OCVA to Bend, day six

OCVA to Bend, day five

Three-Fingered Jack

Love Bigger

We got to the big hall, where breakfast is served at 8. Young people were queued up, and the kitchen was busy with workers. I spoke briefly with the director of the Big Lake Youth Camp, Les. He's a very nice guy, welcoming, and an outdoors person. Everyone was very kind and friendly. I got to the serving part of the line and I answered every question with "Yes, please." :-) I was handed a plate with scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar. Adam and I walked outside and a woman about my age said "Come sit over here. Tell us about your story." Adam left, and came back with coffees for both of us. Her name was Tricia, and she was sitting with her lovely mom, Maggie, and her friend and fellow volunteer, Lisa. Tricia is a Masters of Social Work (MSW) school counselor from Walla Walla, and she'd be training the young people before camp started, the following weekend. All the young people were college-age staff, the campers wouldn't show up for another week. Tricia specialized in counseling child abuse victims, and she'd be training the counselors. Lisa is a nurse practitioner from Sisters, and she'd be volunteering at the camp. Both women looked and acted like sisters. We had a very nice conversation. Adam and I told our stories, and they told theirs. It was delightful. I was feeling like a human again. I told Tricia that my daughter was studying to be a therapist, and she insisted I get save her contact information, so I could give it to Lulu, so that she could talk to Lulu about her career path. She was also tickled with my daughter's name. I think she said her daughter is a Lulu, short for Lauren. 

Tricia and her mom Maggie

PCT thru-hikers from France and Germany

We met a few more thru-hikers, one from Germany and one from Spokane. We pushed off, and while I was still slow and very sore, I was better, and I was able to communicate. Adam assured me we'd take the easier way. I've adjusted the route to show the way we went, he chose a flatter, lower, more direct route. I think that, if I'd slept OK, his earlier route would have been fine, and I would have been a better companion.

Sand Mountain road continued to be challenging, but it was mostly rideable. We stayed on the Santiam Wagon Road for a while, before diverting onto a forest road that had some very rocky descents. This was the one section of the entire ride where I was really glad I had something approaching a mountain bike. It was mostly downhill to Hwy 242, which was very quiet and clear, and paved! We rolled into Sisters, which is a quaint little town, seemingly devoted to tourism, where we ate lunch at a place Adam's friend Cody recommended, Boone Dog Pizza. I can heartily recommend the food, and beer. I am also very biased; it was good food at the tail end of a week's tour, and I'd had some sleep.

Mount Washington above a regenerating forest

those look like mountain lion prints to me

Mount Washington, and I think one or two of the Three Sisters, from NF-500

Mount Washington, and I think one or two of the Three Sisters, from NF-500

Adam, praising the sky above, on Hwy 242, west of Sisters

Entering Sisters

lunch at Boone Dog Pizza, as recommended by Adam's friend Cody

clean plate club

the Three Sisters, from Sisemore Road

Adam and Katie at home ❤️

Adam and I rode together to his house, where I had a visit with his partner Katie. We have been friends since they lived in Oakland. We had a nice chat. My brain and speech were better, but I was tired, and I know I gave that impression. We said our goodbyes, I texted my wife "I'm 20 minutes away, riding to you. Love you. See you soon." She relied "love you too. i have to leave here by 4:20/4:30. hopefully you'll be here by then!"

I hustled, if that was possible, to where she was, my phone showing a google maps route under the elastic cord laced on the lid of my front pack. As I rolled up, I saw our Sprinter van driving through the parking lot. I hailed her, she pulled into a spot, and we kissed. She was just preparing to leave. A few people said, "Is that Morgan?" Word had gotten out that I'd ridden to the conference. I shook my head "No." :-) I got a keycard, said goodbye to her - she was heading to the welcome party for NICA National Conference attendees - and went up to our room. A shower, change of clothes, and a few texts with friends got me to the welcome party, as well, and one time of my life segued into another.

me, arriving in Bend, at the River House Lodge, photo by Lauren

Final Thoughts

I'll never take Diphenhydramine again. I'll sleep naturally. Cheating at sleep doesn't work.

