee created their own custom bandana!

The demographics for this event were approximately 60 percent women, 30 percent men, 10 percent LGBTQ+, and 6 percent BIPOC. Thanks to the modest registration fee, we raised over $2,300 that was shared among We Wai Kai Guardians, Friends of Cortes Island, and Bike Lund.

Our good friend Tom Powell was able to join us again and put together a fantastic four-minute video that really captures the essence of the weekend. It serves as a reminder that it doesn’t have to be difficult or stressful to be considered bikepacking, and that there’s a whole lot more to enjoy than just mileage and podiums. Watch the video below.