You are drawing a distinction between bike packing and traveling by bicycle that (from context) I don't think the press coverage makes. The term was first used when she was missing and her location/route/road choice was unknown.

So I think articles use it as a synonym for what others in this group might call bike touring rather than some more precise terminology based on gear or type of road.

We know since that she traveled first on roads still closed because snow drifts had not yet been plowed over the 9000ft pass. She eventually abandoned the ebike at a trailhead that doesn't appear to be on much of a road. She traveled on foot further and higher into the Sierra and was found back down the valley by Edison Lake.

As for pre-olympian in archery, I took it from context as a statement of athletic condition and not that a bow and arrow was being used on her trip.