2014.05.23: Oregon Outback Anything and everything .83 Seattle

[caustic meatloaf]

[joeball]

[axel]

[Bo Ttorff]

[caustic meatloaf]

[axel]

[Jessica]

[the dreaded ben]

i for one am still fully game for the standard dates.

[Andrew_Squirrel]

[the dreaded ben]

[axel]

[Alex]

[Matthew]

I agree with Alex completely. NF-23 is an awesome road. For those of you connected to the facebooks with me, that's the road and viewpoint of Mount Adams my profile picture came from.

You could do 3 days:
Day 1: Dalles to Guler Mt Adams County Park at Trout Lake, WA (62 mi)
Day 2: Trout Lake to a Skate Creek primitive camping site (8 mi north of Packwood, WA) via NF-23 (83 mi)
Day 3: Packwood to Seattle (107 mi)



Or you could turn it into four days by inserting a stop somewhere after Eatonville but before Auburn.

Or you could turn that monster day 3 into something less monster by taking the Sounder train or Amtrak from Tacoma-ish to Seattle.

[Andrew_Squirrel]

Looks like our friends at Swift Industries are having a little gathering to chat about the trip. Maybe meet some other Seattle cyclists you will likely see along the trail in May.

http://cycleswift.wordpress.com/2014/02 . n-outback/

[the dreaded ben]

[the dreaded ben]

[Andrew_Squirrel]

I just learned that if you link to his blog via forum such as this he will back track it and reply to any mention of it.
Appears he:
- Didn't full anticipate the snow
- Had a difficult time handling Off-road sloppy snow/mud trail
- Wore a heavy backpack and brought the kitchen sink.
- Spent too much time taking pictures instead of HTFU
- Had type 2 fun despite the setbacks and difficulty

I think that is precisely why i'm not really interested in the new trend of FatBikeLyfe. Too many expectations of fulfilling crazy (romantic?) winter adventures on a pedalable SUV. I'm too gentle a flower. Spring-Summer off-road rides surrounded by people are about as wild as I get right now. Solo expeditions into wintry backcountry may come later during midlife crisis.

[the dreaded ben]

good to know, thanks.
I fuggered there was gonna be a big snow problem.
~5000' in late may is crazy in WA, and i just can't seem to get over it.

[Jessica]

[joeball]

[Andrew_Squirrel]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Eric_s]

Eastern Oregon can have gnarly weather in June, much less February, and resupply points are few, far between, and typically they have a very limited selection of food. Anyone too vegan or not prepared can get into trouble quickly out there. On one school trip we stopped at a "Grocery store" to buy food. the options were basically canned everything (Ex: whole chicken), white bread, and shitty beer. We just bought beer.

It sounds like he:
1) Lived
2) Didn't have to get rescued
3) managed not to get hurt
Which makes his trip a poorly-planned winter adventure that was vastly more successful than it easily could have been.

[Andrew_Squirrel]

Heyo! Martina and Jason were trying to get a headcount for foods and beers for the gathering on Sunday. Either post here or message me if you are attending. No RSVP, no beer 4 U! See ya there!

[Matthew]

Look

It looks like you're in good shape. No snow pack levels in the green or blue = most of the snow will be gone by the time you roll through.

[blasdelf]

Modeled snow depth forecasts for 3 days in the future, and 10 years back, accounting for precipitation/melt/elevation/wind/everything and regularly adjusted against real measurement. I think it really exists to predict river levels and shit, but we get to use it for radness.

[the dreaded ben]

[blasdelf]

[Jessica]

[Jessica]

Guest blogger Matt says "Our plan is to ride casual – 3 days of riding, two nights of camping."

http://velodirt.com/the-oregon-outback- . t-by-matt/

Am I weird to think that 380 mostly dirt miles in 3 days does not sound like a casual, sightseeing pace?

[the dreaded ben]

[joeball]

[Jessica]

[axel]

[blasdelf]

Point83 Headcount:

myself
Squirrel
Fat Rob
LWC Kevin


Other locals you might know:

Martina Swift
Jason Goods
Jan Heine
Ben Rainbow
86ed Derrick

[Andrew_Squirrel]

Almost completely packed! Still need to box the bike for Amtrak ride



GEAR to pack:
Repair:
- 2x Extra Tube
- Spare 650b Tire? (Hetre)
- Patch Kit
- Tire Boot from old tire
- Crank Brothers Multi-tool
- Leatherman with knife
- Extra straddle cable, shift cable & brake cable
- Zip-Ties (many!)
- Fiber Spoke
- Lezyne Mini-Pump High Volume
- Park Tire Levers
- 1 or 2 Spare M5 & M6 bolts
- M5 Nuts
- Spare hardware for clipless cleat plates?
- Little bit of duct tape?
- Lube?


