Day 3: High Desert Happy Monkey (Trout Creek Dispersed Site to Culver)

We woke up to our wildcard day... would it be rainy? 20 mph headwinds? We didn't know, but the morning was promising. It was warm enough that we were able to get an early start and the sun was shining through partly cloudy skies. The trail we would ride along the Deschutes River was a combination of bumpy doubletrack and path that felt almost like singletrack due to the sagebrush that loved to grab my panniers! I had a few close calls and wiped out once. Whoops.

Riding out in the morning light.

We kept seeing signs on the path pointing down and saying "Trail"... and ignored them. Surely that was for people fishing to find a way down to the river. That was until we came upon a private property line and fence and a lot of bramble to scramble through and down to where the actual trail was. Turns out, all those signs were for a reason. But it was also clear that we were not the only one to make this mistake, so we found a steep use trail and hiked our bikes down. 

This is how you do it? Right?

People walk through and bikes go up and over to get back to public lands.

And then back to the beautiful doubletrack.

Lake Simtustus in all her glory.

Views over the Lake Simtustus basin.

A much needed break to fuel us up the rest of the climb out of the Lake Simtustus basin.

Once we made it up the last big climb, we had a beautiful if windy (at least it was mostly a side wind) ride back to Culver. A lot of this part of the return was on the Madras Mountain Views Scenic bikeway and the views were stunning until the last miles of the ride!

We made it to the top! And now easy-ish flat to rolling pavement for the rest of the ride! 

Overlooking Cove Palisades.

We finished our ride just as the cold air started blowing in with a tailwind all the way back to Culver. Ani headed to Portland to visit her brother. and Elisa and I headed back to Bend. We had intended on stopping at Base Camp Pizza in Terrebonne to fill the void in our stomachs, but much to our chagrin, it had not survived the pandemic despite the signage still being up! We ended up making a detour to Diego's Spirited Kitchen in Redmond, which served upscale Mexican food and has a great heated patio in the back. 

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• The section along the Deschutes River is known for its goat heads... both Elisa and Ani got a single goat head and I got zero, but running a tubeless set up is highly recommended!
• RidewithGPS had mapped the climb out of Lake Simtustus as a dirt road, but since Ani and I had ridden that section before, we knew it was lying. I tried as best as I could to color code the roads to match the reality on the ground on my version of this route.
• I would 100% do this route again... still route it through Smith Rock, but maybe find a way to ride down Burma road and skip the schlep up Grey Butte.

Day 2: High Desert Happy Monkey (Cyrus Horse Camp to Trout Creek Dispersed Site)

Even though the coyotes woke us up pretty early with their piercing calls to each other, we had a leisurely morning because we knew we only had to go about 45 miles and had all day... and RidewithGPS said our route was only a little gravel and the rest was paved. We didn't want to get to camp too early, so we took some of our extra wood and made a breakfast fire. Given how much easier the day was going to be, we had the amazing idea of carrying our leftover wood on our bikes so we could have a fire the second night, too! Ya know, cuz mechanical advantage is amazing. 

Morning fire and morning coffee!

Because horse pens.

Forever trying to identify mountains... I don't know how much of my life has been spent identifying the mountains of the Cascades.

Feels so good to actually RIDE a bike, even if it is with 5 pieces of wood (RIP the one log that I lost on a ripping descent).

We confidently set out for the day with high spirits. This was going to be a breeze because it was mostly downhill and mostly paved. Except for the mostly paved part. RidewithGPS lied and it was really like 90% gravel, which was fine, but made for a harder day than we anticipated. It also resulted in some of our firewood getting dislodged and a lot of time spent trying to re-secure them in place.

Brewster Reservoir.

This is the kind of gravel riding I love.

Mountains, a tiny bit of pavement, and zooming along. 

Curious coyote.

The final descent into camp.

We rolled into the Trout Creek Campground around 4 pm after a satisfying day of riding only to find out it was a shit show of camper vans, RVs, boaters, and climbers. My heart sank... I just imagined a night of generators and folks partying. And then we saw a sign that said that this area had a fire ban even in fire rings until October 15th. Ani grabbed the wood from her pannier and threw it to the ground. Remember that time we carried 10 pounds of firewood for nothing?! 

As we assessed the campground options, Ani mentioned that the last time she came through this area, she recalled seeing some dispersed sites further down our route, but couldn't remember how far it was. She asked a group of guys with bikes nearby if they had tooled down the path and (1) if they knew how far down a dispersed site with a pit toilet was and (2) if there was anyone camping there. They said it was only about 1.5 miles and they thought it was empty. We all looked at each other and it was decided. I also chucked my wood and then off we went. 

