Adventures with 20 High Schoolers-Day 2

Actually, for the ride today, 18 high schoolers. Yes, one student went home last night with her mom, and another student wasn’t feeling well enough to ride. 

Those assigned to cooking breakfast this morning were up and at it right at 6:30. The rest were tasked with starting to pack things up. Today, the students were given the option of not carrying their gear, so everything just had to be put into the trailer, not on the bikes. They were also given a choice to take the paved shortcut the 8 miles back to the start instead of doing the planned 22 mile mostly gravel route. Turns out only a couple of the students wanted to do the longer route. One was Flora, who as you will recall from yesterday’s post,  was riding a single speed with 25mm tires. She is so strong and has great handling skills! Jenna and I tried to persuade the Envision guys to do the long route, but got no takers. Ingrid warned everyone that the short route would only take 45 minutes, so they would be waiting quite awhile for those of us doing the long route. It still didn’t sway anyone else to the long route. In the end, it was decided that everyone would do the short route, as it was by far the majority of the group, and it was better than splitting the group up. 

Larry and I (the most senior members of the group) led the ride up the first climb.

Getting ready to roll out

A bit of a view

As you can see by the photos, the weather was quite different from yesterday. It had lightly rained some, but was otherwise just cool, which several of the kids appreciated after yesterday’s pretty warm one. 

Ingrid, Jenna, and Josh

The Envision boys, A, and Nikki finishing the climb

Natalie H drove the trailer and van back to the start. 

See ya soon Natalie!

As we expected, we arrived back at the start by about 10:00. Some were having regrets at not doing the longer route. Ingrid turned to me and said, “I tried to tell them!” Sometimes ya just gotta take that leap!

We made a big circle. We realized we had never done introductions yesterday before we started. No problem for me because I new everyone 

After the circle broke up, Ingrid and I headed back to the campground to pick up the car, as well as the student who wasn’t feeling well. So, at least Ingrid and I got a bit of a longer ride. 

Needless to say, taking 20 kids and 10 adults on a bikepacking trip is not without its challenges. However, I loved it! It was great to see the kids soaking up the forest, sleeping outdoors, and having fun. It was a dream come true for me! I hope some of these kids are inspired to do bikepacking again! 

Adventures in Bikepacking with 20 High Schoolers-Day 1-Part 2

Picking up where we left off…we finished lunch, and returned to the bikes. Next up was the biggest climb of the day. And it was quite exposed. There was a lot of post lunch walking, but everyone eventually made it to the top. That was the last big climb for the day. 

The hacky sack dudes

Colton

The final descent to camp was very steep and loose. Miraculously, no one wiped out. One student who had crashed earlier made the wise choice to walk down it. I stayed with them to make sure it all went okay. 

We arrived at camp around 3:30. The groups jumped into action, and got tents and hammocks set up, and food brought out. 

The adults campsite

Kingston and Van cooking up dinner

That’s a table full of food!

Singlespeed Flora opted for the tarp

Tents and kitchen

The tent/hammock compound across the road

So many tents!

Olivia “glamping” it up

Arlo cooking a dog

Jenna and Josh’s tent and Natalie H

After everyone had eaten, a bunch of us walked down to the river. The trail down to the beach was steep and gravelly. I took photos from the bridge above. 

As I was walking back, Moss saw me and asked if I’d seen his shoes. I replied that I hadn’t, and asked where he had last seen them. Well, turns out he had thrown them across the creek, but it was a bit further than he thought. They didn’t quite make it, and floated downstream. Lucky for him, Josh wears the same size and will ride in his Crocs tomorrow so Moss can wear his shoes. 

It’s now quiet time, and while there are still a few voices, it’s mostly the frogs making noise. 

What campout is complete without S’Mores?

I have advised a few dehydrated people to drink more water tomorrow, although it’s forecast to be much cooler. 

Adventures in Bikepacking with 20 High Schoolers-Day 1-Part 1

What we have been working toward all year with the Avanti and Envision students has finally arrived! The epic bikepacking adventure! Last year I was doing the Ochoco Overlander, so I couldn’t go. This year’s adventure is the Olympic Bridges Overnighter, a 38 mile loop over the high steel bridge to Brown Creek Campground, then back around to the Vance Creek Trestle parking area. 

Me and the Envision guys ready for them to load their bikes in the van

Ingrid and I were tasked with driving to Brown Creek to snag a few campsites, then we would ride the 8 mile shortcut to the Trestle parking area. We got there before the kids, so we rode out to the trestle. 

Ingrid at the trestle 

The crew had arrived when we made it back to the parking area. They were actually earlier than planned! Bikes were quickly unloaded, bags were put on, and soon we were off!

Pre-ride speechifying 

Of course, with a group this size, there are bound to be a few mechanical issues, and there were, but nothing too bad. Our first big break was at the High Steel Bridge. 

