Rebekah had been wanting to give it a go for awhile. The planets mostly aligned (Florian wasn’t able to go) for us to head out to Millersylvania State Park. Sure, it’s not that far from home, but that’s one thing that makes it excellent for a first trip…no crazy logistics.
I arrived at Rebekah’s at 9:30 yesterday morning. I opted to ride Tilmann so I could carry anything that Rover (Rebekah’s bike) couldn’t. All I ended up carrying for her was a sleeping pad, toiletries, and her cup. We got everything else firmly attached to Rover. We were heading to the CWT by 10:00.
Woo Hoo! Let’s go!
Tilmann looking so excited to be going!
Our plan was not to take the shortest way to the park, but to take the CWT to the Yelm-Tenino Trail, then to Tenino. In Tenino, we would stop for lunch, then go onto Millersylvania by riding through Tenino to Tilley along Hwy 99. There is a more “backroad” way, but it is much hillier (and a bit shorter).
Lunch in Tenino at Subway was a good break. Along the way to Tenino, I made an awesome discovery about my Garmin. When I am running it on “Tour” mode, it auto-pauses when I stop, then resumes when I begin rolling again! The “Road” and “Gravel” modes do not do this (I’m not sure about “Mountain” because I’ve never run that mode). I think it does this because when you are touring, you take longer breaks. Anyway, it was a happy discovery!
We arrived at Millersylvania around 3:00.
Unfortunately, they are still only checking people in at the drive-up window (the campground was full…good thing they have Hiker/Biker sites). There were a lot of cars waiting to check in. We rode up to the building, and instead of waiting our turn, I just grabbed an envelope, filled it out, put the money in, and gave it to the gal at the window. It helped that I knew where the H/B sites were.
We rolled over to the H/B area, and grabbed a site that had two tent pads (okay, the one tent pad likely belonged to the next site, but there wasn’t anyone else there).
Once our houses were built, we headed down to the lake for a swim.
Lots of people enjoying the water!
Oh, and I also brought each of us a chair (my Helinox Zero, and my REI Flex-lite) so we could dry off, and enjoy the beach.
After we both had enough sun, we went back to our campsite. I had brought some hummus, and bought some crackers and carrots in Tenino. We had a nice pre-dinner snack while we waited for our special guest to join us for dinner.
Florian drove down after getting off work. He brought their Jetboil so Rebekah could try it out (technically, we could have just used my stove and pot as we were just boiling water, but using what they have was a good learning experience). We had our dinner, then went back to the lake. I decided I didn’t want to get all wet again (plus, I was pretty full from the pre-dinner snacks and dinner), but Florian and Rebekah had a good swim.
Not like we really needed to take showers, but we did anyway for the full state park experience. Meanwhile, Florian fixed a chocolate cheesecake for dessert (okay, maybe fixed is an overstatement…he added water to a freeze-dried Mountain House Chocolate Cheesecake). We had that, then said goodnight and goodbye to Florian.
We cleaned stuff up, and retired to our respective tents. Rebekah and Florian had decided Rebekah would be warm enough with just a blanket (like a sleeping bag liner, but a bit more substantial). Overnight, while I was alternating between too hot in my quilt, and too cold without it (so just fluffing it up periodically), Rebekah was a little chilly. At least she had a down jacket. She still managed to sleep, but she’ll be looking into a bike-packable sleeping bag or quilt.
Since Rebekah had to be back home no later than 10:30, we got up at 7:00. We enjoyed a semi leisurely breakfast (although Rebekah discovered the MH Scrambled Eggs are not to her liking), then loaded up the bikes to hit the road.
Almost ready to go!
Alright, let’s get this ride started!
Because of the short time frame, we took the shortest way home. Florian had told Rebekah to watch out for Sasquatch. Whaddya know??? Look who we saw!
Now, why he’s carrying a gas can is anyone’s guess, but there he is!
We made it home by 10:00. It was a most successful S24H bikepacking trip! Now we must plan another!!!
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