Our friends at Rapha USA have a cool brevet ride planned next weekend. On Saturday we're riding from Portland to Pacific City, staying overnight in hotels and riding back to Portland on Sunday. 210 miles and about 10,000 feet of climbing over two days. Cynics will say “Oh Rapha is doing bikepacking” but they're not. They've always been inspired by randonneuring, and frame bags have been adopted by long distance riders like those racing the Trans Am Bike Race or the Transcontinental Race from London to Istanbul. I love both road riding and bikepacking, so with this format I can enjoy both. I'm less interested in putting a label on my riding and more interested in creative days on the bike. Honestly most of my riding is road, because I believe in riding door to door. That's the real challenge. Go ride your bike without driving your car. Take the train or bus and come home under your own power or vice versa. In the meantime, enjoy some snaps from our recon of the route below. It really is beautiful.

I'm excited about this ride because it's a cool chance to play with minimal packing, essentially credit card touring- and that's new for me! I'm shooting the ride, so my challenge will be to ride the 210 miles with camera gear and stay fresh enough to take photos of the ride. The ride goes through Carlton, OR at mile 50, so folks can have lunch there before the real climbing and remoteness begins. It's not all that remote in the bikepacking or hiking sense of being out in the wilderness for days, but there are no services until Beaver at mile 92. The ride is challenging. We did it as a recon ride last Monday and Tuesday. I think we all felt relatively fit going into the ride, but Tim decided to backcountry ski to the top of St. Helens a day or two before our ride, so he may have handicapped himself slightly. Jeffrey forgot to charge his Di2 battery, so he was stuck in one (easy) gear for the majority of the ride back to Portland. I broke a rear wheel spoke on my rear wheel as soon as we hit Cornelius, so I had fun riding a wobbler back to town. Also, our weather has been great, so any amount of rain could make the ride much harder, and as we learned anything can happen in 210 miles.

And now for the Knolling Let's take a look at what I'm bringing. First is my overnight kit, then my on-bike kit

Overnight kit

Montbell EX Light Down Anorak

Icebreaker Merino underwear

Icebreaker Long Sleeve Anatomica shirt

Rapha Merino Leg Warmers

7Mesh Glidepath Shorts

The Athletic Socks

Chamois Butter packet (for day2)

Toiletries - toothbrush, toothpaste, sunscreen, ibuprofen, arnica tablets, contact case, earplugs

Homemade oatmeal packet

Homemade espresso+cocoa packet

OSMO protein packet (recovery for end of day 1)

Nike Free running shoes

PDW Aether Demon blinky light

2 spare spokes - 1 driveside, 1 non-driveside

Apidura saddle pack (compact)

On-bike Kit

2 Revelate Mountain feedbags

Oakley Jawbreaker Sunglasses

Giro Aeon helmet

Icebreaker Merino beanie

Rapha Pro Team Softshell gloves

Rapha Cap

Garmin 500

Iphone 6 with Gaia for Navigation

Tool kit (ZPacks Phablet zip pouch) - spare tube, Topeak mini tool, Pedros lever, Park super patch kit

Canon 5D Mark iii with 35 and 50 mm lens

4 homemade “Flax your muscles” bars

1 Lara AltProtein Bar 1 Bear Naked Peanut Butter bar (super deal at Grocery Outlet)

1 Trail butter Expedition Espresso packet

6 Osmo Hydration packets

Haribo Gummi bears

Homemade Salmon Jerky