Vancouver Island Bikepack Collective Shares the Local Love in Victoria and Beyond

When he’s not at his day job as a public servant, Kelton Doraty is the president of the grassroots organization Vancouver Island Bikepack Collective (VIBC). Doraty co-founded VIBC with Rob Bryon in 2022 to bring people together with a shared love of biking and camping.

VIBC hosts monthly events from March to October, planning short, two-day bike trips around Vancouver Island and the surrounding Gulf Islands where the group then sets up camp overnight. VIBC will do the work to book the accommodations and plan the biking routes to the campsites. Anybody can purchase a ticket to attend, and often anywhere from 50 to upwards of 90 people will join for the biking adventure: People fly in from Alberta (some even from Washington State), people in their 70s come out and people bring their pets. Doraty has been bringing his four-year-old daughter on trips since she was 10 months old. 

But it’s not just an opportunity to meet like-minded people and geek out about biking. Doraty emphasizes that it’s an accessible and supportive way for people to try bikepacking for the first time. In 2024, VIBC officially became a society, with members and a board of directors. 

What’s your favourite part of VIBC?

In fixed gear bicycle racing, there is something called alleycats (which are like races around the city with checkpoints but no set route). At every race people get these little laminated, wallet-sized spoke cards and we incorporated that into the VIBC. Since the first event, we’ve had laminated numbered cards that everyone gets on their first ride. It’s a bit of a joke that the lower the number you have, the better because the original first 80 cards or so are DIYed—numbered and laminated by hand. I’m #1. We’ve given away almost 400 of these, which means we’ve had almost 400 unique people come to the events over the last four years with many people attending more than one event.

At the events we’ll do a prize draw in the evening, usually on the Saturday. That’s the one time where everybody comes together around the campfire, and people are chatting and it’s a great atmosphere. Everyone puts all their cards with their names in a bag and we give prizes away (like coffee, socks, hats, t-shirts, bags). To me, that’s a super special moment that captures the community that we’ve built.

 What has been one of your favourite trips or routes you’ve been on with the group?

I think the coolest event that we ever ran was on Saturna Island last year at Narvaez Bay. We had Meaghan Hackinen join us. Meaghan is based out in Kelowna, and she holds many ultra endurance cycling records, and she writes about her cycling trips as well. She did a book reading on this peninsula over the ocean. She was telling us about this race she’d won just a few weeks before—the Tour Divide. It’s the most well-known, prestigious, long-distance off-road cycling race from Banff to Mexico. It’s around 4,000 kilometres, and she had done it in the fastest time that a woman had ever done from the grand depart at the time. When she was up there talking, the whole crowd was just so enamoured. A storm was rolling in, there was thunder in the background, surrounded by this ocean. It was just a super special moment that a lot of us probably won’t forget.

You usually pick up donuts to bring on every trip. Where do you get your donuts?

We like the Sidney Bakery. We’ll pick donuts up from there usually on the way out to events because it tends to be along the way from Victoria.

But for other must-stop cycling recommendations in the Victoria area, I’d say Mosi Bakery, Cafe & Gelateria for the best pizza in town and homemade ice cream. And then on the Metchosin side, My-Chosen Cafe is great. They do pizza too, and one of our members is one of the owners there.

How about a good coffee roaster?

The best coffee in town is Eleven Speed Coffee. Kyle [Denny], the owner, has been a supporter of us from the first day. He was the first person that was willing to put stuff together for prizes. And he roasts all the coffee in-house and sometimes he’ll deliver by bike to your place.

Do you have a go-to bike shop in Victoria?

North Park Bike Shop. We’ve been involved with them for quite some time and I’ve been going there for years. Going into a bike shop can be really intimidating for a lot of people, especially if you don’t know a lot about bikes. North Park is a very welcoming, non-intimidating environment, and they’re a certified living wage employer in Victoria.

What’s a B.C.-based gear brand you really like?

There’s a really cool bag company out of Vancouver that we partner with and I have a bunch of their bags—they’re called Field and Forest. It’s a couple that makes bags for bikes. You can get them custom made into a bunch of colours and fit them to your frame.

Your biking fit is worn out. What’s your go-to outerwear brand to find something new to wear?

7mesh is based out in Squamish. I have a lot of 7mesh stuff, so they’re kind of my go-to. They do rain jackets, windbreakers, cycling shorts, cycling pants. What I really like about 7mesh is that they do repairs. I sent a jacket that ripped in the armpit—they’ll fix it, and do the return shipping too.

Where do you source your outdoor camping gear?

Robinson’s Outdoor Store is the best place to go in Victoria. They’ve been open for 96 years. They have so much knowledge and they do a lot for the community too.

Where’s one place in B.C. that you’re really excited to go one day with the collective?

We do a mix of places that are easy to go to because we’re trying to make these trips as low barrier as possible (so it might be a shorter distance, for example). But someplace we’re really excited about and hoping to do next year is go up to the Sunshine Coast and do a multi-day trip north of the Powell River area. There are some really beautiful lakes up there that are really good for camping.