The Great Granby

The Fourth of July is one of my least favorite holidays. I wanted an excuse to not bear witness to the shitfuckery of lighting our great outdoors on fire, noise, and nationalism that the United States becomes. So I gathered a few of my favorite people and went north across the border to the motherland (literally, my mother is from Canada!). We looked at routes on Vancouver Island and in other parts of British Columbia, and landed on The Great Granby primarily because of the ease of a beautifully vetted route. We were not disappointed. 

Whelp, turns out that we ended up in Canada on Canada Day, but luckily they manage to celebrate it in a very polite Canadian way. While the original route had two options, we opted for the well graded rail trail instead of adding gratuitous road climbing. 

There isn't anything I can share here that the fine folks at bikepack.ca haven't shared, so just go, enjoy, and live large! And don't be too surprised if you bump into other bikepackers on this route like we did.

Flats happen and Ani is a great helper.

Magical lakeside campsite during peak season.

So much lake joy.

Mountains, water, and dirt roads.

Whoops, wrong way. I suppose the overgrown path was a sign.

Gnarly trails.

Bears! We took one bear spray for three of us, but no actual bears. Just prints.

Magic light and magic scenery.

Just some shitty views.

Collapsed caves are the coolest. This one is historic and left to be how it is.

There is a history of Japanese internment here... my grandad was also born and raised here. Now, since I'm adopted from South Korea, there's no relationship to this history. But I shared this story and someone thought that my grandfather was interned here. Whoops.

Some campsites come with the best swimming holes. Also, it's a great way to get away from the mosquitos.

Dave saved Elisa... it was so hard to find a "bike shop" that was open. Sometimes, you just have to find a guy who knows about bikes and he'll make sure you can shift into all your gears.

Huckleberry season! (Also, black raspberries and salmonberries!)

From wide dirt roads to doubletrack.

Magic at dusk.

Did I mention that Canadians are nice? We scored these free beers from a family across the way.

A rare photo of the three of us.

Just me n' the mountains.

Ooh, we are gonna get on a boat!

Just a little hike-a-bike.

Rest days = fun at museums.

Tunnels = natural air conditioning.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• Folks in Canada are real nice. Finding long term parking is as easy as asking a local business owner if you can park at their establishment.
• For some wonderful reason, there are samosas widely available in British Columbia. No one knows why, but why question it? Even in the tiniest quaintest towns, there are samosas.
• Poutine is less available than samosas. Weird.
• Some of the entrances to old rail-to-trails, especially near the collapsed tunnels, may be hard to find, but I promise they are there!

Bikepacking Overnight: Pine Mountain Observatory

Memorial Day weekend is a notorious shitshow of people -- a lot like me -- trying to get out into the woods to commune with nature in tents, RVs, and everything in between. Somehow, miraculously, we managed to find a route that we could ride straight from my front door, with zero mosquitos and almost no people (an empty campground on Memorial Day!? yep... but we saw a few folks walking around and one paraglider).

We modified a route from Bikepacking.com, which did not take into account some very aggressive private property owners who don't like to share with others (aka there is a pretty sweet network of dirt canal trails in and near Bend... some property owners have given our parks and recreation department an easement so others can enjoy them, and some are jerks and zealously stand guard over the trail). There are two sections, one near the Nottingham neighborhood and another near Stevens and 27th that I would stay clear of, lest you do what we did, and get in "trouble" with a gentleman who apparently has nothing else to do on a Sunday morning than harass people on bikes. The route below is modified (a) to start near my house, (b) to avoid those canal trail sections, and (c) to stop over at a brewery and food carts at the end.

This route has a fun Type II mix of pavement, gravel, singletrack, sandy doubletrack, and everything in between! Since there in no water at the campground, we went real heavy and packed in all our water -- but be careful -- this route is pretty exposed, so it was also hotter than expected and some people forgot to take into account water needed at camp after the riding was done, so they didn't pack enough water. Luckily, I am a water camel and had also schlepped up enough to share and we made it back with just enough.

Well, we may have gotten turned around by a meanie meanie bo beanie, but look at those views!

The only shade for miles = best snack spot before the big climb.

Chris investigates what Elisa calls the murder shack.

Sandy doubletrack.

Even a well graded gravel climb can get steep... Elisa has a rule if she ends up pedaling slower than 3 mph, she is allowed to walk. This time she found some help with her bike!

Just a couple dorks having happy hour in a hammock at camp!

Walking up to the observatory to watch the sunset.

Sunset joy... after we drank all the whiskey, wine, and beer!

