No. 57
The ADV Goonz had been scheduling and rescheduling a trip for well over a year before the stars were finally aligned. We planned this trip as a 4-day adventure exploring the Mount Hood National Forest; I was pretty excited to show Blaine, David, and Mike “my backyard” since they’re all from outta town.
Unfortunately for us, a large forest fire started a few days before our trip. We still decided to go, despite the uncertainty surrounding trail conditions.
I apologize in advance for the long post.
DAY 1 (Thursday)
David and Mike both rode south from Seattle WA, via some dirt trails in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Blaine rode north from Sisters OR.
At the time of me writing this (August 4th), Oregon has officially broken all annual fire records. There’s currently over 2 million acres burnt this year, and there’s still two months left of our typical “fire season”.
The Grasshopper Fire is approx 48,000 acres and happens to cover some of OR-BDR Section 7 — which is what we originally intended on riding.
DAY 2 (Friday)
Here’s a little background story: In September of 2024, Mike and I quickly became Instagram friends. After a few short months of conversation, we decided to plan a bike trip with some of his friends — Blaine, David, and @PokeyMoto. That trip changed my outlook on what adventure riding could look like!
We planned a trip to the Olympic Peninsula called the “Grip Twister” (blog post No. 19). Grip Twister is a 550+ mile, self-guided, motorcycle tour that closely encircles the Olympic National Park in Northwest Washington.
That ride was life-changing for me because not only did I make new friends, but I’d also consider it my first real ADV Trip. After the Grip Twister, I was fully obsessed!
It was also on that same trip that after a long night of laughter and debauchery, we coined ourselves the “ADV Goonz”.
After much consideration of the fire and smoke, we decided to skip Section 7, and ride Section 6 southbound instead.
While heading south to Timothy Lake, I seen a sign that said “High Rock” (which is my favorite local ride), so without hesitation I suggested a quick side-quest.
The four of us raced down a Forest Service Road lined with beautiful Douglas-Fir trees, about 12 miles in, we rolled up to this amazing view. While everyone was taking photos in awe, I told them it gets better, as I rode up a technical dirt trail to the top.
I got to the top first, which was cool because that gave me time to see everyone’s reaction to this breathtaking spot.
We were originally planning on camping somewhere around Timothy Lake, but that changed as we talked about how cool it would be to camp at High Rock instead.
One-by-one, everyone started finding flat spots to set up their tents. I was the “last” one to choose, although unbeknownst to them, I had already made up my mind that I was going to set up my tent on the ledge!
Of course everyone’s tent location seemed pretty lame once they saw my choice — so they all happily joined me.
DAY 3 (Saturday)
After Olallie Lake we took the “hard alternate” option of Section 6 to Detroit Lake. This section had lots of baby head sized rocks, deep ruts, and tight switchbacks on a steep unmaintained trail.
Although I don’t have any photos of it, after that section, there were lots of large panoramic vistas that reminded me of a postcard from the Colorado backcountry.
Blaine lives less than an hour south of Detroit Lake, so he headed home from there while we started making our way back north toward Hood River.
We hopped on OR-BDR Section 7 at FSR-44 to avoid some trail closures. Unfortunately, that meant we bypassed the iconic views of Section 7 — which means they’ll have to revisit some time.
Day 3 ended at this great campground in Hood River called Tucker Park County Campground. Although I typically prefer dispersed camping, this campground was a refreshing way to end our trip. Soft grass, a fully plumbed bathroom with showers, a river, friendly camp hosts, and the smell of freshly baked s’mores.
DAY 4 (Sunday)
Day 4 was a short one. We woke up… packed… grabbed coffee… filled up with gas… and parted ways. Mike and David headed north, back to Seattle via WA-BDR Section 1, and I headed west back to Portland.
The red line was our track — 462 miles of mainly dirt trails.
Crushing Baby Heads 