Valley of the Giants, OR, USA

July, 2022

4 days / about 200 miles

I drove to Oregon to do this beautiful but very challenging ride with my brothers, who both live in Portland. Our intent was to ride the entire curated route of what’s called The Odyssey of the VOG (odysseyvog.com). But, like a lot of the bikepacking routes, this one incorporates about as much climbing as possible, and I quickly realized I would be an anchor my brothers would have to drag behind them up the hills. This wasn’t helped by the fact I once again showed up carrying too much stuff in two old panniers, while by brothers smartly packed much lighter.

We started the ride at the official start outside of Salem, thanks to getting a ride from my brother’s wife. It was really hot that first day and we skipped the first major climb, picking up the route again at the store in Fall City. We followed the route, camping on the side of the track shortly after the VOG itself. The next day I was feeling sick and couldn’t do the big climb after Grand Ronde, so we turned left down Rt. 22, then Rt. 130, hitting Pelican Brewery for lunch. My brother had reserved a spot at Cape Lookout Campground for the night… a really cool spot on a spit of land by the ocean. They have hot showers! Day 3, we followed the route to Tillamook and stopped at the Safeway for supplies. At this point, my brother learned he needed to return home a day early, so we left the route east of town and rode along the Trask River, picking up the route again to ride past Barney Reservoir and camping before leaving the trees behind. On Day 4, we took another short-cut to Gaston, and then rode back roads up and over Forest Park and into Portland via St. Johns bridge.