The way down was real fun... sandy, rocky, but still rideable!

A magical lemonade stand at just the right time on the way back into town. Essential after Chris and Elisa ran out of water!

A few tips for bike tourists:

• The Pine Mountain Observatory is only open a few weekends from the summer into early fall. It is open late into the night, which means for those few weekends, I imagine the campground is a lot more full.
• The Pine Mountain Campground is a free BLM campground, and boasts a single pit toilet and no running water. It is otherwise a lovely campsite with big sites, lots o' trees, picnic tables, and is walking distance from the observatory and the 360 views from the summit.
• You'll need to pack all your water in -- Patrick and I carried a combined 12 liters. Elisa and Chris carried a combined 9 liters, which was not enough -- they woke up to just 1/2 a liter for the ride home. Patrick and I were able to give them 2 liters so we were fine, but the moral of the story, take more than you think you'll need!
• The sweet spot for this ride is pretty dang short. You have to go early enough that the sandy bits aren't too sandy, and late enough that the snow has melted out. Typically, this is late April to early May. This year, with a late spring, we did the ride just about as late as I would want to, with some of the lower sections being pretty sandy. The singletrack at Horse Ridge wasn't as sandy as I expected and Horse Butte was pretty magical. 
• I highly recommend riding this loop clockwise like we did... it makes for a wonderfully graded climb on a good gravel road at the end of a long day, and the road down is loose, sandy, and rocky enough I would have had to walk a decent amount. It was way more fun slippin' and sliding down!
• There is a section of singletrack that has a fence between Horse Butte and Horse Ridge that is an informal unsanctioned trail, but it has been used for years by local Bend riders. Folks will have to lift bikes over the fence, but we've never had enforcement issues there.
• Chubby tires recommended... we had everything from 700 x 43 to 650b x 50.

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. 
  

Olympic Peninsula Circumnavigation

"GCOR is a circumnavigation of the Olympic mountain range primarily using the gravel roads of the Olympic National Forest, DNR and state forests land. It is 440 miles of beautiful, remote and varied forest land. They’re not easy miles either! There are 7 major climbs over 2000′; 40,000′ of elevation total." - GCOR race page.

My friend Elisa and I had blocked out 9 days at the end of July for a longer bikepacking trip TBD. It would be her longest bikepacking trip ever and in her own words, she hadn't been riding much and so wanted to make sure we didn't have too much climbing each day. So of course, she sent me the GCOR route as a potential trip idea. While I initially had been eyeballing another bikepacking trip on Vancouver Island, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring the Olympic peninsula since it was new to me. I accepted the challenge to figure out a less gnarly version of GCOR, and this is what we ended up with. 

We loved everything that was NOT on the 101, so if I had to do this again with more time, I'd probably add back in a few of the gravel road sections that didn't involve gratuitous climbing. I'd also prolly try not to do it in a heatwave again, too. But that all said, we had an amazing time and I'd do it all again!

Dispersed camping in the rainforest.

Remote gravel roads for days.

Uh, this is the turnoff!?

Lake Crescent afternoon dip post-ice cream bars from the lodge.

Hiker-biker campsites are the best!

Sequim Bay at sunset.

Morning views from the tent.

Proof we had 30 minutes of clouds.

We love random farm stands so much!

Roads less travelled.

Forks fame.

Car free joy!

More car free joy!

So many hand pies!

A few tips for bike tourists:

• We parked our car for a small fee at the Dow Creek RV Resort... it's not something they typically do, but it made for a perfect starting point as we stayed the first night there after a long drive to prep and we also enjoyed showers at the end!
• Washington State Parks have hiker/biker sites (even if not immediately apparent on the website) and in our experience, they were never full. A ranger told us that there is an official policy that they cannot turn away someone arriving on foot or bicycle.
• Other than the initial part of the route from the Dow Creek RV Resort to Spider Lake to Lake Quinault, there are plentiful resupply spots. The Shell station in Forks (which houses Ron's Food Mart) has a suprisingly good selection of single serving foods that are easy to grab and go for a bikepacking trip. But the real winners were the North Shore Grocery near Lake Quinault (owned by an Asian family with a surprisingly good selection of random Asian goodies) and the store in Quilcene (a gem with homemade tamales, fresh baked goods, a dozen types of hand pies, and everything in between).
• You cannot depend on small cafes on this route to be reliably open... with staffing issues and other potential pitfalls, it's good to have a back up plan!
• Farm stands also dot this route, especially along the west and north part of the route.
• The Olympic Discovery Trail is an amazing car-free experience!