Oregon 800 Part 2: Southbound

Oregon 800 Part 1: Northbound days 1 - 10 can be found here.

Full route file can be found here.

Part 2: Southbound, McKenzie River to Crater Lake, days 11-19

Day 11 The timing worked out perfectly the day before, and thanks to the generosity of the camp hosts who allowed us to stay in a “site” off to the side for two nights, the goal for the day was an unloaded trek on the Old Cascade Crest Loop, returning to Coldwater Cove before dark.

Our bikes were stripped down to just what would be needed for a long day ride, and we were filled with excitement at the prospect of pedaling such a light steed. This would be the only time we entered the Hood Tier of the OTT, and would mark our northernmost point on the trip. It also marked quite possibly the most beautiful section, so we will certainly look forward to returning for more miles up there.

Even free of our (physical) baggage we knew this would be a long day, and our tires hit the dirt before most campers even awoke. The bikes felt delightfully nimble and we spent the first few miles reacquainting ourselves with their normal handling. As soon as we dropped in at the Crescent Mountain Trailhead we knew we were in for something special. We flew through lush green forest on a ribbon of singletrack, jumping off of the roots of giants. 

All too quickly, however, we hit a creek and the trail turned uphill. Even without carrying all of our gear we soon found ourselves walking, complimenting ourselves on the plan to ride this loop unencumbered. Intermittently we would break out of the trees and be treated to stunning views of the Sisters, and intermittently we could even ride our bikes! 

We reached the summit of Crescent Mountain and were awestruck at the stunning 360° view of the nearby volcanic peaks in the Cascade Range; the Sisters, Mount Washington, Mount Jefferson, and many others we couldn’t identify. We even caught a glimpse of Mount Hood, far to the north. 

Snacks consumed and photos taken, it was time for some serious descending. Just as we started down we ran into a fellow bikepacker, climbing up the trail we were about to head down. He was fully loaded and had been pushing for some time, and was happy to hear he was just about to the top. This was our first sighting of someone racing the OTT700, and only the second time we’ve ever run into another bikepacker in the wild (that may say more about our previous route choices than the lack of bikepackers out there). I think know we were more excited to see him than he was to see us, but we both had descents to look forward to and we kept the meeting short. This turned out to be Chip, whose footprints we would later follow through the sand, and for many more sections. It was comforting to know that we were not the first cyclists to walk the OTT. 

The following 10 miles saw us descend 4000 feet on incredible trails before we stopped for lunch at our water stop at the base of Scar Mountain. While eating our salami and cheese, we reviewed what was ahead of us and reality began to set in. Even if we were being optimistic, we had over half of our climbing left on the route. It was 1:30 in the afternoon and we were both already pretty exhausted from the 10 previous days of riding. And we left all our gear at the campground, so stopping for the night at our leisure wasn’t an option. 

We both agreed that if we continued on with the route as planned, it was possible we wouldn’t finish before dark, and were unprepared for that situation. We yielded to reason and climbed back up 1000 feet of that glorious singletrack we just descended to get to a fire road and continued climbing the road to intersect our route much further along. While we were disappointed to have to make this decision, we knew it was the right choice.

We eventually found ourselves back on pavement, cruising along smoothly until we hit our turn-off back toward camp. The route was clear: turn right on this road, descend to the creek and turn left, then continue on the road out to the highway. The Forest Service had other plans. At the left turn across the creek, instead of a bridge or a culvert, there instead was a free flowing creek (river?) with large car-stopping embankments of dirt on either side. Hike-a-biking across would have been a simple matter, but our fatigue was real by that point, and we had no idea what would be around the next bend farther down the forest road. 

And we knew the paved road we just turned off would take us to the same place. We turned around and took the pavement out to the main road. Unfortunately this option meant more miles on a busy highway. Traffic buzzed by us as we grinded up the highway, 4 miles until we could jump back onto the minimally trafficked forest roads. By this point we were both running through the numbers in our head: how many miles back to camp, how much climbing we had ahead, and most importantly, would we make it to the store at the lake before they closed. The numbers weren’t looking good. 

