Time, or the concept of Time at least, can be considered infinite at the cosmic level. At the individual level though, time is finite. We’re each “here” only for a certain amount of time so deciding how you wish to use that time and spend that time is important.

I cherish my free time. I also want to spend it with family and friends, doing things I love. Until I win the lottery, that thing that gives me a salary (and lets me buy bikes) takes up 40+ hours a week which eats into a chunk of my time. Throw in errands and adulting (at least I get to do most of this stuff with Mia by my side) and that free time starts to dwindle more and more. How I spend the rest of it is important.

After only a single overnight bikepacking trip in 2025, I promised myself 2026 would be different. The chance for a weeklong trip is dwindling by the day due to other commitments and friends’ availability. After three overnight trips to Stub Stewart State Park so far this year I was itching for something a bit more challenging. I poked around various websites and narrowed my search to something that was within a two-hour drive of home. As much as I want to pedal off into the yonder right from my front door, maximizing the fun factor and keeping a trip to a single weekend, meant looking a bit further afield.

I basically settled on the Mt Hood area and found this particular route on ridewithgps.com. Colby said he was in too. Starting day one at Frog Lake and going out around the Timothy Lake area before camping along the lake shore, then finishing up with some decent climbing on day two. Just long enough to make it fun (i.e. kinda hard) but not so long that we’d be smoked by the time we finished.

The first few miles are generally downhill and follow the snowmobile super highway that is used in the winter. We had to contend with at least 7-8 blowdowns before a short jaunt on a paved forest road. Then it was back onto some gravel roads for a bit.

Oddly enough we saw several sets of panniers just lying along the forest road in between various blowdown sections. It seemed a tad strange until we came upon a couple on bikes going in the opposite direction to us. They asked if we’d seen a pannier (or two).

As Colby and I navigated all those blowdowns we ran into several groups of folks also bikepacking. The questions they asked us about seeing other people behind us inferred that they were one large group. I would hazard to guess it looked like 10-12 people heading out for some overnight trip. The lost luggage and seeing a guy and gal looking for them seemed to answer their questions about the location of the rest of their group. I sure hope they got all situated and reformed at some point.

Colby and I rolled along a mix of paved, gravel and slightly abandoned looking forest roads until we popped out on Skyline Sno Park. The next ~20 miles of riding are super familiar to me from the various activities up here over the years. We cut through Little Crater Lake CG and had a brief sojourn on the Pacific Crest Trail before the Timothy Lake Trail and riding out behind Clackamas Lake CG and then Miller Trail to Timothy Lake itself.

Time for camp

I’d been aware of the dispersed campsites around the lake but never really had need or reason to partake in them. Mia, Codi and I have stayed at the established campgrounds around the lake multiple times. There are 40 dispersed sites to choose from. Colby and I had the assumption that the sites closest to the parking lot near the dam would be taken, basically because people are lazy and don’t want to walk in too far. It wasn’t until we got to site 16 that we actually found one not occupied. Instead of chancing it and hoping another was available, we decided to take the first one we could find.

At this point we were already 28 miles into the ride and more than halfway through the loop. It was really a decent place to stop for the day.

There was not a lot of level spots in this site. We had to get a bit creative with tent choices but made it work. It was big and it was relatively secluded so definitely had that going for it.

I think the biggest surprise of the weekend for me was learning that there are otters living in Timothy Lake. I watched five of them glide by our campsite diving for their breakfast. One even paused and stared right at me with his(or her) adorable little face.

Day Two

Little coffee, little food and then we were on our way around 10am or so. We were able to stop at North Arm CG to drop off our trash which was super convenient. Also topped off the water bottles before starting a whole bunch of climbing for the next 23 miles.

While Saturday ended with a bunch of singletrack, Sunday was more gravel roads than anything else. There were a couple of surprises like Abbott Rd cutting between FR5880 and FR240. That was a fun section of road in there.

We were back at the car right around 1pm and after a quick stop at Mt Hood Roasters I got Colby home and I was rolling into my driveway just after 3pm. Time well spent! Hanging with a friend and doing something I love. Perfect way to use some of my precious free time.
I had a couple learning moments during this ride. I should have brought a bit more ride/snack food for day two. Colby whipped out a bagel with jelly and all I had left was a Larabar and some gorp. A few more carbs would have been good. Same with a powdered drink mix. I started Saturday with a camelbak filled with water and a 20oz bottle with some electrolytes. Having another package or two for campsite and Sunday riding would have been a smarter move.

All in all, it was a good loop. Not too hard but hardly boring. I’d love to do it with a few more people, ideally no more than 5 at most. As we witnessed with the lost pannier group, anything bigger than that feel like it starts to get unwieldy.

Thanks for reading,
-Pete