Rob Anderson was the mastermind behind this incredible self supported 7 day ride that took place July 2-8, 2016. The route took us through some of the most beautiful terrain along through The Cascades from Seattle to Portland looping around three volcanoes: Rainier, Adams and Hood. We rode a mix of dirt and paved roads every day with a lot of climbing included.
The approximate stats: 462 miles, 26,800 feet elevation gain, 7 days (Ride With GPS)
The crew: Rob, Joe, Tom, Kale, Monica, Mollie, Langston, Rez and Me
Stats: 95 miles, 3,500 ft elevation gain
Starting out a fully loaded tour with a 90 mile, estimated 4500 ft day was just a little bit intimidating. I'd ridden 90 mile days, but never with that much elevation or more importantly loaded with too many snacks and a full set of camping gear.
Everyone was full of smiles first thing in the morning at The Station on Beacon Hill.
The ride South to Mt. Rainier was extremely pleasant: mostly flat, mild weather, and good warming up miles. We took a pit stop in Algona for snacks and then lunch in Orting.
On the ride out I realized that this was my first tour on my new set of personally hand built wheels and I didn't have any spare spokes. The only bike shop in Orting chuckled and failed my uncommon request for spokes sized for my 650b wheels. Oh well, what's the worst that could happen? Maybe let's not think about that.
Now properly fed, I was feeling pretty great for already being 45ish miles in. Group morale was high as we escaped the remnants of suburban sprawl and turned toward the mountains. We pace lined quite a bit as we headed into the mountains but as soon as the climbs got serious the reality of the long day started to set in.
Our last legitimate grocery store was in Eatonville, still 25+ miles from camp but we kept on. We rolled to the entrance to Big Creek Campground as the sun was getting low to find as we expected that the campground was full. Rez worked his magic on the campground staff and managed to find us an empty spot to crowd everyone into. Those last few miles getting to this point were a consistent effort to not bonk so I was pretty stoked. The alternative was to head another 10 miles down the mountain to a dispersed camp so good thing we didn't have to worry ourselves with that.
Stats: 55 miles, 5,500 ft elevation gain
Well rested and well fed (everyone's snack caches were still full), we took off on a beautiful and well-deserved descent East to Packwood.
It's incredible the amount of food that the nine of us consumed at our brunch stop at the Blue Spruce Saloon in Packwood. Chicken fried steaks covered (yes, covered) with biscuits and gravy with a side of pancakes brought meaning to the name Fat Country.
The dry, hot, dusty ascent into Gifford Pinchot from Packwood was a slog. Just a mile or two in a truck pulled over to ask us where we were going and to make extra sure we knew what we were doing.
It was a long, slow ride up the mountain but somehow without a lot of notable events to remind me of what I was doing, we eventually crested into a flatter, greener area and regrouped. I later found out that it was just now getting good.
The somewhat flat terrain we were rewarded with after the first slog ended shortly and we climbed another 1500 feet into an idillic, shady, cooler terrain toward camp.
We didn't have a specific spot for camp this day other than "somewhere in the High Lakes Area" and with the long climbs we were a bit spread out. Fortunately, but with no thanks to our not-so-trusty walkie talkies, we managed to regroup and settle into camp at Horseshoe Lake Campground. Bodies and clothes were washed in the small and murky but workable lake. The evening was comfortable, relaxing and just what I needed after such a long, hot, dusty day.
Stats: 63 miles, 2,700 ft elevation gain
At this point it felt like I had been away for a week already. The variety and quality of terrain we had covered so far had already made this a trip to remember. Gifford Pinchot had been on my wish list for years. I was finally in it and it was everything I had hoped it would be. The long days were adding up already but fortunately we had planned a theoretically easier day for today and two famous spots I had been looking forward to: Takhlakh Lake and Babyshoe Pass (whose namesake is used for the tires I was riding on this trip).
Rob said that he had heard mixed reports as to just how passable the next stretch was. I was a little nervous, but at least we were headed downhill, mostly.