Pushing as hard as our exhausted bodies would allow wasn’t enough, and we pulled into the store parking lot shortly after they closed. After 52 miles, and 7k of climbing later, Ana was hangry, made worse by missing the store closing by 15 minutes, and Adam was close behind. Adam hid around the corner and talked with another fellow bikepacker (?!) in the parking lot while Ana knocked on the store window to see if anyone would answer and take pity on us. Despite Adam’s doubts, Ana was able to attract the attention of someone in the store and purchased 2 slices of pie: strawberry rhubarb for Ana, and apple humble pie for Adam for doubting her ability to be victorious in her quest for food. 

Pie consumed, it was a brief loop around the lake back to camp, dinner, and bed. Even though the day didn’t go quite as planned, it was still agreed upon that we may have just ridden the best singletrack of the trip, and would very much like to return one day with fresh legs. Put this on the to-do list. 

Day 12

Day 12 was a good food day. We packed up and rolled over to the camp store. Unfortunately they don’t make full breakfasts on weekdays, but they did have gigantic cinnamon rolls (stop #1).

Overdosed on sugar we hit the Santiam Wagon Road, and much to our surprise it was a pleasant rolling singletrack! We were now riding the OTT southbound, and approaching a spot marked as being very sandy. While it can’t compare to our sand experience in Anza Borrego, they weren’t kidding when they called this out on the OTT official route. We settled in for a long bout of hike-a-biking, following Chip's footprints, and eventually passing Sand Mountain. Very funny. 

We left the sand behind us and began descending toward Suttle Lake, and lunch. On our way down we ran into two young women on loaded bikes going the opposite direction, and they were even more excited to see fellow bikepackers than we were. We exchanged intel on what perils awaited each other in opposite directions, and continued on our way to lunch. 

After sampling some surprise singletrack we found our way to Suttle Lake. Also Known As: "Day 12 Was A Good Food Day" Stop #2. Hand Breaded Fried Chicken Sandwich. Curly Fries. Fresh Block 15 Beer. Ice Cold Coke. Lakeside. With a dock that we could jump off of. We really could have stayed here all day. 

We also had a bit of cell service, which meant we took our time to check the weather and fire situation, touch base with friends and family, and maybe do a bit of scrolling on the socials. As we’re sitting there, Ana gets a message from her dad. “I can’t see you!” “What do you mean?” “I found the website for the place you’re at, and they have a webcam, but I can’t see you!” Ana walked around to the dock, and sure enough there was a webcam above a table occupied by a family having lunch. “I swear I’m not being creepy, my dad is watching the webcam right now and I just want to say hi.” She waves to the camera, and he takes a screenshot.

We pack up to get back on our bikes before entropy claims us for the day. We were happy to find additional surprise singletrack on our route into Sisters, but not so happy to see the smoke closing in on us from the distance. Hotels were considered, but the only rooms available were pretty pricey, and the smoke seemed to be blowing out, so we decided to risk camping and hoped we wouldn’t get totally smoked out. Thankfully, the town of Sisters has converted one of their city parks into a campground with plenty of hike/bike space. Our campmates included Aaron who had started his OTT bikepacking adventure in Reno, and Sheila, who was a fire evacuee and was staying with her dog, hoping the firefighters would be able to save her home just outside of town. 

We quickly set things up and cleaned up, and took off to meet Ana’s friends Audrey and Diana for dinner. They were her horse trainers in a prior life and now live in Sisters. We spent the evening sharing stories of our adventures and hearing about their upcoming HORSEpacking summer plans (so cool) during "Day 12 Was A Good Food Day" Stop #3, where we had pizza, fresh green salad, and maybe another beer.  

Day 13 

This morning was set aside for the less glamorous side of backpacking: resupplying and outfitting, and we came into the morning with a plan. 

• Step 1: Coffee and a breakfast sandwich. And a breakfast burrito. And some pastries.
• Step 2: Laundry. Ew. Crap, why can’t we find the laundromat. Oh there it is. Crap, the soap vending machine is out of order. Enter strange gentleman. Adam propositioned him for a serving of detergent. Great Success.
• Step 3: Shopping! Grocery store for snacks, gear store for dehydrated food and coffee (and stickers!), and the bike shop that wasn’t open yet for more snacks. 

