Something I try to do once a year (though I missed out least year) is take a bike-camping trip along the Deschutes River. There's a real nice gravel rail-trail that starts at the river's confluence with the Columbia and goes about 18 miles upstream. I've done the whole thing a number of times. First time I've done it with Richie though. Started out in the rain late Saturday afternoon: I'm running the KM rigid, now with Mungo bars and gears for commuting, adventure biking, road riding and BOB-towing. Gearing is 2x5, with 42/26 chainrings (rarely use the 26) and 14/17/20/26/32 cogs. Probably sounds weird to some, but works for me. Since this ride is mostly flat, I only use 3 gears (42x32, 42x26, 42x20) for this whole ride. I'm running my old Thudbuster with black elastomers in both positions, even though my weight calls for blue/blue, in order to take the edge off without being too soft. Here's the setup: My usual Klaw rear tire comes closer to the back of BOB's yoke than I'd like for this trip ... well under 1/4". For drier riding it'd be fine, but this trail can develop major mudholes when it's wet, and the combination of desert mud and fine sand/gravel can lead to major buildup. As it turned out, the mudholes were minimal this time, but to be on the safe side I opted to dig the venerable 700x45 Smoke out of storage. About 3/8" (~1cm) of clearance is more than enough: Also to be on the safe side (and also unnecessarily) I swapped out the ExiWolf for the front Klaw. This is my first time doing this trip on 29" tires, and although it could be my imagination I do think I rolled faster for less effort than on past trips. Since this river is used extremely heavily by rafters (over 100k users/summer) the BLM has installed nice pit toilets at the more popular campsites ... and since the "pack it out" rule is strictly enforced even with human waste, it is a good idea to use them. We have our choice of camping at 3.5, 5.5 or 8 miles in. As usual we opt for mile 8, a lovely spot. It rains all night, but fortunately the rain stops just in time for breakfast: Besides the spectacular natural scenery, this trail is also home to an abandoned farmstead and a couple of old passenger cars to make things interesting: All in all, another great Deschutes trip, if not a particularly long one, but there's always something special about bike camping. As is usual this time of year, after getting about 3 miles in Richie and I had the whole place to ourselves. Well, except for the jumping salmon that woke us up a couple times in the middle of the night. Here's Richie's salmon imitation: Return to top of page | Home

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