05/29/2025
The Oregon Outback Bikepacking Route was everything an adventure requires. Landscapes, desolation, difficult and unpredictable. The more I do these trips, the more significance I find. I leave these types of trips learning what my body is capable of by pushing it to limits I didn’t know I have. I leave with gold nuggets of what’s important in my life, sometimes new and others just gentle reminders. I leave with appreciation for small things. Overall, it’s not just a bike ride, it’s the most physically difficult soul searching I’ve found so far.
When I finished my ride at a campground, I came across a chatty couple in their late 70’s. We ended up talking for a couple hours while I waited for my ride home. They reminisced on the times their bodies could do something like this. Dave told me about a time he chased down a wild hog for 45 minutes and caught it with his bare hands, tied it up with his belt, and tried to take it home to his passengers disagreement. But he associated it to the “days when he was a real man” and how today his body can’t do anything like that. I find significance in that story, because we only have one shot at this life, and our bodies are built to do amazing things we don’t think are possible, but only for a short amount of time.
Get out there and do something that makes you feel uncomfortable.