Bikepacking Overnight: Madras to Trout Creek Spring Fling

So much has changed since I first started bike touring and bikepacking even before this blog came to fruition. Looking back at my very first bikepacking setup -- the one I used for a gravel bike path tour from Cumberland Maryland to Washington DC back in 2009 -- it's hard to even recall the newness of it all. But I swear, 14 years later (really!?), I still find joy in all the little things that bikepacking brings me.

Look at that sweet setup... my bike commuter bag with fold down panniers stacked halfway up my back with gear.

So young, so joyful, and so much of the person I try to make sure doesn't disappear from my life now!

And so I find myself 14 years later with an amazing crew of badass bikepacking femmes who help keep the joy alive. We meet up in late winter or early spring, usually with beer / wine / whiskey, to block out dates for bikepacking adventures. But the most important one is the season kickoff. We were worried that with the big late spring snow that our options would be limited, so we settled on a route out of Madras we knew would be clear. 

Whelp, the season kickoff happened during a heat wave, complete with goats who were more like herding dogs panting in the heat, and cold plunges into the Deschutes river. Solid Type 2 fun with the best of the best. 

We experienced the kindness of a stranger with an adorable blind dog, community care in the face of hardship and heat, and the joy of a perfect campsite at just the right time. It was perfect in its imperfection.

Bright eyed and busy tailed at the Madras City Park.

Rolling out into the heat.

Nicole about to get run over by this goat.

I tried to get them to go back, but gave up and embraced my new family.

A much needed happy hour at camp.

Golden hour over our tent city next to the river, thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

Hike-a-bike.

Lift-a-bike

Car free joy.

Why it's all worth it.

A few tips for bike tourists:

• We parked at the Madras City Park with no problems. It does not appear there are parking time limits so long as you are not using the park itself after dark.
• There is a bathroom with water at the Madras City Park.
• The first campground heading out on the non-motorized bike path from the Trout Creek Campground (no potable water, but clean toilets and picnic tables) is just a few miles of double-track from the popular campsite and boasts a pit toilet. We've been there a few times and it is typically empty because the access point for rafters and boaters appears to have been washed out. The other dispersed sites further down the path all had campers in it as we biked out.