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Last week I rode the Frog Lake Loop Trail near Mount Hood with Kailey Kornhauser and a film crew from Oregon Field Guide. This 40 mile route might be my new favorite weekend route - it’s a perfect length for a short adventure, has an excellent challenge:reward ratio, and is good for a solo trip or group trip. Basically everything I look for in a bikepacking trip!
The logistics of this trip were pretty funny to coordinate - we started chatting with the team at Oregon Public Broadcasting in April. They saw our All Bodies on Bikes film and really wanted to do a follow-up episode on us. We initially planned to ride the Lower Deschutes River Trail but got foiled by gusty winds a few times. After a summer of many emails and rescheduling due to weather and production schedules, we finally landed on a weekend that worked for all of us.
The Frog Lake Loop, as developed and mapped out by Molly Sugar (thanks Molly!!) is designed to be ridden in two days. With a total distance of 40ish miles, each day is relatively short, allowing lots of time for exploring the gorgeous scenery, taking in the views, or adding fun little hikes or spur routes.
The first day is a lot of descending and goes fast! We didn’t really get riding until 11am (after an interview and packing the bikes) and made it to camp by 6pm. This was with multiple stops to shoot and film portions of the trail repeatedly. My point is - the riding isn’t hard or strenuous, especially on Day 1. Mainly nice gravel roads, a little bit of singletrack, a short hike-a-bike section on the Pacific Crest Trail, and a fun descent on new asphalt.
One highlight of Day 1 is Little Crater Lake. This strange geological formation is a super deep, spring-fed lake that is crystal clear blue. It’s about a half-mile off of the PCT, so if you’re on that trail, I highly recommend a quick detour to see this beauty.
The route takes you around Timothy Lake, which has an abundance of both reservable and dispersed camping options. We stayed at a reserved spot, but if I was doing the route again on my own, I would choose to stay at one of the dispersed camping spots right along the lake. We passed by a number of these and they looked absolutely stunning. (Disclaimer: we were there on a Monday/Tuesday, and they were nearly all empty. I have no idea if they get full other times of the summer.)
Gourmet breakfast care of the Oregon Field Guide team. Thanks Todd!
My favorite part of the ride was suprisingly Day 2. Kailey had warned me that most of the day would be climbing and she wasn’t wrong. We spent the first half of the day riding some of the most gorgeous, loamy, single track I’ve been on, which quickly led into a 2 hour climb. But somehow through all this gravel riding and racing I’ve been doing this summer I’ve come to enjoy and appreciate climbing. I found myself actually enjoying really some long, tough climbs that I previously would’ve been cursing.
Bizarre, but I’ll take it.
Before I knew it the camera crew was cheering us on as we approached the final descent of the trip. As we rounded the final bend, a gorgeous view of Mt. Hood came into view. We celebrated at the shore of Frog Lake for a while, reflecting on our trip.
Honestly, there’s not much I would change! I think I finally learned how to pack appropriately for a bikepacking trip - I wore literally every single piece of clothing I took, I ate nearly all my food, and didn’t have too much excess stuff. I’m going to call it a win!
My bikepacking setup
Here are some details of what I took:
Bicycle: Velo Orange Piolet
Tires: SimWorks SuperYummy 26 x 2.22 set up tubeless
Bags:
Ortlieb Handlebar Bag with Accessory Pack
Camping Gear
Tent: Nemo Dragonfly Bikepacking Tent
Sleeping Bag: Nemo Forte Women’s 35 Degree Bag
Sleeping Pad: Nemo Flyer Insulated Pad - Regular Wide
All Loaded up and Ready to go!
Reflections on the Trip
It’s pretty amazing how far we’ve both come in a year - from our first trip together on the C2C trail to this trip. I’ve grown as an athlete, an ambassador, and as a businesswoman.
I think the industry has also grown a lot too. I’ll do a future post on this, but we’ve held over 10 All Bodies on Bikes events in less than a year, launched a website, and a community with over 5,000 strong.
I think it really hit home on this trip how big of an impact we’re having with the All Bodies on Bikes work. We ran into two different families on the trip who knew us - one at Little Crater Lake and another during a massive climb.
Meeting these families and hearing them talk about how they watched our film together as a family during lockdown with their 12 year old (and were now out bikepacking together) really hit home that ‘dang, our message is getting out there.’ So thank you all for your support, your encouragement, and I’ll be sure to link to the OPB segment when it’s released!
Land Acknowledgement
I’d like to acknowledge and thank the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and the Cascades Tribe for allowing us to recreate on their traditional lands.