Xavric and Henry

Jak

Me and Flora, who happened to be riding a single speed converted from a fixie with 25mm tires!!!

Nikki and Rowan taking it easy across the bridge

Dunia 

Kingston

Colton and Marcello

Gabe (and the trailer he was pulling

After the bridge, the gravel was a bit thicker, and it was a bit downhill. A couple of kids got up a bit too much speed, and ended up wiping out. Bandaids were applied, and the continued on. 

Top of another climb

We made it to the turn to go down to Lake Cushman and our lunch stop. We were about 9 miles in. As suspected, with the warm weather, some were running out of water. I brought my filter, and several bottles were refilled, then refilled again. Josh, Jenna’s partner, gave an interesting talk about the history of the area, and of the indigenous people that were from this area. Lake Cushman was formed by damming the Skokomish River. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Day 1…

Colleen and Deb Do a Multimodal Adventure

A few months ago my friend Deb and I were talking about doing a riding adventure in Portland. To make it even more fun, we decided to take the train. 

Fast forward to today, and we have successfully completed our adventure. It started with Deb boarding the Amtrak train in Tacoma (where she lives). I rode Grayson, my road bike over to the Olympia/Lacey station, and got on the same train. Interestingly, it was not the Talgo. It was one of the regular old Amtrak trains (no double decker though, that’s the Coast Starlight). What was significant about that was that the baggage car door is up much higher than the Talgo cars. Good thing I wasn’t riding a heavy bike! 

I found Deb in the train car, and we settled in for the ride to Portland. The time passed quickly as we had to catch up on all of our trips (last time I saw Deb was when I was housesitting in Tacoma for my niece).

Soon we were pulling into Union Station in Portland. We fetched our bikes and got ready to ride. Deb had created her first RWGPS route for our ride today. I only had one request, and that was to ride across the Tilicum Bridge. She put it into the route. The whole route would be 35 miles and about 2800 feet of elevation. Perfect for the amount of time we had before catching the train home at 5:55pm. 

Heading out on the route.

We had our biggest climb right away. It was over 3 miles and 1100 feet with an average grade of 5% (but at one point I saw 14%). We were going up Cornell Rd. There are two tunnels. BUT, the bike route goes around them. 

The path around

The tunnel

The second tunnel and path

We continued climbing. There was a “Road Closed” sign the way we were supposed to go. It said “Local Traffic Only”. We decided we were “local traffic”. It was fine, but then we came to where the road was actually closed (it was a slide). There was a guy working, but we could see where we could just go through. We showed our gratitude by walking our bikes. It was great that we were able to go through because we were turning just after the closed part. 

We weren’t done with the climbing though. This was where I noticed the 14% grades. I would have liked to have Wanda’s gearing. At the top I noticed we came out onto Skyline. We might have had less climbing if we had just gone to Skyline instead of turning onto the road we came up. Maybe…maybe not, but it was pretty. 

We came down Skyline, and I to Washington Park. We could smell the zoo as we rode by. 

We stopped for a break at the Rose Garden. There was a food truck there, so we got some food. 

View from the Rose Garden 

Hotdog!

We rode past the Japanese Gardens, and the rest of the way through the park. That was the end of our first “loop” (it wasn’t really a loop, but we were back toward downtown). Next up was the Terwilliger Trail. It was another climb, but not as steep as the first one. After turning off Terwilliger, we made our way to the Riverview Cemetery. It’s a lovely ride by all the dead people. Many of Portland’s founders are buried there. 

Descending out of the cemetery, we came down to the Willamette River. This was the flat section for the day. 

Now it was time to start segment three. We would cross the river on the Tilicum bridge. Tilicum means “For the People”.

The bridge is only for bikes, pedestrians, and public transportation.

On the other side of the river, we worked our way to Mt Tabor. The plan was to ride to the top, but we went part way, then changed our minds. We were getting hungry, and wanted to have time to eat dinner before we got back on the train. 

The start up Mt Tabor

It was mostly downhill back to the river where we went across on the Hawthorne bridge. Deb had a place in mind for dinner, so we worked our way through downtown to get there. 

Hawthorne Bridge

China town!

We had a filling dinner of burgers and sweet potato fries. Deb wanted to go to the New Seasons Market next door. I watched the bikes as I had no more room to carry anything anyway. It was just a

Couple miles back to the train station. 

Union Station

We got the tags for our bikes, and headed out to the train when it was time. This time it was the Talgo train. It looked like an on-time departure. Alas, in true Amtrak fashion, it was not to be. We ended up departing about 30 minutes late. 

Time for a little nap. 

A good day on the bike!

This was a lot of fun. Now we are thinking of doing the same thing, only going to Seattle. I think the cycling infrastructure is better in Portland, but Seattle is coming along. 

Today’s route