What You Need to Know About Building Trails for Bikepacking: An Interview with Gabriel Amadeus Tiller of the Orogenesis Collective
Photo credit: Erik Hillard, Lowelifes RCC
One of the constants in life is change. Everything is in flux, transition, and motion. I think back to when I was in college in 1994 and bought my first “legit” mountain bike from a shop—a fully rigid Diamondback with cantilever brakes. Then, I fondly recall the kinds of trails I rode throughout the rest of the 90s and into the early 2000s—raw, chunky, and no flow.
Times have changed. They continue to do so.
Since then, the whole sport and industry of mountain biking have changed, and so has bike tech. Along with that, trail building as an industry has continued to grow, mature, and legitimize. We’ve moved from riding on hiking, horse, or cow trails to luxurious bike-only trails at bikeparks replete with features like wallrides, massive berms, tabletops, and lots of flow.
The cycling world as a whole continues to evolve rapidly. In the blink of an eye, gravel riding is now huge, and along with that, bikepacking as its own industry is on the upswing. We find gravel bikes with suspension forks and dropper seat posts on “regular” mountain bike trails. It’s the impact of bikepacking that I want to address today.
Seemingly, “most” trail building efforts focus on front country trails. These are the trails that most of us ride. We might be considered “day users.” On any given weekend, we load up our bikes, drive 30-60 minutes, ride for a few hours, and then drive back home. Most of the trail work I see focuses on these kinds of trails. But what about backcountry trails? More than that, what about building and maintaining trails focused on bikepacking trips?
Photo credit: Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
What does it take to build and maintain backcountry trails where those who venture there on two wheels are not necessarily looking for flow, tabletops, or berms? Instead, their bikes are loaded up with gear for multi-day trips.
I reached out to Gabriel Amadeus Tiller of the Orogenesis Collective to get his perspective on building and maintaining trails for bikepacking purposes. Last summer, I ventured out with a group of Orogenesis volunteers deep in the heart of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for a work party (I wrote about that HERE). Gabe is leading the charge to complete a trail that stretches from Canada, down through Washington, Oregon, and California, and then all of the way to the tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico.
In this interview, I ask Gabe about building and maintaining trails, with a focus on bikepacking. Let’s jump into this.
Photo credit: Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
Sean: What makes building backcountry trails for bikepacking different or unique?
Gabe: Typically, new trails are built close to where people live—in concentrated, stacked loop systems. The big difference in building trails for bikepacking routes is the importance of long-distance connectivity. For Orogenesis, we’ve analyzed the route to identify the major gaps in connectivity and prioritize them. There are about 137 miles of new trail needed to fix these priority gaps scattered throughout the 5,000-mile route. We prioritize them due to safety concerns, long indirect ride-arounds, and elevation loss on roads.
For example, in Packwood, Washington, we’re working with a coalition to build a trail that bypasses the highway running through town. This makes the route more fun and less dangerous, but it also achieves the other coalition members’ goals of providing a close-to-town trail that is snow-free most of the year. We’re lucky if we find overlapping goals like this, but it’s not always the case. The current Orogenesis route between Pinecrest and Bear Valley in California is long, circuitous, and involves highway riding due to steep, complex terrain and Wilderness areas. By building 1.5 miles of new trail that skirts the Wilderness boundary, we can eliminate almost 60 miles of road riding and provide a much better rider experience.
The challenge is that there are fewer advocates and volunteers for trail builds that happen so far in the backcountry. Luckily, both the Bear Valley Trail Stewards and the Pinecrest Mountain Bike Association have been very supportive of the concept and are eager to help make it happen.
In short, I’d say the actual act of building the trail is very similar to other trail building, but the difference lies in the mapping, planning, and stakeholder engagement processes when creating trails for bikepacking.
Photo credit: Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
How is trail maintenance different for trails designated more for bikepacking compared to most gravity-fred trails?
Gabe: Most of Orogenesis lies on US Forest Service-managed land, which has detailed trail specifications that we follow for maintenance. That being said, just the sheer volume of trails that have been neglected, burned, or damaged by floods means we have to take a pragmatic, triage approach to maintenance. If we can get a trail back to a usable state, regular usage is the best way to prevent a trail from disappearing. (Hear that? Best way you can help Orogenesis is to go ride!) So we focus on logout first, brushing second, and treadwork third. I’m a big proponent of #shredpacking, so where the route goes through more developed gravity areas, we like to partner with those stewardship orgs to slap some berms as well. I’ve learned that the diversity of the trails along the route is my favorite part (tied with all the people I meet), so we leave some raw and some polished, based on the type of trails already in the area.
Sean: What are some of the biggest challenges for this kind of trail work?
Gabe: I’d say the inherent remoteness of the trails that need love is the most challenging part. Not only is it harder and more time-consuming to access work sites, but it’s also much more challenging to build a good community of stewards devoted to singletrack buried deep in the mountains.
Photo credit: Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
Sean: Who mostly takes care of these backcountry trails?
Gabe: Mostly nobody, unfortunately. Volunteer orgs focus on their favorite trails close to home or National Scenic Trails like the Pacific Crest Trail. The USFS continues to have their funding slashed—they recently announced that they will not hire seasonal trail crews for any of the 600 Ranger Districts nationwide in 2025. Their funding cuts also impact other staff like volunteer coordinators, so even if we have eager volunteers, there may be nobody to facilitate our work. Part of our advocacy work in DC is for the BOLT and EXPLORE Acts, which would help designate (and fund) Orogenesis and hopefully address the skeletal budgets of the USFS Recreation Teams.
Photo credit: Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
Sean: What is one thing you’d like the readers to know about this kind of trail work?
Gabe: What I’d like to see is more mountain bikers packing a foldable handsaw (Silky BigBoy 2000, XL teeth) on their next backcountry mission. Cleaning drains, and opening up the corridor with some loppers (Fiskars PowerGear Anvil) are both super helpful as well. Many saws make light work! Don’t forget to submit a trail report on Trailforks too—these are invaluable for remotely assessing maintenance needs on backcountry trails.
Or better yet, join one of our Stewardship Events or partner orgs’ work parties. The work is incredibly rewarding, the views are stunning, and the friends you make will last a lifetime. Learn about upcoming work parties and route launches by subscribing to our newsletter: orogenesiscollective.org.
Photo credit: Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
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That concludes our interview. If you have a story to tell, click the button below and drop me an email.
About Gabriel Amadeus Tiller
Gabriel (he/him, Mill City, OR) is the founder and former executive director of the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance. He helped co-found the Oregon Mountain Biking Coalition and is now finding a new way on old ground with Orogenesis. He’s passionate about backcountry trails and long-distance connectivity, and is a staunch believer that outdoor experiences have the power to transform people’s lives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sean Benesh
Sean is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Trail Builder Mag. He is also the Communications Director for the Northwest Trail Alliance in Portland, Oregon. While in grad school, he worked as a mountain biking guide in Southern Arizona. Sean also spends time in the classroom as a digital media instructor at Warner Pacific University. Email: sean@trailbuildermag.com // Instagram: @seanbenesh
