Deschutes Bikepacking

June 10th, 2:10 pm, 2017 - I'd been itching to get out for an overnight for a while, but it seemed like all my trips were being thwarted by bad weather. Raphaela and I were planning to ride McKenzie Pass this weekend, but when snow and rain showers popped up in the forecast for central Oregon, we fell back on plan B – head out to the eastern Gorge where the weather is always good and do a bikepacking trip on the Deschutes River Trail.

Even though it was 'plan B' this was the perfect trip for the weekend, in a sense. Lucas and I got a chance to test out a bunch of new bikepacking gear that we're planning to use on the Central Oregon Backcountry Explorer route later this month, and Raphaela and Megan got their first taste of bikepacking on a trail with an excellent fun-to-suffering ratio.

Even though the riding was mostly fun & flat, the trip wasn't without its struggles. We got lots of practice fixing flats (I think our end of the trip total was two puncture flats, one pinch flat, and one failed patch). I also mixed up the campsite locations and we wound up doing a little bit of backtracking to find a spot, though luckily the unintentional detour was scenic enough to be worth it! Through all of it, Lucas and I were impressed by our groupmates ability to navigate chunky, gnarly gravel on skinny-tire road bikes, with a full camping setup on their backs.

At the end of the day though, this trip had the highest concentration of Type I fun I think I've ever experienced on a bike ride. If you want to have a weekend that's bursting at the seams with bikes, beers, sunsets, mellow riding, great company, and incredible views, I can't recommend the Deschutes River Trail enough. As a bonus, it's less than two hours from downtown Portland!

Happy Trails!