Day 0 - Prepping and Planning (Brandon)

Let's be honest, I bike for the beer stops

    In anticipation of our great adventure down the Pacific coast from Astoria to San Francisco there was a lot of work to be done to make sure we had what we needed. With the COVID pandemic still raging in the US, there were also concerns that the trip wouldn't happen. After closely following news in both Oregon and California, and checking in on the State Park websites regularly, we determined to go for it, and that's when the planning work began. 

    Most of the State Parks along the route had revised rules and limited capacity due to COVID restrictions, because of this we had to plan out every single night of our trip. Generally riders can rely on hiker/biker campsites available at all State Parks that don't require reservations. Luckily, in Oregon, the State Parks were limiting reservations to 30 days out, meaning I could book any park I wanted as long as I did it early enough in the day, 30 days before arrival. With 3 hotel nights mixed in for rest, showers, and laundry, I was able to book the entire trip, with only a few long stretches of riding where there were no camping options. With everything booked in advance, however, we are on a tight schedule.

    With the booking process complete, about 3 weeks out from the trip, it was time to start deciding what to bring, and buying any necessities for the ride. After several hundred dollars of Amazon, REI, and universalcycles.com purchases, we hoped we had everything we needed, so we decided to test it out.

    We planned a two-day "practice" trip from Portland to Hood River, two weeks in advance of our big ride. The distance each day was comparable to a standard ride day on our trip, with plenty of elevation mixed in to check our fitness, and gorgeous views along the way. (53miles, 3000ft) This would also give us a chance to test out our new gear, and identify anything we might be missing. Christi failed to pack the night before the ride, and screwed up her alarm in the morning to get packed, "it was the phone's fault."😏 I arrived a little late and had to call her to wake her up, so we got a bit of a late start, and she did not get much benefit from the "practice" packing. All told the trip went great, we didn't struggle with the distance, or elevation, even with 90 degree temps on the ride home. There were some mechanical struggles with a loose chain on Christi's bike going up "the death hill", but we plan to replace her chain before the ride. This isn't a blog about a two day trip to Hood River, so I'll leave it at that, but here are a couple pictures from the ride:

All Loaded Up

Burger and ice cream stop in Cascade locks on the way back

 

    Next post should be from the road. 😁 Feel free to leave comments or questions below!

-Brandon