Introduction
This 2006 tour was my longest bike tour since a 6-month "Practice Retirement" tour in 1989. The main objective of this tour was to see eastern Oregon which I had never seen before.
I had a well-defined route but no definite schedule. I thought this tour might take as long as 6 weeks but I ended up being on the road for 37 days.
The entire route is in the state of Oregon except for 40 miles on the Idaho side of Hell's Canyon. It was definitely a "tour" with a goal to see interesting things, not just ride the most possible miles.
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The route starts and finishes at my house in Oakland, Oregon. The major tour destinations include:
Crater Lake National Park
Newberry National Volcanic Monument
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
Hell's Canyon
Wallowa Mountains
Blue Mountains
Columbia River gorge
Hot springs in the western Cascade mountains
This was primarily a solo tour but I spent the first four days of the tour riding with Jacinto and Kelly Iniguez who arrived at my house on June 19. They had ridden from Portland to Astoria, down the coast to Reedsport, and then up the Umpqua river to my house. After four days Kelly and Jacinto headed on a more direct route towards Colorado while I stopped and smelled the roses at Newberry Volcanic.
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This is my 11th self-contained bike tour using a 1998 Speed Ross recumbent. For the first 10 tours with this bike I used just the rear panniers with a sleeping bag and large fanny pack piled on top of the rack. That setup was very aerodynamic with all the gear behind my torso. But the bike didn't handle very well.
Shortly before this tour I added a Terracycle underseat rack and Arkel RT-40 "recumbent panniers". This adds almost 5 pounds of weight to my setup (the rack and empty panniers weigh 5 pounds) and it's less aerodynamic than my old setup. But the handling is significantly better now that I have a lot of weight very low between the wheels, less weight in the rear panniers, and nothing piled on top of the rack. Now I have the capacity to carry more stuff without stuffing the panniers tightly. The improved handling easily makes up for the increased weight and wind resistance. Now it's much easier to ride in a straight line at 3.5 mph and it feels more stable at 40 mph. The bike kind of feels like it's riding on rails now - it likes to go straight. The bike is also better behaved when I walk it. And while riding I can reach into an underseat pannier to grab food or my camera. The improved handling was extremely easy for me to get accustomed to. The only thing that took time to get accustomed to was spreading my legs wider when straddling the bike. I also have to be careful when making a sharp U-turn. An underseat pannier scrapes on the ground when I lean too far.
The four pannier setup speeds up my packing routine because I no longer bother with stuff sacks for my sleeping bag, mattress pad, and tent. Here's a summary of what I put in each pannier.
RIGHT REAR PANNIER:
Main compartment: sleeping bag, mattress pad. They stay nested all the time because the mattress pad slips in a pouch in the Big Agnes sleeping bag. I simply stuff the bag/pad into the main compartment of the pannier (lined with a plastic bag if it rains).
Front compartment: socks, swimsuit.
Top compartment: rain pants, Sealskinz socks.
LEFT REAR PANNIER:
Main compartment: tent, clothes, towel. The tent gets stuffed into the bottom of the main compartment. The 18 inch tent pole sections barely fit inside the pannier. Clothes go above the tent in two small stuff sacks. One stuff sack holds cycling clothes. The other stuff sack holds sleeping and non-cycling clothes.
Front compartment: gloves, tights, balaclava.
Top compartment: rain jacket.
RIGHT FRONT PANNIER:
Main compartment: fanny pack, tripod, map case. The fanny pack holds valuables such as wallet, sunglasses, camera, radio, headlight, cell phone, chargers, sunscreen, journal book, etc. The compartment has space for extra bottled beverages if I'm going a long distance between water sources. It's kind of frivolous to carry a heavy fanny pack inside a heavy pannier, but the fanny pack works extremely well when I'm away from the bike, especially for long hikes.
Rear compartment: available for carrying a bottle of fruit juice, etc.
Side compartment: Teva sandals.
LEFT FRONT PANNIER:
Main compartment: stove, cookset, food, toiletries bag.
Rear compartment: fuel bottle.
Side compartment: water filter, water sack, shower hose, clothesline, mosquito headnet, first aid kit.
POUCHES ON BACK OF SEAT:
Left pouch: tools, spare parts, spare inner tubes.
Right pouch: cable lock.
These items stay on the bike when I ride without the panniers.
On the front of the bike are four water bottles and a Topeak Combo Master Blaster pump attached to the frame with Twofish pump blocks.
Most of the time I have nothing on top of the rack. But it's available for temporary use whenever I buy something bulky.
For this tour I carried a big new waterproof vinyl map case that holds letter size sheets of paper. I made color photocopies from my Benchmark Oregon atlas which has a scale of 4 miles per inch - it took about 30 pages to cover my entire route. To see the big picture I also carried an Oregon state map by Imus Geographics. It's by far the best Oregon map I've ever seen.
The tires are 47mm (1.75 inch wide) Continental Top Touring 2000. On pavement I run them at 65-70 psi. On rough gravel roads I can lower the pressure to 25 psi for a smoother ride and greatly improved traction.
The total weight of this beast is a little over 100 pounds with full water bottles, full fuel bottle, and two days worth of food. The unloaded bike weighs 41 pounds, including racks, pump, tools, spare tubes, lock, LED flasher, and empty water bottles. Nobody ever accused me of traveling ultralight, but I have no trouble pedaling up steep grades with my 18-inch low gear (20T chainring, 28T cog, driving a 26-inch rear wheel).
The cyclocomputer is a Ciclosport CM-414alti which has an altimeter function. It tells me the total climbing for each day.
Now on to the tour journal...
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