And back to the camp before 10AM! Not so bad. We also found out that our new friend Sheila’s house had been saved! We chatted with Aaron a bit, excited that he was headed in the opposite direction and would soon find the spoils of Settle Lake Lodge, packed up our gear and set off on our hot slog. Sandy slog. Smoky slog. All the slogs. 

Pro Tip: If you’re going to climb out of Sisters on the Met-Win, take the fire road instead. Seriously, not even remotely worth the hike-a-bike (and we LOVE good hike-a-bike!).

How can you tell this section was that bad? Because we have zero photos of it. When Ana stops taking pictures, you know something is wrong. However, we did come across some hikers that were quite happy we didn’t stick to the fire road. They seemed to have gotten turned around attempting to follow one of Oregon’s Best Hikes™ from a tattered paperback of questionable vintage. And they were out of water. And maybe snacks. We filtered water for them and managed to save them from a cold night in the wilderness and an even colder argument of who got who lost. We’re life savers (they probably would have been fine). As smoky and hot as this section was, there were still ample amounts of flowing water. Having enough trips under our belt where water is scarce and you have to carry many liters at a time, the sheer joy of crossing flowing rivers everywhere doesn't seem to wear off quickly.

We pulled into our campsite for the night with cool clean air, thankfully escaping the smoke from the fire in the valley below. The sites were all booked, but mostly empty. Our camp host was wrapping up his 6th day on the job, but he was pretty confident we’d be okay taking any of the empty spots, assuming most would-be occupants were staying away due to the fire. While the fire may have dissuaded them from camping, their loss was our gain. Our friendly host even had a spare 2.5 gallon jug of water another camper had left, so we didn’t have to filter water that night! It’s really the small victories that are relished. 

Day 14 

Similar to the previous day, this one featured a slower than usual start. Not because we were shopping though. Because everything was quite covered in dew and it needed to dry out before packing up. You gotta dew what you gotta dew. 

Thankfully we left the crappy climbing behind us and we were back on some fantastic singletrack on the Met-Win. The trail was still trending up, but had plenty of swoopy descents sprinkled in to keep things interesting, and back under trees to shade us from the sun. It also served to shade the lonely snow drifts we found! Ana was quite a bit more excited when she realized Adam was yelling about snow, and not yelling about Joe (whoever that is).

We were on the Met-Win Trail for a good portion of the day, including a stop at the Lava Lake store for lunch. They were short on lunch supplies but fully stocked on snacks and ice cream. To our surprise, the owner had to interrupt bottle feeding a baby chipmunk he found to ring us up. We had heard a lot of chatter about the contentious relationship of equestrians and mountain bikers along this section of trail, but we're happy to report that the two groups of horses we saw were very excited to see us, wanted to chat about our route and gear, and happily went on their way! Hopefully that type of interaction can become the norm, instead of the exception. Oh, yes, the horse's riders were pretty nice, too.

Refreshed and sugared up, we were back on the trail and Adam immediately got lost. No good shortcut goes unpunished. Back to the shop and onto the main trail and we were actually on our way, soon to meet the first of many OTT racers heading north. We missed the leader during our ice cream lunch break, but ran into second place on our way to Cultus Lake. We stopped briefly to trade intel, telling him about the options available at Lava Lake, and he told us about the (unknown to us) restaurant at Cultus Lake. We were really looking forward to a rehydrated meal in a bag for dinner, but if there was a good restaurant and campground awaiting us at the end of our day we could perhaps be flexible in our plans. We are also fairly confident that we followed Chip's footprints for a while.

We emerged from the forest to a small yet bustling resort area, and numerous “Campground Full” signs. In hopes that she could work her magic twice, Ana found the camp host and asked if they perhaps had any hike- or bike-in spots available. Alas, our luck did not continue, and there was no room at the inn. Even though freshly cooked dinner was calling to us, we chose to continue on the route and find a camp spot at one of the boat-in spots on the lake instead.