Clothes:
- 2x Patagonia underwear
- 1x Ibex Long Johns
- 1x Swrve Shorts
- 1x Rapha Spandex Bibs?
- 1x Swift Industries Kit Bottom
- 1x Swift Industries Kit Top
- 1x Shutt Thin Wool/Poly Jersey
- 1x Orange Swrve Bamboo Tshirt?
- 1x Rapha thin long sleeve jersey
- 1x Patagonia Lightweight Down Jacket
- 1x Orange Rain Jacket
- 1x Smartwool Arm Warmers
- 1x Yellow cold weather long finger gloves
- 1x Fingerless warm weather gloves
- 2x short socks, 1x long socks
- 1x Giro Clipless Shoes
- 1x Sleeping cap / cold weather cap
- 1x Cycling cap with wide brim
- 2x Bandana

Camp:
- Down Sleeping Bag (e-Vent compression-sack & clothes for pillow)
- Thermarest
- Tent (fly, bug netting layer?, ground-pad, stakes -2)

Cooking:
- Spork
- Bamboo spreading knife
- Full size snowpeak pot / pan lid thing
- MSR Whisperlite Stove / pump / windshield
- Small 11oz MSR bottle
- Lighter (2x?)
- P-51 Can Opener?
- UV water filter (extra batteries?)
- Large 2L Platypus Water Bag (70 oz) + Mini 1 litre Platypus (34 oz)
- 3x Larger Novara Squirt Water Bottles (23 oz x 3 = 69 oz)
- Total water capacity = 173 oz / 5L
- Backup Pills for water filtration?

Hygiene:
- Full roll of Toilet Paper & WetOnes (non-scented) babbby wipes
- Dr Bronners small bottle
- Small bottle of Sunscreen
- Toothbrush
- Toothpaste
- Badger SPF Chapstick?
- Camp shamie washcloth
- Small bottle of light painkiller
- Small container of Chamois Butter
- First Aid Kit?

Misc:
- I.D, Credit, Insurance & Orca Card
- Cash
- Emergency Call List
- USB Battery Backup (6600 mAh) and charging cable
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 5 Volt brick and USB Cable
- LX7 Digital Camera (padded case? waterproof bag?)
- Extra charged LX7 battery
- Petzel Headlamp (Put new batteries in!)
- Earplugs for sleeping
- Ear Buds for listening (primarily for train ride)
- Safety pins for attaching wet clothing to bags
- Sunglasses (and cleaning cloth, case)
- Waterproof Jannd saddle cover
- Jannd Frame Bag
- 2x orange Swift Proto Panniers
- 1x Swift Industries Ozette XL Handlebar Bag
- Velcro straps for tent poles
- Vented Lazer Helmet (add dorky f'n mtb brim back on?)
- Freezer Baggies for organizing shit
- Maps and Cuesheets

Cuisine:
Breakfast:
- Instant Coffee from Trader Joes with the sugar and creamer
- Ultimate breakfast Mix in one baggie:
- Bob’s Red Mill Muesli hot breakfast mix
- Bob’s Red Mill Instant Oatmeal
- Meyenberg Powdered Goat Milk
- Trader Joe’s Thinly chopped almonds
- Trader Joe’s Dried cranberries
- Protein Powder (Type?)
- Brown Sugar

Lunch:
- Half Jar of Peanut Butter
- Small plastic container of Jelly
- FlatBread
- Tuna Packets
- Mayo Packets?
- Cheese Block
- Avocado
- Anchovies in a can

Dinner:
- Mini container full of coconut oil
- Couscous
- Veggies
- Concentrated Veggie Broth
- Sun Dried Tomatoes
- Dried Shitakke Mushrooms
- Salmon Packet
- Trader Joes Indian Food
- Tempeh
- Quick-cooking noodle like ramen
- Kale
- One backpackers dehydrated for emergency?

Snacks:
- Fig Newtons
- Custom Trail Mix
- 1 toob of Nuun tablets
- Various Cliff Bars
- Cliff Shot Blocks
- 2x King's Hawaiian roll cheese sammies
- 2x Thai Coconut rice wraps
- 2x Southwest barley and bean wraps

[altercator]

Wow, that is quite a list !!

[J_Dada]

No pool noodle?

[jimmythefly]

[langston]

[Andrew_Squirrel]

Thanks for the awesome tips Jimmy, That is really helpful.

I've been procrastinating on putting together a compact but useful first-aid kit. Those all sounds like good items to bring.

RE: batteries. Unfortunately no, steripen takes those silly CR123 (didn't notice until after purchase, ugh) and headlamp takes AAA.

Good call on the quicklink! Will it play nice with Wipperman?

RE: Lube. Anyone have a good technique for bringing a minimal amount of lube? I was thinking of trying to find a mini-squirt bottle from REI and just use that. I really don't want to carry an entire bottle for that long. I wish lube companies made individual packets of lube ()

langston, thanks for the reminder, almost forgot.