It was a bumpy 1.5 miles but we found the most magical quiet dispersed site right on the river. As we set up camp and filtered water, we enjoyed seeing a few boats floating back towards the campground. And mother nature took some pity on us, and the night time was calm and warmer than we expected.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• There is no potable or filterable water between Smith Rock State Park (and depending on the time of year, the spigots may be turned off) and Trout Creek except the Richardson Rock Ranch. If you are going to rely on buying water from there, make sure to call ahead as they are often and unpredictably closed. 
• I do NOT recommend filtering from the reservoirs you will pass by. One of them is on private land and this is water that has been standing and may have agricultural/cow runoff.
• Trout Creek Campground is a first come first served fee campground and is pretty dang busy with climbers and people there for fishing and boating. The trail that runs from the campground has several free dispersed campsites with pit toilets that are primarily for boaters and rafters. The first dispersed site is about 1.5 miles from the established campground. We got really lucky it was empty as the next morning, we saw all the others had boaters camped out. 
• There is a burn ban in this area until October 15th, even in fire rings. 
• Our friend is a geologist type who is familiar with the water sources here and is out in the field looking at water flows all the time. Her tip: do not filter from Trout Creek... the Deschutes is just fine though!

Day 1: High Desert Happy Monkey (Culver to Cyrus Horse Camp)

Fall in Bend is often a whirlwind of frantic outdoors adventures before the shoulder season of rain and ick sets in and we collectively wait for snow to blanket the mountains and the skiing season begins. This is particularly true in years like this one when we spent an inordinate amount of time indoors due to the excessive heat and wildfire smoke. Three weekends and three bike tours? Challenge accepted. My friends Elisa, Ani, and I threw some ideas around, everything from a potential Mt. Hood circumnavigation to a trip towards the coast to wanderings in the desert. It all depended on the weather.

We had set aside four days to do a longer sojourn, but as the weekend weather forecast revealed itself, we shortened the trip to three days with a cold front moving in with potential rain and high winds. Elisa had thrown a route out to the group that we all had half-heartedly looked at. 

Ani and I had ridden many sections of this route since a lot of local gravel rides incorporate these roads, and we were excited at the prospect of connecting them. The camping logistics were challenging this time of year since very few creeks are running, and often those that are come from questionable water sources. We ended up bribing Elisa's partner to drop water so we could dry camp the first night at the Cyrus Horse Camp. While we would normally just carry the extra water, we knew we had a gnarly climb with some guaranteed hike-a-bike the first day. 

Posing with the Peter Skene Ogden overlook area before figuring out how to connect to a not-so-super-secret back way to avoid riding on Highway 97.

Riding some of the scenic singletrack at Smith Rock State Park before our epic hike-a-bike.

Pushing bikes up the Wolf Tree trail... I had to actually remove my panniers and hike them up separately at one point!

Elisa's partner Chris found us at the top of Burma Road... he had taken the opportunity to get a trail run in before dropping off our water (and some firewood).

Singletrack coming down off of Burma Road... short lived as we forgot we would have to hike-a-bike around Gray Butte. Awesome.

We all had mistakenly thought that after Burma Road, it would be smooth sailing. This is where we all realized we had not really looked that closely to the route. The hike-a-bike up and around Gray Butte was still solidly in the realm of Type 2 fun, but we started getting a little worried that we might not get to camp before dark given our sloooow pace. The few parts of the singletrack that we could have ripped through were rendered terrifying as our panniers caught on the sagebrush. A few descents were so steep and loose that, much to our chagrin, we had to walk our bikes down.

Sweet sweet sweet dirt road downhill mostly into camp as the sun started to set.

We made it! Hello horse!

Pure joy at camp. And extra firewood that was already there.

One of these days, Ani and I are going to put together a gourmet bikepacking food cookbook. Yes, Ani did actually pack in fresh seafood, including shrimp, steelhead, and scallops.

Having a fire at camp is soooo luxurious!

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• We relied heavily on this version of the route which started in Terrebonne for our trip planning. We wanted to break out the days into more even days and the first day seemed really short. In retrospect, we now know why the first day was so damn short given all the hike-a-bike. Plus, those who have never been to Smith Rock will want to hang out and soak in the views.
• RideWithGPS' guess of what the road surface is sucks! Almost the entire first two days are dirt and singletrack. 
• This route is best done on a bikepacking set up. I did this with a more mixed set up with front panniers and so the Smith Rock Burma Road and Grey Butte sections had a crapton of hike-a-bike (up to 15% grade) and some near death experiences with sagebrush catching my front panniers! 
• We parked at the City Park in Culver, though make sure to fill your bottles in advance as the bathroom was not open and we didn't see anywhere to fill up water.

Bikepacking Overnight: North Star with the Bend Bikes Board!