It took us a few tries but we finally found a beautiful spot on the far side of the lake with a table and a bit of privacy. As we start unloading, a boat full of teenagers pulls up and starts making themselves at home. On the plus side, they didn’t have a reservation for the site we were poaching. On the downside, teenagers. We took a quick swim to wash the day away and started making dinner. It may not have been a freshly cooked meal, but back at the Lava Lake store Adam had picked up a beer to have with dinner, so it was still quite an enjoyable meal. The teenagers were gone, the sun was setting, and the beautiful view of the lake was only slightly disturbed by a boat. That kept getting bigger. Closer. Closer. Pulling up right where we were. Our luck was cut short again. Instead of moving to the next empty campsite, we decided to move off the beach and up to our own “penthouse” on a hill nearby. Not ideal, but better than having to move camp again if another group came in. 

Day 15

Day 15 began with another round of waiting for the sun to rise so we could dry out the gear before packing up. With all dew respect, we would have been happy skipping this step. Our goal for the day was to reach Tufti Pond at the top of Bunchgrass, and we knew it would be a heavy climbing day. 

Pro tip: If your peanut butter packs are frozen in the morning, tuck them in your bib to warm up by second breakfast time!

It turned out to be the most social day of the trip as well. The number of OTT racers we crossed paths with was only surpassed by the number of trees we had to climb over. Unfortunately the trek between camp and Waldo Lake had also been hit hard the previous winter and had not yet been visited by the chainsaw toting trail fairies. Thankfully the frequent stops gave us plenty of time to appreciate the beauty of the trail. We wound though valleys dappled with lakes en route to Waldo Lake, the second largest lake in Oregon. 

Unlike the madhouse of Cultus the day before, gasoline engine boats are prohibited in Waldo, giving us a much more peaceful lunch stop (are you starting to see the salami trend?). We were torn on whether we should stick to the planned route around the west side of the lake, or detour on the easier east side. Given how slow going the morning was due to the trees, we opted for efficiency and stuck to the east. This trail was rated as green but we felt every ascent in our heavy legs. The surprise ripping descent down Gold Lake Trail came to far too quick an end as we were met with another route decision. The official route descends Fuji Mountain from the Bunchgrass Ridge, and is rated a black. Alternatively the Mt. Ray trail parallels Fuji Mountain and South Waldo connects the two, and both trails are rated blue. In hopes of a slightly more mellow climb, we chose the Mt. Ray/South Waldo combo instead of Fuji Mountain. It’s not very likely that we’ll be back on these specific trails again to be able to try Fuji Mountain and compare the experiences of climbing each. If the ratings are truly accurate, we can only assume climbing gear and ropes would be required to get up Fuji. 

The push up Mt. Ray was shockingly steep, and saw the return of mosquitos with a vengeance. Headnets and bug spray quickly came back out as we entered the worst mosquito zone of the whole trip. Scrambling up a mountain. The gradient finally let up as we turned onto South Waldo and the brief sections we could ride provided a respite from the blood suckers. Meeting back up with Fuji Mountain, we knew we only had a few miles to Tufti Pond, so we kept on keepin on. Only a few short hike-a-bikes to get there, the worst were behind us. And ahead of us, but that’s a story for another day. Tufti Pond is a critical water resource on this stretch, but there is little information available, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We could see a circular patch of water on the satellite view, and the name Tufti Pond doesn’t exactly inspire wanderlust, so we arrived with modest expectations. It was beautiful. And huge! The water was warm. Well… not cold. It was beautiful, and a welcome resting point. The fire pit was oh so tempting, but given the extreme fire danger we abstained.

Throughout the day we saw a minimum of 13 people bikepacking the opposite direction. It was so fun to see others out suffering and reveling in the experience as we were. Folks we met (real and imagined names) include Mike, James & Mystery Man, Max Bonkers, Conan, Guy Chasing Conan, Girl on Yeti Hating Life, Gramps, and Scuba Steve. 

Pro Tip: If you’re going to race the OTT, don’t do it on a Yeti full suspension bike. You’re gonna have a bad time. 

