Oregon Outback Day 7 — The Dalles
Day 7 was short so I’ll do some gear highlights in this story.
We settled up at the motel. Joseph had a McGriddle for the first time. He liked it. I had my leftover cheeseburger and fries for breakfast. I would not recommend this breakfast either.
The wind did not die down and I made my peace with it and settled into a pace. We were again averaging 8 mph on a downhill. We had 1 climb, 1.2 miles, 9% average. I knew I was going to walk this. Going up while facing headwinds was no joke. On one section, I couldn’t get back on my bike due to loss of traction and wind.
The rest of the way was beautiful and mostly uneventful. Once again, the wind on the grass was beautiful. I was happy to finally see “The Dalles” sign on the road. A highlight, though, was seeing The Dalles from an elevation. It’s a massive dam that seems to cut off 90% of the Columbia River to create it. Its scale is epic but I’m also not sure how much nature is being abused there.
Once we got to town, we had some Hawaiian BBQ, and picked up our pickup truck. We more or less tossed the bikes in the back and drove to Portland.
Our final tally for this ride: 416 miles, 17,765 ft elevation, and an insane epic ride. Would I do it again? Yes, but next time with a hardtail or full suspension XC bike. The first few days were pretty rough and I would have much less fatigue with more suspension. Having a flat bar bike may allow me to carry more water. I would try to carry ~2 gallons of water for those dry days.
I enjoyed myself and learned a lot. I’m very happy with my setup. Adding 2x small gas canisters and eliminating some clothes would be the optimization. I can now go on shorter trips very lightweight.
My favorite gears were:
- The Black Bibs winter jersey: Do not buy this for winter. It’s far too airy. It’s best in late spring or early fall. I wore this every day and it did great from the 40–80 degree range. I would just open my zipper when it became very hot.
- Therm-a-rest NeoAir XTherm sleeping pad: This was awesome and kept me warm. Even the narrow NXT version is wide enough for me to sleep on my side. TY Stephen for this recommendation.
- Paria Outdoors 15 degree quilt: This quilt is large and covers me well over my head. I’m 5’6” so YMMV. It was very warm. Sleeping with my Uniqlo down jacket was overkill.
- Uniqlo down jacket: I’m very impressed with this. I might buy another one as it’s $80 now but I got it on sale for $60. My cats also clawed into my current one a bit.
- Fumpa nano pump: This exceeded my expectations as well. Pumped up my 650b x 48s to ~45–50 psi after the burp and then topped it off a few times. I’d say the charge held 3x pumps of my tire.
- Pinnacle foods: This was the star of the show. I tested this outside of bikepacking and it’s really good. Every flavor vibed with me except for the Teriyaki. Joseph liked it though. Creamy Tuscan was the favorite for both of us. Italian Sausage was second for me, with Chipotle Beef third.
Things I want to change:
- Tent: I may want a tent that’s freestanding. But I can’t seem to find one that’s as light or packs as small as my Tarptent protrail.
- More storage: Revelate’s nano panniers look interesting! Might give those a shot for a little bit more carrying capacity.
- Tool storage: Carrying the tools on my back for the first few days weren’t ideal. A rear mount top tube bag for tools would be great.
- Sandal storage: Thread my sandals through the fork bags. Got this idea from another bikepacker we met.