The stretch from Horseshoe Lake to Takhlakh Lake was a little rough, but definitely passable. Todays and yesterdays routes would have been a very different story had it been raining and I felt fortunate for the warm and sunny circumstances.
Holy Shit Takhlakh Lake. My first thought was "Damn why didn't we camp here" but that was eclipsed quickly but the amazingness of this place. The weather was perfect, the lake serene, and the smiles abound.
From Takhlakh Lake the roads were paved and it was smooth cruising for a few miles until we hit Babyshoe Pass.
Babyshoe Pass was only a legend for me having graced the incredible 650b x 42 Super Supple™ tires on my Rambler for over a year now which drastically transformed my riding for the better. We took our time to enjoy the photo shoot.
The descent down Babyshoe Pass was fun and my tires did a splendid job on the loose gravely terrain. It was pretty incredible the weather we were getting to enjoy on these rides. The view perfectly resembled the proposed flag of Cascadia the entire ride down.
At the bottom of the descent from Babyshoe Pass toward Trout Lake I stopped to regroup with Mollie and Langston to learn that Langston had unfortunately forgotten his camera at the pass. We pondered the situation for a few minutes and decided to ditch our bags off the side of the road and ride to the top. Shortly after realizing it would be easy to just hitchhike to the top instead, a nice man gave Langston a ride and I took off on my own toward Trout Lake. Unfortunately he didn't find find his camera at the top, but at least without the regret of not trying.
The descent to Trout Lake was long but I had an incredible time. Descending on pavement solo for that hour, stopping to take photos at will was wonderfully calming and left me smiling at the bottom once I found the crew finishing up lunch in Trout Lake.
After scarfing down lunch in Trout Lake (since I arrived much later than everyone else) and restocking on food at the local market we took off away from the waning sun to our destination at Leidl Campground on the Klickitat river. The water was brisk and pretty swift but some people went in for a brief dip. I instead opted to simply wash some underwear and use the river to chill my beer.
The campground was expansive, windy with not much protection, and we had to climb over the highway to the neighboring campground to use a clean toilet but it did the job.
Stats: 70 miles, 3,500 ft elevation gain
It felt nice to descend into camp the night before but the next morning we had to climb right back out. The scenery had changed a lot since Gifford Pinchot but it was surprisingly picturesque with layered hillsides and gorges.
It was all fun and games until we descended into the final gorge that connected us to the Columbia River Gorge West of The Dalles. We pacelined and pedaled hard to go an embarassingly slow speed downhill due to how much headwind was pushing at us as we descended.
Once we arrived at the Gorge, though, it was smooth sailing. We were pushing 20 mph speeds without even trying due to the incredible tailwinds.
We crossed over the gorge into Oregon at The Dalles for our lunch and grocery stop for the day. I think it was a combo of having spent so much time together and the growing need amongst the group to do their own thing that we scattered in The Dalles to an assortment of food establishments and supply stops with nothing but a vague meetup plan. I was exhausted and incredibly hungry. Having split up in The Dalles, I walked my dirty bike and self straight into the Safeway and grabbed the first Gatorade I could find and started chugging. I didn't even have the energy to move to a park so I sat in the shade in front of the grocery store and ate a large helping of baguette with roast beef, harvarti and a mystery creamy horseradish sauce the deli squeezed into a container for me until I started to feel more myself. I ended up shopping at least one more time and bought a little too much food for dinner but really is there such a thing?
We departed The Dalles restocked and ready for the final stretch over Old Moody to our camping destination. Other than the possibly impassible section near Takhlakh lake the one other unknown of this trip was due to a large fire that had been moving through the area just a week prior. The hillsides were pretty burned up but fortunately we didn't have to make any changes to our route to accomodate the fire since it had been taken care by the time we passed through.
I was a little nervous about Old Moody after the big game people had been talking about it but it wasn't bad at all and I quite enjoyed it.
We were rewarded with a clean, cool, flat patch of grass to camp in and hot showers. Bliss.
Stats: 60 miles, 4,500 ft elevation gain
I got started early on Day 5. The days were wearing on me and I knew today would be long and hot so I took off early to get ahead of the pack and make the most of the cooler part of the morning. After we ascended back into the hills we followed many miles of rolling rural dirt farm roads before descending down to the Deschutes River for a relaxing, level ride into Maupin.