Day 16 

“It’s all downhill to Oakridge!!” - biggest lie of the trip. Adam had ridden Bunchgrass once many many years ago while attending Mountain Bike Oregon. His recollection was that there were numerous overgrown sections and some serious hike-a-bike climbs sprinkled throughout the long descent to town. Upon further inspection, it looks like he rode it in 2011, so this was a fine way to celebrate the 10 year anniversary. It is unlikely we’ll attend the 20 year reunion. 

It was another morning for us to dew our usual routine: dry out gear before packing it up. In hindsight, maybe camping right next to the pond wasn’t the best call. Oh well. It all went smoothly and included a visit from an extremely friendly chipmunk who wanted to help us pack, so we were in good spirits as we said our goodbyes to Tufti. 

The top of Bunchgrass was a quick pedal up the fire road, and we were excited to hit the trail and get on the way down to Oakridge and the hotel and hot food awaiting us at the end of our ride. While it wasn’t quite the dreamy descent we were hoping for, things were going well until we reached the first hard climb. Sections were quite overgrown, albeit trampled enough from the previous OTT racers the day before. 

Most of the climb was a region devoid of trees, so the sun beat down on us as we pushed our bikes up the grade. The trail crested in a patch of trees and we stopped to rest and have a snack. Finally we had some descending ahead of us. 

Adam mounted up and started off down the increasingly steep trail, only to stop seconds later at the first switchback. Thus began the downhill hiking of the day. This stretch had an average gradient of over -20% with washed out rugged switchbacks and multiple 1+ foot drops. Not ideal Day 16 bikepacking conditions. Thankfully we were soon able to balance this out with some uphill hike-a-biking as we traversed the next ridge. When riding the route northward a large portion of the climb is on a fire road rather than the trail. At the intersection we considered going down the road, but the lure of singletrack all the way to town was too strong. As much as we are about to complain about how much hiking there was (there was an insane amount), it was sprinkled in with some beautiful, rideable trail.

The official OTT route climbs the road to avoid the Switchbacks of Doom. We did not avoid the Switchbacks of Doom, and we were headed down, not up. The trail plunges down the mountainside, dropping over 1000 feet in less than a mile. We walked it all. It wasn’t worse than the scramble down Hey Joe Canyon in Moab, but it wasn’t much better either. A lunch stop was called at the bottom as we sat in the Land of the Lost, fully expecting previously undiscovered dinosaurs to wander by. The beauty didn’t totally excuse the effort required to get here, but it sure was trying. 

Smiles slowly crept back onto our faces as we gazed up at the magnificent trees and lush undergrowth. Until we realized our brief trip across this valley was quickly coming to an end with a similarly punishing climb out the other side. Hours later we make it to Little Bunchgrass Trail and Heckletooth, and evidence that other people actually ride the trails. Little Bunchgrass was magic, and Heckletooth is a spectacularly built trail but we were both too exhausted to sufficiently enjoy it, and the consequences of a mishap could be severe. The conversation definitely included plans to get back to Heckletooth unloaded on another trip for some rowdy fun. Unfortunately, sections of this trail have since burned and it is unknown when it can be reopened.

  

We pulled into town and Ana posted up at the pub and ordered food while Adam went to check into the hotel. Our day was over. The stats on this day deserve a callout: 28.5 miles, 3,548 feet of climbing, 7,601 feet of descending. Max grade: 38.8% Min grade -37.6%. “Moving” time: 3:42 hours. Total time: 10:32 hours. We were not sitting down for the remaining 7 hours, we were just moving so slowly that our Garmin counted it as stopped time. 

Oh, and guess who we saw again headed out of Oakridge?! The same two girls we had run into just before reaching Settle Lake, 4 days prior! After being so isolated in the woods, it's always a treat to see a familiar face. They were going to be headed up Bunchgrass the next morning, so we tried not to spoil too much of their fun...

Day 17 

Back in the Bear Cave at the Arbor Inn & Suits (yes, that’s the room we requested for our second stay at this cozy hotel), we enjoyed a well-earned leisurely morning. We were on the final stretch of the journey, and it was time for another round of resupply and laundry. But first: breakfast. We strolled over to the coffee kiosk for breakfast sandwiches, real coffee, and bonus muffins. Hunger abated, it was back to the hotel for a final round of laundry and arranging our gear. Our friends at the Willamette Mountain Mercantile were excited to see we were still alive when we walked in the door. 

