#tour reflections

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Ainsworth Post Report 2025: A de-briefing on this year's first bike camping experience

The loaded Bantam at Multnomah Falls, 3 July 2025. Olympus XA/Kodak Ektar 100 Last week I undertook my first bike overnight of 2025, the trip to Ainsworth State Park in the Columbia River Gorge. It had been nearly a year since my last overnight, also to Ainsworth at the end of July 2024. And 2024 only saw that one tenting trip, though Emee and I overnighted in the cabins at Stub Stewart. 2023…

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A look back at my 2022 touring season

A look back at my 2022 touring season

The Bantam at Crown Point, during the Midweek Gorge group camping trip, 15 Oct 2022. Camera: Ricohflex Dia Film: Kodak Gold 200 As the first real rains of autumn hit the Northwest, and the chances of getting “one last camping trip in” diminish, now is a good time for me to look back and reflect on what my bike touring looked like in 2022. And despite hoping that 2022 could be ever-so-slightly…

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Trans-Oregon Tour 2010: Reflection

Wallowa Lake, with Wallowa Mountains as backdrop. 7 June 2010 Looking back on an event that happened a decade and a half ago is always interesting. It’s “recent” enough that I can remember specific instances and incidents (no doubt helped by the fact I wrote about it right after it happened), and also recent enough that it doesn’t feel that long ago. (Is this the big danger of growing old, that…

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Trans-Oregon Tour 2010: Eugene and the first day of riding

Along the McKenzie River, 28 May 2010. My Long Haul Trucker is on the left, then Kiran and Sharrad’s Bike Friday New World Tourists. I can always tell which one is Kiran’s, as there’s more than one water bottle on it. (Sharrad’s singular bottle was a point of contention.) This is a “blast from the past” type of story. Around Memorial Day 2010 I embarked on a twelve-day tour that crossed Oregon…

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Trans-Oregon Tour 2010: The Lure of the Dry Side

Wind farms outside of North Powder, Oregon, 5 June 2010 Hello friends! This is a “blast from the past” type of story. Around Memorial Day 2010 I embarked on a twelve-day tour that crossed Oregon from Eugene eastward to Baker City, then north to Enterprise/Joseph, eventually ending in Walla Walla, WA. This was my biggest tour between the Pacific Coast jaunt in 2006 and the Cross-Continent…

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Figuring out how to nourish the part of me that wants to go bike touring when life intervenes

Bush Park Pastoral. Salem OR, 28 June 2023. Pentax IQZoom 170SL (Espio 170SL)/ Kodak Ultramax 400 A couple weeks ago I alluded to a bike tour that I’d do over the post Labor Day weekend. That tour did not happen. There were two good reasons preventing me from going out on the road. The first was weather and air. The first day or so would have been hotter than I wanted to deal with. And the AQI…

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Another islands tour ahead, and how the rest of the touring season will pan out

Another islands tour ahead, and how the rest of the touring season will pan out

Emee on the ferry, from our 2019 San Juans Trip After my first bike overnight trip to the cabins at Stub Stewart in February, I was getting the itch for more bike camping. I even wondered if 2022 could be similar to my 2012, where I had lots of overnights and tours. But besides a trip to Champoeg in April, I didn’t have another overnight until my Gorge/Ainsworth trip in June. I had hoped that I…

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Oregon Coast Bike Tour 2021: Reflections

Oregon Coast Bike Tour 2021: Reflections

Emee and I overlooking Yaquina Bay, Newport, 14 August 2021. Olympus XA2/Kentmere 400 It’s a little over three weeks since Emee and I wrapped up our Oregon Coast Tour 2021. This is a good amount of time to reflect on this trip. If I was going to give it a star rating, I’d say 3 out of 5 stars. If I was going to rate it like a Seattle band would, I’d say it’s Ultramega OK. Huh? You see the…

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