I've always wanted to soak in a hot springs on a bike pack, this time I did it twice.

My Hudski Dualist, with a rigid carbon fork and 2.4" Vittoria Mezcal tires, with 'trail casing' did admirably on some proper chunk. I seated them with a floor pump, after putting generous servings of Orange Seal sealant in them, just before this trip, and I never needed to add air, running about 27psi rear and 24psi front. I have a creak, somewhere in the bike, but I've also put just over 1000 miles on it since I bought it, and the last 316 or so were on sometimes dusty Oregon dirt roads. The SQLab 411 2.0 Innerbarends and SQLab 710 2.0 grips were comfortable, and gave me the ability to have alternate hand positions. The Monē Light Bars put me in the right position. This entire route could have been done on my gravel bike, faster, and with a bit more ease. I probably should have put 50mm Gravel Kings on the Hudski. The thing about a dedicated bikepacking bike is, I'm loathe to put other bikes into service for a trip. The Hudski is always ready to go, has the dynamo lights and racks, and I don't need to mess with things like gearing or racks or bags. 

I have been experimenting with riding in wool boxers. So far so good. I did use a bit of Body Glide in my saddle area, and some Vagisil for chafing. (I got that, and the idea to buy an Alpha Direct hoodie from SlingFin Tim's Sub-20 Day Tour Divide Bike Check.) I spent most of this trip in Icebreaker and Ornot boxers, until I lost my Icebreaker boxers in Oakridge. The trick is to keep them clean, washing them with biodegradable Camp Suds whenever the opportunity arises. I would dry them in the elastic cord webbing on the top of my front pack. I had some biodegradable wipes for me.

I lost a Paul bandana on the McKenzie River Trail, and a little tiny bottle of Camp Suds somewhere in the PCT Center, and those boxers in Oakridge.

As usual, I lived in a Patagonia Capilene Daily Hoody. I love this thing. I dunked it in rivers a few times, washed it once. It never smells, keeps the sun off, is cool on hot days and warm enough on cool days. Get one. Club Ride riding shorts, starting to come undone, and a belt I bought in Durango, before one of my Colorado Trail trips. 5-10 shoes, flat pedals, Handup Gloves, two pairs wool socks. The weather was warm and dry, so puffy jacket, Houdini shell rarely came out. 

This was a hot ride. I think it was in the 80s, fahrenheit, most days but the first. I filtered and drank a lot of water. The single 36oz Soma bottle was good, but refilling it from the 1L Nalgenes on my fork legs was awkward. I'd have to undo the two Voile straps holding the Nalgene onto the King Manything cage, which would then fall off the bike, and restoring the Nalgenes onto the cages and re-strapping them was slow. Having the Skratch hydration mix in the bottle did seem to work well; I felt like I had enough glycogen, and never felt like I might cramp. Still probably didn't drink enough. I think I'll try bringing the Botched Bikes Dragonfly (with steel bolts, and blue loc-tite, and I'm not too sure about those riv-nuts) to carry two more bottles on the next hot weather trip, and/or use the cages on the rear rack. If I can find something closer to a proper bottle cage for the Nalgenes, that would be excellent; secure, but fast in and out. 

Black, and earth-tone Voile straps look good, but are easily lost when dropped. Day-glo makes more sense.

RideWithGPS is great for route building and collaboration. The Coros Dura has amazing battery life. It is easy to send a route to it from the rwgps desktop, but more awkward from just the app. You have to download the gpx file from rwgps to your phone, then open that file with the coros app and send to device, which results in two versions of the route on your device. I did this experiment with the Dura, where I just started using it, rather than RTFM. It worked well for day rides, but there's some oddities; no screen shows the time of day, and the elevation screen shows the amount of climbing remaining on the route. That's not especially useful on a multi-day ride. It doesn't show current altitude, or altitude climbed during the ride. There are some screens that I never paid attention to, I'm not even sure what information they provide. Dripping sweat on the touch screen can cause the screens to scroll. Do like the Dura way better than any Garmin I owned.

My cooking kit is basically this, plus a GSI scraper and silicone pot gripper, a mini towel to wrap the stove in, and a wind screen. I reheated the butter chicken over a very low flame. I was impressed that the BRS-3000t could cook low and slow.

The Nemo quick patches for their mattresses work, but one rubbed / peeled off the second night, causing it to leak flat. I will replenish them, and do a proper patch. They provide fabric patches, but not the cement. I learned to be more careful with site selection, preparation. I could have patched the mattress properly with the fabric patches, I was carrying cement for TPU tubes, and super glue.

I could have lived with a bivvy, but the Durston X-Dome 1+ tent was delightful. I slept in a 15-year-old Marmot Hydrogen 30º bag, with a Nemo Fillo pillow. I had both the tent (without stuff sack) and the short Durston carbon poles, along with my Nemo pad in a Rockgeist Ultra PE Dry Bag - Double Opening wrapped in the Armadillo Dry Bag Protector strapped to my Mica Rat Tail rack. I had Wolftooth Morse Cargo Cages on the legs, with old Salsa EXP dry bags made for their Anything cage. I could have left those cages and dry bags home, in hindsight. One side had individual serving Skratch Labs hydration mix, which worked really well for me, two per 36oz bottle, as well as individual packets of bone broth. The other side had some dehydrated meals from Luxefly. I really like Luxefly's meals. I had Pretty Great coffee, oatmeal packets and various snacks in and on the bike. Haribo gummy bears FTW. I bought a new Revelate Mountain Feed Bag, after using my original Mountain Feed Bag I bought in 2009 until it got really ragged. It's really nice, great for one-handed operation, trash goes in one mesh outside pocket, lip balm and roll-on sunblock in the other. My new Bags By Bird Goldback 11W Tall front pack had its first big trip, and wow, was it good. Totally sold. Thank you, Jay. Sleeping bag, puffy jacket - which I only wore once - and pillow went in a new-to-me DCF Dry Bags by Bonfus, as well as other clothes, cooking kit, spare fuel, mini sit pad and whatever (beers) I wanted to stuff / grab, all in the Goldback bag. In the side pockets I had electronics in one, water filter, .5L bidet, extra 2L bladder and a pocket knife in the other. The Rockgeist frame bag, same matching material as the handlebar bag, contained toiletries, tools/spares, food, cup, spoon, you name it. I had a Spot for my family to watch my progress, and if I needed, to send an SOS. The pass-through charging; SON 28 dynamo hub -> Sinewave Beacon -> Nitecore NB10000 -> phone worked well. I used a 1.5' coiled USB-A to USB-C cord to route electrical charging from the Beacon on the front of the front Rawland Rando rack to the power bank, then another short USB-C to USB-C cord between the power bank and my phone, keeping my phone and powerpack in the same pocket containing electronics. I had most of the electrical stuff in a little Bonfus DCF dry bag. I got some inexpensive Ditty Storage Sacks by Gossamer Gear, and they now house my tools/spares (small) and toiletries (big). I like them. 

Thanks to Adam, Jev and Grant for their patience and companionship. Thanks to the Big Lake Youth Camp. Thanks to Ryan Francesconi for a great route. I'd like to ride it again, this time all the way to Portland. Thanks to my wife Lauren, for working my trip into her plans.

The conference was a success, but I'll tell you, I didn't sleep that first night in the hotel, either. Same thing; pounding, fast heartbeat, awake, feeling hopeless. I didn't take anything. But every night after that I slept hard. I skipped a lot of the conference rides, finally riding Saturday, three days after I'd arrived in Bend. It was an easy ride with my wife and one of her co-workers, in the Phil's World trail network. My legs were sore! That tour left a dent.

Riding the Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc (OCVA) bikepacking route to Bend, Oregon