It would have been easy to spend the day there, swapping stories and tall tales, but alas we needed to make at least a bit of progress on the route. After topping off on supplies it was already time for a lunch date with friends! Brendan and Larissa happened to be coming into town that day, and we met them for lunch at Stewarts. When most of your meals are rehydrated in a bag, a fresh salad is quite the treat. So is a giant blackberry shake. We regaled Brendissa with our trials and tribulations from the trip, and they shared their adventures in road tripping in a Sprinter with two toddlers. All that hike-a-biking didn’t seem so bad any more… 

Unless we wanted to book another night in the Bear Cave (so tempting!), we really needed to get on the road. Thankfully the route was pretty flexible from this point on; all we had to do was climb out of town along the Middle Fork and stop at any one of the numerous campgrounds for the night. Riding out along the Hills Creek Lake we stuck to the dirt side this time to enjoy a mostly car free experience. The lone exception was a lowered sedan who passed us on a smooth spot only to have crater sized potholes around the next corner. We would have easily left him in our dust if it weren’t for that damn blackberry shake Ana shouldn’t have finished at lunch. We rode the lower part of the Middle Fork trail before jumping on the road to climb to our campsite. While we were at the Mercantile we heard the trail crew were able to get out and clear the upper stretches that had caused us so much consternation the week prior. We wouldn’t be approaching that region today, but a mellow road climb was perfect to spin the legs out and recover. 

As we were climbing, we started seeing signs for “Wub’s Wonderland”. Then Adam started hearing music. Then Ana started hearing music. And she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids, so you know it had to be loud! We came to a sign pointing down an innocuous dirt road from which the driving bass line was emanating. As we were standing there laughing at the odds of us stumbling upon a rave in the forest and contemplating going to check it out, a couple of guys on skateboards came up (yes, on skateboards in the middle of nowhere). We asked them what was going on and they said it was just a friends get-together (hah!). It’s not really an open thing, but if we’re cool we were welcome to check it out. As tempting as Wub’s Wonderland was, neither of us were ready to switch from bikepack mode to forest rave mode, and we continued up the road to a quiet campsite. 

Day 18 

Sadly, the singletrack was all behind us now, but we had plenty of gravel on the menu for the day. Our day started the way the previous ended: climbing the paved forest road. Pavement gave way to gravel and we wound higher and higher, switchback by switchback. Along the way we started seeing flags identifying this as an “escape route”. That seemed to work in our favor as there were no trees down, and we ended up with two days in a row with no hike-a-biking! We were treated to hundreds (maybe thousands) of little birds swooping and singing through the clear skies, and the views back down to the Willamette River valley where we started our morning were spectacular. We crested the pass and flew down the other side into the Umpqua River Valley, ready for a shirt dunker and lunch.

We found a nice campground with a bench in the shade to dig into our most amusing snack purchase of the trip: Johnson’s Smokehouse Trail Mix. Hunger sated, we filtered water and started the climb up to Diamond Lake where the bike-in campground and pizza parlor were waiting for us. Kitty-litter gravel gave way to hardpack, which gave way to the paved highway up to the lake. Thankfully the traffic wasn’t too bad, and we were able to get onto side roads to circle the lake to camp (mostly) car free. At this point, the Bootleg fire in southern Oregon had absolutely exploded, and we were making our way farther into the smoke zone.

On our last night camping, we pulled up at the best campsite of the whole trip, if only for the novelty. It was a hike/bike only campsite, separate from the others, modeled like a regular camp loop but with a walking path instead of roads, it’s own communal fire pit, water, and bathrooms. It was adorable. Until we went to the bathrooms. They. Were. Terrifying. It was like World War III was fought between gnats and spiders, and the spiders won. 

There were piles of dead gnat bodies in every corner and on every flat surface. And some of the largest spiders of the trip as well, plump from the ample food supply. When Adam first went in, he thought the gnats were all baby spiders and the place had been bug bombed. Other than that the place was great! Thankfully there was a much less terrifying option just down the path. There was another biker in residence, but the rest of the spots were empty. 