My love for bikes as an adult started when I purchased an old school Raleigh hardtail mountain bike during college when I lived in the Washington DC area. I couldn't afford a car and frankly, I didn't want a car since parking always seemed impossible. The bike got me to and from work over the years and soon I became a dedicated bike commuter, eschewing even the metro. When I started bike commuting, Washington DC had little to no infrastructure and over the next 10 years, I saw the efforts of great organizations like the Washington Area Bicyclist Association successfully advocate for protected bike lanes. By the time I quit my life as a lawyer, I could bike from SE to NW for a 7 mile commute with 90% of my route protected from vehicles.

When I moved to Oregon, I bought a little Honda Fit, primarily for adventures and still relied on my bicycle to get around town. Despite Bend's reputation as a "bike town," there was no real infrastructure for people who bike. It seemed like most people just gave their road and mountain bikes rides around on their cars. I decided I'd rather be a part of the solution rather than just complain about it, so in 2017, I joined the board of Bend Bikes, a scrappy grassroots organization that advocates for the safety of people who bike. 

Fast forward over 4 years later, I find myself the president of the board. As a part of revisioning Bend Bikes, I decided that for the first time in the history of the organization, we needed to have a real board retreat like other non-profit organizations. Only we were going to break the mold of traditional non-profits... and so our board went on an overnight bikepacking trip for some bike joy and bonding.

The North Star route designed by the amazing folks over at Good Bike Company in Prineville made for a perfect overnighter. Short enough to be accessible to everyone on our board as a day ride or overnighter, just enough climbing to make it fun for the more experienced riders, and a posh campground with running water, pit toilets, and a camp host who sells firewood. The gravel was mostly perfect, not too dusty, and very little washboard except a small section on the second day.

Perfect fall weather, blue skies, empty roads, cool rock formations, and the best of company!

All the bike talk at camp.

Our neighbor in camp loves bikes... and came over and gave our group two bottles of wine as an excuse to examine our bikes!

We didn't realize the campground had firewood, so we each carried a log just to ensure this moment could happen.

Views of Steins Pillar and all the sexy bikes.

Just like around town, a little chill won't keep us off our bikes!

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• Check in with the folks at Good Bike Company if you have any questions about riding in the Ochocos! The owner is super nice and has all the intel. If you are doing a weekender, parking next to the courthouse is just fine. Otherwise, you can park at the Chamber of Commerce and even check in with them so if you don't come back, they will keep an eye out on cars that seem to be there longer than planned.
• We camped at the Wildcat Campground which has a pleasant host who sells firewood. While the campground is first come first served, the host told us that he never sold out the campsites during the 2021 season. Each site has a limit of 6, but there is a great secluded walk-in group campsite that the host did not tell us about... but if I had to do it again, would choose to stay there. The individual sites are $15 and the group site was $35.
• Call ahead to check when the campground is open if you want to rely on the water pumps! This year, the campground was open until October 15th.
• While there is a fair amount of dispersed camping around this area, this was such a dry year that Mill Creek was barely running and there was no water this time of year for filtering.
• Riding the last section on Highway 126 into town was the worst part of the ride, but we stayed close and it felt pretty safe to ride single file as a huge crew.

Bikepacking Overnight: Cool and Shady a la Dirty Freehub

Once upon a time (also known as August when Central Oregon was blanketed in wildfire smoke), I panicked that I might ever go on a bike tour again in 2021, and so in a fit of optimism, I put 3 bike tours in a row on my calendar. One of which was a serendipitous coming together of rad ladies from different parts of my life: 

1. Aparna, who is the same line of work as I am and lives in Eugene. We have some clients in common and met through Zoom early this year to connect over equity and social justice work.
2. Nicole, who is an alumnus of my bike touring talks and also happens to know Aparna. Nicole got Aparna hooked to bikepacking.
3. Elisa, who I met through the board of directors of Bend Bikes and accidentally said yes to all 3 bikes tours I put on the calendar.

After throwing a hundred different options out to each other and wildly guessing what the weather and smoke would be doing, we settled on a sweet, short, and steep overnighter based on the Cool and Shady route by Dirty Freehub. Aparna had some intel on what creeks might be running after a historically dry summer and a single hard rain... and so we settled on some dispersed camping off of Swift Creek. 

This short overnighter came at a much needed time for me. With some heavy events that impacted both my personal and professional life, it felt so good to be with kindred spirits grinding it out in the middle of nowhere. And while we almost broke Nicole and Elisa with all the climbing on the first day, the descent on the second day ranks as one of the best I've ever ridden and it ended up being just about a perfect overnighter.

Riding along the reservoir!

This route gets its name from all the trees that line the route... perfect for hot summer days.

The creek was flowing here, but we definitely made sure not to camp too close to this sweet shot up sign.

