I know, I know: it’s embarrassing how much I’ve been neglecting this blog. But for the last week, I’ve been backpacking for — get ready — for work, with a few of the kiddos from my crew. And it made me remember how much I like that other means of locomotion, traveling by foot.
(That’s right. We walked here:) Eagle Cap Wilderness)
The hard part about backpacking, of course, is that I haven’t quite figured out how to do it by bike. Rather, I haven’t figured out how to bike to a trailhead I want with the stuff I’d need to backpack and then how to leave my bike behind for however long securely while I do my backpacking thing.
Eh, I guess I’m not so worried about the security at a trailhead, but the gear thing still escapes me. Do I carry my backpack in a trailer? Because it sure is uncomfortable to bike with it on and loaded, even for like 15 minutes. Plus, it makes every potential backpacking trip a much longer expense of time if I also bike to wherever it is. The Wallowas, for example, where we were last week, would have taken me a solid two weeks to bike to and back from, turning a week-long trip into nearly a month.
(Though if I HAD a month, this would definitely be worth it:)
This is why I don’t end up doing so much backpacking, except for when I went to Glacier a few years ago and could get there by train. I wish there were more transit in this world that took you to trailheads.
Do you know of any? I’d love to hear it because man, I sure like backpacking!
Il y en a beaucoup en Europe! C’est commun, là -bas.
Heh. Mais ça ne m’aide pas beaucoup ici! Mais it’s pretty cool pour eux! :)
Ahhh we’re going to Eagle Cap for the first time over Labor Day! I’m so excited. We’re staying in a cabin on the lake so just planning on day hikes. What route did you take?
Exciting!! Which lake are you talking about? We came in from the south, from Baker City/Medical Springs, and hiked up Eagle Creek and around in a big lollipop to a bunch of different amazing backcountry lakes.
Oh man. You’re gonna have so much fun!! We’ll have to remember to talk about it when you’re back and we inevitably see each other at the market;)
I think the thing to figure out is not how to bike to a trailhead, is how to take public transit to a trailhead! We do have some options here in the Portland area: you can take the Skamania County bus practically to the PCT, you can take the weekend Gorge bus to Multnomah Falls and start hiking, or you can take the Mount Hood Express up to…Mount Hood! Also, I know there is decent (yet not frequent) bus service around the Olympic Peninsula that would be useful for a through hike there.
I’m so with you on this one. The Mount Hood thing is something I’m thinking about for realz, but otherwise I’m not super stoked on the transit options that I know about from Portland. Didn’t know about the Olympic Peninsula bus though — now that has potential:)
Pingback: Mountains and backpacks and bears, oh my! – CarFreeRambles