**Day 1: Climbing** Starting at dawn, the air chilled as ice. I packed up and kissed my sweetie goodbye. I knew I had hours of climbing ahead of me but I had not anticipated it taking so long. Shortly after starting and only a few miles into the route I realized that I may be…
Tag: gravel
Solo on the Oregon Stampede
On a whim, I decided to go ride the Oregon Stampede route. No friends, no strangers, no real plan. I just drove out on a Sunday morning and started riding the route. Lucky for me, it happened to be 100F+ in Portland and on the route. This route has been ridden for years as part…
Newberry Crater
In preparation for a much longer, more challenging route, I wanted to get a shakedown ride under my tires. I had everything I needed for a bikepacking trip all ready to go but didn’t know if anything was going to fall off or behave in some other unexpected way. So, for the holiday weekend, my…