Such a quiet side Forest Service road that we camped right next to it with no worries.

Joy is fresh hot Asian-inspired soup at the end of a long day on the bike.

The whole crew with Diamond Peak in the background.

Joy is also also a cheesy grilled veggie sandwich, mushroom gravy poutine, and beer! 

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• Swift Creek WAS running this late in the season after a dry year, but it was very low... just know that anything higher up will require dry camping. 
• We looked for and found decent camping off a small Forest Service road that crossed Swift Creek, and it was really the last place to camp. There was ample dispersed and established camping along the middle fork of the Willamette River, but breaking up the climb was really essential for a positive experience.
• The brewery in Oakridge, which is now called 3 Legged Crane Pub and Brewhouse, serves up great beer and food with ample outdoor dining and I highly recommend it to refuel post-ride!

Day 4: Three Forks to Antelope Reservoir (and then to Crane Hot Springs)

With the full badassed Bend biker babes convened, we decided to race the rainclouds as a team. On a day like this, misery loves company, because of course, our entire route to get back to the safety of our cars was straight into a headwind. We took turns drafting each other, telling stories, and being stoic in silence.

The crew after we made it to the top of Donkey Bitch.

The overlook into the canyon made for an amazing lunch spot.

We found the naked dude from the hot springs at the overlook and he took our picture. 

Riding into the storm.

We made it! Marnel and I drank some whiskey in the bathroom to hide from the rain at the Antelope Reservoir while Ani drove Patti to grab her car from Jordan Valley.

We had no idea what time we would get back to the car, but we knew our original plan to camp at the reservoir wouldn't be good since the rain started right as we got back. So we checked the weather (I had two bars with my ATT service, and no one else seemed to have service there), and saw that the weather would be okay (if a bit windy) closer to home... so we decided to camp out at the Crane Hot Springs and rinse off the grit of the road. I truly believe every bike tour should end with hot springs!

Over and out.

A few tips for bike tourists:

• Slow and steady does it on the climb out of Three Forks. It's only about a mile, you'll make it even if you have to walk the whole thing. 
• The road out of Three Forks is long and unforgiving when confronted by a storm and a headwind... and bulls. :).
• Buuuuut, the best views on this trip were on this section... do NOT skip the overlook. 
• The worst part of the whole trip was having to ride the 95 back to the turnoff for the reservoir. Traffic is fast and relatively heavy for these parts and there was no bike lane, just a shitty shoulder with the rumble strip on the wrong side of the white line. We stayed close and put on all our blinky lights and made fast work of it.

Day 3: Deep Creek to Three Forks

The riding from Deep Creek to Three Forks is an exercise in extremes -- one one hand, we had wildflowers galore, perfect graded dirt roads that rode like pavement, cheery birds, and stunning views -- one the other hand, we had some of the longest boring bumpy miles between those sections from just past the North Fork campground to the descent into Three Forks. My biggest takeaway is that if I didn't have the threat of a storm coming in, it's worth it to have a full day or two to enjoy the Three Forks area. 

Meadows of mule ears for days.

I love signs!

Cheery flowers greeting us as we descent into our lunch spot at North Fork.

Look at this perfectly and freshly graded road. We literally rode right behind the machine grading it.

That tiny speck is Ani descending into the North Fork campground where we had lunch. Also a good spot to top off water.

Somewhere along here, we bumped into another group of cyclists who mentioned there were two other gals also bikepacking from Bend. Ani and I looked at each other with joy... we knew our friends Marnel and Patti were doing a similar but shorter route than we were around this time, but that our schedules were several days off from each other. But the impending stormy rainy weather had caused BOTH of us to shift our plans towards each other and now we were on the same schedule for the next day or so. 

Ani looking down as she contemplates our crazy steep descent into Three Forks. We saw two other bikepackers hike-a-biking out.

Aaaaand we made it.

And we found Patti and Marnel!

There is something joyful about finding friends in the middle of nowhere. And making new friends. There was a group of older guys that had made it down on motorcycles who helped supplement our happy hour with Tennessee Honey and ice! They were also from Bend, as it happened. 

A few tips for bike tourists:

• There are hot springs at Three Forks about 3 miles from the campground. You can get a bike most of the way and the part of the river you have to cross closer in is totally doable even in the spring. Just know that if you are facing the river, the hot springs are to the left and there are pools on BOTH sides of the river so you don't have to do the more dangerous water crossing.
• We drank the water at Three Forks and were fine... it's not the cleanest water source on this route, but it'll do with a good filter. 
• We dubbed the climb out "Donkey Bitch"... strong climbers will be able to ride 90% of it. Weenies like me will only ride about 50% of it, but really, it wasn't that bad.