We set up camp and went for a jump in the lake before heading to pizza. Even though it was a hot day, that water was cold! Adam was too chicken to go in all the way, but Ana went for the full plunge. The siren song of melted cheese and pepperoni on dough was calling us from across the lake, so we dried off and rolled over to the pizza parlor. 

Pizza and beer (both hoppy and rooty) are one of life’s great simple pleasures, and if you can follow up with some ice cream, it really doesn’t get much better. Can we just spend every day riding bikes and eating food? Bellies full of food and hearts full of experiences from the last few weeks, we retired to the campsite for a few games of cards before turning in for the night. But not before we made sure to use a different restroom. 

Day 19 

What do you mean this is the final day? How is that possible? Didn’t we just start? But it also feels like we were dropped off 3 months ago. Time is weird. Especially when most of it has been spent solely focused on pedaling, eating, and sleeping. It feels good to check out of reality, and lose track of time for a while. Our original route would have taken us one more day to get back to Klamath Falls. However due to the quickly spreading Bootleg Fire, and incoming smoke, we decided Crater Lake would be our stopping point.

For our final day we would be climbing up and circling Crater Lake before descending down to the southern entrance, where Aunt Kimberly would pick us up. It wasn’t going to be a long day, so we had some flexibility on our timing and didn’t need to rush. We met our camp neighbor and chatted with him for a bit while we ate breakfast. He was doing Ebike touring and had custom built his bike with the largest batteries possible, and was able to charge them in the Bathroom of Despair, which he was also disturbed by. He was heading up to Crater Lake as well, and we let him know that the campground on the far side had a hike/bike camp as well. Hopefully he made it and enjoyed his stay! We shared some of our extra oatmeal with him and packed up and got on the road. Given that Crater Lake is the remnant of a volcano, there’s quite a bit of climbing to get up to it. Unfortunately we had to pay the entry fee of $15 per person to enter. Pretty crappy that entry for two bikes costs the same as a car. The person at the kiosk blamed Mitch McConnell, and we were inclined to agree. 

The road continued up with a steady drip of cars passing us as they got through the entry point, and a lack of bike lane which is worth noting after the $30 entry fee. Midway we decided to pull off for a snack, and waved to our camp friend as he rode by. Intersecting the road that circles the rim, we crossed to the parking lot to enjoy our first view of Crater Lake. While resting there we met a couple of PCT through hikers and started to chat with them. We thought we were bad ass wrapping up a 19 day bikepacking adventure. They were four months in and still had to get to the Canadian border! Even though we were doing different things, we each could recognize and relate to what the other was doing, and it was fun to chat about our experiences, and share our favorite food stops we had encountered. The rim road climbed for a bit longer before descending to the visitor’s center, where we stopped for our final view of the lake, and had another tourist snap our finale photo. 

One final mad dash down the road to the southern entrance and we were done! We grabbed a bite to eat, waited for our #1 support crew (aka, Aunt Kimberley and Zachary, her huge dog) to come rescue us, and back to Ashland we went. We absolutely could not have completed this adventure without her, and the cherry on top was the hottub waiting for us at home ;)

Nineteen days of not being in a car, pedaling or pushing our bikes all day most days, sleeping outside (mostly), not staring at our screens, not worrying about plans other than a human’s most basic needs, not having any serious incidents and nineteen days of not killing each other! If you find someone that still makes you smile after doing something like this, they’re a keeper.

One final note of gratitude; when we first embarked on this journey, Adam insisted on journaling every night. What we saw, what we rode, what we walked, all of the animal sightings of each day, what we ate, and where we camped. I (Ana) poked fun of this ritual at first. However it became our bedtime routine, usually as I was falling asleep in the tent. And now, trying to remember each day nearly 6 months later, a million details would have been missed had it not been for his writing. 

Final pro tip: Write things down. Stop to take pictures. Don't take any of these moments for granted. Not even the hike-a-bike parts. These places we enjoy today may not be there tomorrow.