BikePacking Cherry....Oregon Outback - Partial

I went on my very first bikepacking trip this past week and gained a new appreciation for how to pack a bike for 4-5 days of touring/camping.  Nick at Fatback was kind enough to build up a demo bike for me to take on the trip and I have to admit it was the right tool for the job!

It was a Fatback frame built up with a 1x11 drivetrain and a wheel set that included a tubeless 3.0 Gnard set up....time to pop the cherry with the 29r+ bike and bike packing...and what a way to do it.  The most amazing thing about the setup is how well it rolled...the tubeless 29r + was da' biznass!

The idea was to try and put as much weight on the bike as possible...it included a frame bag, a handlebar bag, a big seat bag, and a bag on top of the top tube (pic below).  I packed the heavy stuff in the bike frame bag, the sleeping gear in the handlebar bag, clothes in the seat bag, and some quick access stuff in the 'gas tank' on top of the top tube.  I had some additional goodies on my back but this seemed to be the right way to rollllll.

This set up weighed in at over 50 lbs !  I was curious as to how that weight would roll while trying to pedal.  I also had a pack on the back that carried about 15 lbs or so of weight.  The plan was to ride the first 1/2 of the Oregon Outback route and then head back towards home.

We got picked up in Bend, dropped off in Klamath Falls and then headed on our merry way back to Bend.   The overall route ended up being about 230 miles (my Garmin battery gave out about 5 miles from home).  The 230 miles was done over a 4 day period, but in just over 72 hrs so we ended up getting a lot of miles in just a little over a 3 day time period (4 calendar days vs a 3 day time period).  Day 1 was around 40, Day 2 was around 50, Days 3 & 4 were around 70 each.  20+ hrs of saddle time that left me a little grumpy with my saddle...mostly because of the extra weight on the back and extra pressure on the sit bones.

It was four days of touring a part of Oregon up close that I was not super familiar with so I was psyched to get down with the 50+ lb beast.  I was especially curious to ride through the Fremont National Forest as I heard great things about the area.

We had a loose plan and figured it might changed based on weather, water, conditions, and the body.  More day by day details to come but the high level route from start to finish is below: