Hot Sisters Hot Spring Loop – Day 0

Day 0. Hot spring count: 0.

We are in Oregon, and (car) camping at hot spring #0. Tomorrow we finally load up the bikes and head out for a good bikepack.

The original plan was to thru-ride the Pacific Northwest Trail, a 1200 mile trail from Glacier NP to Olympia NP. But after seeing the smoke and fire maps for that area, the idea became less and less attractive. It’s one thing to be out on a trip and have smoke pop up. You deal with it. But to know that the majority of a trip could be smokey, and to go seek that out…. well, that’s another. I think Eszter was also deciding that her “BS” (hike-a-bike / difficult conditions) account was not quite looking deep enough for repeated 4000 foot climbs and good probability of very overgrown or non-existent trail. It might have been for the best that we not start making large withdrawls.

So…. what is a poor bikepacking couple to do? We threw around a few ideas, and then one hit me: an Oregon Hot Springs Route! The riding in Oregon, generally, is very bikepack friendly. Minimal hike-a-bike, lots of mellow flowy trail. The promise of eight (or so) hot springs would entice Ez into it, I knew it. Throw in the chance to climb a number of volcanoes on foot, and…. we have a winner!

The goals of the loop are pretty simple:

1 – hit as many natural hot springs as possible
2 – link them up with mucho *good* singletrack
3 – climb big mountains (on foot)
4 – keep the hike-a-bike ‘reasonable’
5 – keep the route a pure loop, if possible
6 – the most important one: spend time together and camp under the stars

Luckily I had already laid some groundwork for this route in the “Oregon Three Rivers Singletrack Tour” which is a route that is described on bikepacking.net. Maybe a couple times a year I get an email from folks thanking me for putting that route together. But I’ve always known it could be better. The original intent of that ride was a big loop that encircled the Three Sisters and rode on both sides of the Cascades. In 2008, when I rode the 3 rivers route, there was too much snow to consider the high country. Not so this year!

The working title for this loop is the ‘Hot Sisters Hot Springs Route’, and the tracker is here:

I spent the better part of a day pointing at maps, splicing and dicing tracks and generally geeking out on TopoFusion, all while chilling at Alexis’s place in Logan (thanka Alexis!). It’s a rough track at best — not exactly thoroughly researched.

Will it all come together? Will it be something we suggest that others ride? Will it become a classic? Or will we fumble around trying to find hot pools and obscure trail connections? Drag our bikes over endless downed trees and get eaten alive by mosquitoes? Who knows — time will tell. We’re going to enjoy finding out, that’s for sure.