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

I volunteer with NICA, training coaches and working with the league to put on races. I've also been a coach and a head coach. I've done it for a long time, since before my kids were old enough to participate. They're now in their late twenties. My wife works at NICA, and I believe in its mission of getting more kids on bikes, as a way to 'build strong minds, bodies, character, and community.'

This year, 2026 the NICA National Conference would be in Bend, Oregon, a city my family and I have visited many times, a great place to be an outdoor enthusiast. My wife would go for work, and I'd attend as part of the NorCal League.

Last October I did a seven-day bikepacking tour of the Oregon Outback bikepacking route with some friends. I went to bikepacking.com to see if there were some routes that would take a week, or less, to arrive in Bend. I reached out to my friend Adam, who lives in Bend, and has a lot more bikepacking experience than me, with a idea of using the Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc (OCVA) to get north enough to then head east to Bend. Once I found out that there were hot springs on the route, I wanted to include at least one. I shared my route with Adam on ridewithgps - I'm a paying customer - and we both began editing the route. Ryan Francesconi, the route creator, by way of answering a question I had, suggested I joined the OMTM discord and ask there, so I did. There are multiple variations of the OCVA. I started with the OCVA2 - Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc route, which goes along the Cougar Reservoir, right by Terwilliger Hot Springs, then Adam extended the route from Clear Lake east, over the Santiam Wagon Road and Sand Mountain to Hwy 242 to Sisters, then dirt roads from Sisters to Bend.

Discussion on the OMTM discord showed that the roads between NF 2304 / Pinnacles Road - Lost Creek Campground - Grayback Drive - East Rim Drive would be closed or impassable. A user named Patrick's Existential Crisis offered a re-route via a Munson road detour. I included his variation in my route. If it had been possible, I would have kept the original route, but downed trees, a closed campground, and a closure of East Rim Drive meant not this year.

I had a route, I had a little over a week off from work, I had a bike that was ready to go, after practicing my bivvy-a-month monthly overnighters for the previous seven months, and my wife would be waiting for me in Bend, with our van, so that we could drive home together. I did some analysis, and I could see myself finishing in five, or six days. I put together a spreadsheet with start and end points for each day, with distance and mileage, modeling a five- and a six-day itinerary. Looking at it together, Adam thought my five-day plan looked reasonable, and we agreed on a meeting point and a time: Kiahanie Campground on the Aufderheide Scenic Byway at the end of day four. I would ride to Bend, via bike and train.