Chris Burkard has become a personal source of inspiration for me and it was an honor to have him back on the podcast. He was first on way back at Episode 17 to tell us about his WOW Cyclothon Record that he set in 2019. That episode really fired me up and motivated me to push myself in more ways than just on the bike. Chris’ passion for life is contagious and I highly recommend you go back and listen to ep. 17, although you don’t need to listen in order to enjoy.
After setting an Icelandic record in 2019 he started on his next project, the first ever traverse through the interior of Iceland via bike! First means, he had to hire a cartographer to sketch out a route, then take some super jeeps out to test parts of it, and then convince a few friends to try it! Those friends were Pro XC racer Emily Batty, Eric Batty, and Adam Morka. You’ll have to listen to hear how it went, but check out these pics to see the diversity of terrain they covered!
Shortly after he was back at it on a bikepacking trip in the Sierras with Lael Wilcox, Rue Kaladyte, and Erik Nohlin. This adventure included a 30ish mile pack-a-bike using custom made transformer packs that Erik designed specifically for this trip.
Routes and films are going to be published from these trips, but get a sneak “listen” now!
In this episode I also took the opportunity to talk to him about his successful photography career and work/life balance before we got into his two most recent bikepacking adventures. It’s his ability to manage successful career, be an involved father/husband, and still go on these epic adventures that I’m really inspired by. It’s not an easy path, so I was eager to find out some of his thoughts and perspectives. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!
1/15/21: As a follow up to this episode, today Wahoo released their new film about a trip Chris talked about during this interview. The film is called The Long Way Home and is a beautifully told story that he went on with Lael Wilcox and Erik Nohlin, and filmed by Rue Kaladyte.