This day we we had the option to avoid the dirt road altogether and take a nearly parallel paved route. I stuck to the dirt route but having worn down the group at this point, some opted for the paved route. At times I thought we were going to get lost out in those rural farm roads, but turned out we all met up at the Sherars Bridge on the Deschutes to finish out the day together.
Maupin was the most accessible camp of the trip with running water, full bathrooms, hot showers, power outlets, wifi at camp and local mini marts and food stops just a couple minutes down the road by bike. Nearly everybody opted for fast food and milkshakes at Henry's Deli-Mart just across the river.
At camp we were visited by a small group of local river guides who jokingly, though seemingly seriously, threatened that they would return later on that night to party with us. They did not return, but we had a laugh.
I won't forget Tom discovering Pokemon Go in Maupin which had just come out while we were on the trip. We were all amused as he meandered around the property until he returned for the evening sharing that he "went looking for Pokemon in the woods but instead he found a real snake".
Stats: 59 miles, 4,200 ft elevation gain
Following my lead from the previous day knowing my energy was waning, I took off earlier than everybody again to get started on the long, slow, gruelingly boring climb into the mountains again. I met up with Joe and Kale at at little gas station on the map that we didn't realize existed. Apparently somebody in The Dalles spotted us crossing the gorge and snapped a photo of Kale for the front page of The Dalles Chronicle. Nuts! Must not be much happening there to get such random front page press.
The climb was long and arduous but we all eventually made it to the top. We were going to split up before everyone was together but soon realized that the road we had intended to take was on tribal lands with very visible signs deterring our passing. We inquired with a passing local official but he also advised us against the road so we waited up a bit longer and took a minor detour adding a few miles down the highway.
We experienced our first few showers as we pulled into Timothy Lake. I had almost forgotten about rain and was thankful that was the case, but the Cascades welcomed us back in the way they knew best. Unfortunately our efforts to dry clothing was futile but at least some of our gear got a bit of smoke seasoning in the process.
Stats: 85 miles, 1,850 ft elevation gain
Our plan for the day leaving Timothy Lake had us taking a 15ish mile roundabout detour to Bigby Hot Springs and spending one last night camping in Estacada, but with gloomy weather in the forecast and the excitement of sleeping in a warm hotel instead of a wet tent in the rain persuaded us to skip the detour and head straight down the mountain.
The day started with some single track as we followed the rim of the lake toward an incredible hour long descent down no traffic, easy gravel roads. I was beaming. I bombed down the road floating over the gravel and with my fully loaded bike handling at the top of my game.
We hit paved roads and a little while later we regrouped at the off shoot to Bagby Hot Springs. Everybody wearing rain jackets and imaging the miserable uphill climb in the rain only to get soaked and ride right back down again we confirmed our original plan to head directly to Estacada.
In Estacada we had a leisurely lunch and round of beer flights at Fearless Brewing while we decided our final plan. We opted to skip the rainy camping and push on the last 30 miles to Portland and split a couple hotel rooms for the night. A few minutes later we had ourselves 2 rooms booked through Hotwire and were pleasantly surprised that we were booked rooms at The Hilton in Downtown Portland. Cha-ching! Off we went.
For being the last day of the tour it was incredible how quickly we managed to ride into town. We pacelined nearly 20mph on the flats for most of the ride back into town and were there in no time.
The staff at The Hilton were super nice and welcomed us in with our bikes offering no resistance to bringing them to our rooms! We all went out for food and a drink but most of us called it a night fairly early.
The next morning we slowly emerged, packed our things and separated to a split of people taking the train or the bus at various times, some staying for an extra night since we had arrived a day early. Tom had a rough night (as did his bunk mates) but somehow we all made it out by checkout time.
Thanks Rob for planning the route and all the wonderful company for a fantastic week. That week was the most physically demanding bike tour I've been on and one of the most fun and rewarding. I'd say the smiles per miles ratio was excellent.
© 2026 Zach Hale
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