You may regret asking that question now that you see the small book I'm posting in response, haha, but here's everything you didn't ask about, and more...

The Oregon Timber trail spans the state of Oregon vertically. This particular ride I'm going on is a bikepacking wilderness ride starting July 13th. It's all dirt, riding along the mountain spine going south to north, starting in Lakeview near the border with California and ending at Hood River at the border with the state of Washington. We'll pass through Oakridge and Sisters but will miss (avoid?) all of the major cities. Just under 700 miles with nearly 70k feet of elevation gain (a couple of Mt. Everests and then some). 62% single track/hiking trails (my favorite!) and the rest jeep trails, gravel roads, and some pavement I'm sure. So far, 5 people (all men, so get to it, ladies!) have signed up to do the "grand depart", with 3 of those attempting to race it as an ITT (intermittent time trial). Not me. I'm going to enjoy myself, whether I stay with the group or not. My timeline is fluid. I don't know any of the others and (so far) none of my mountain biking friends have said they're joining me. All who have signed up so far are from Oregon, so I'm coming the longest distance to do this so far. Been wanting to do it for years, and I've donated money to help fund trail creation and maintenance. I suspect more will sign up, but many will only be trying to do the 300mi version and others may drop out early. It will be interesting to meet everyone and try to get them all to join the CCA on our long journey.

I will carry around 30lbs of gear and water in my backpack, and another 50lbs on my bike. I'm attaching some pics below showing what I took on my previous rides. I've been trying to get 20mi/day in road rides plus weightlifting 6 days/week, but have been vacationing and slacking off of late. But honestly, 20 miles avg per DAY is not that big of a deal. I mean, I have literally ALL DAY to ride as far as I feel like riding. Again, I'm not racing, just riding. There will likely be times I'll be pushing or carrying my bike up the hill or over rocks. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll do some trail riding with a 30lb dumbell in my backpack and some mock loads on my bike to get me ready for those steeper grinding climbs under load. I am nowhere near the weight I did those other rides at. I also turned 60 in March and had an ankle replacement in Fall 2022, fixing a 30yr arthritis problem caused by a displaced tib-fib injury in 1991.

I've done 2 "epic" bike rides like this in the past, both solo except for a couple tag-along friends/family for short segments. The first was in 2015 when I rode from Reno NV to Roseville CA and back (3 days down, 3 days up). The second was in 2017 when I did a big circuit of Northern California for 12 days. Verdi NV to Susanville CA to Chester CA to Chico CA to Oroville CA to Yuba City CA to Collins Reservoir to Bullards Bar Reservoir and lastly to Nevada City CA. I mashed my index finger on some rip rap rocks along the lake when I stood up to go back to camp at Bullard's bar on day 11. I should have poked a hole in my nail to relieve the pressure, but incorrectly assumed it wasn't that bad. Slept about an hour that night and didn't have any cell signal until I rode about 10mi along the lake to Camptonville CA and called my wife for pickup. She was heading to Elk Grove for our niece's bday, so I rode 30mi to Nevada City and ended my trip there.

I take 1 or 2 gopro type cameras on my rides, but I'll probably just do one this trip for weight reasons. One on my chest (always) and one on my handlebars (maybe). I'll carry 2 or 3 batteries for each plus a ~30,000mah battery pack, which has a solar charger that I strap to my backpack while I ride to regen the battery during the day. I have 30 hours of video from my Reno-Roseville ride but haven't edited any of it. I have 20 hours of video from the NorCal ride, also unedited. It takes AT LEAST double the video length of time to watch/edit it down to mere minutes of daily video to make it palatable and I just haven't taken the time. I'm sure I'll take another 40-100 hours on this ride and may have to have my wife bring my computer to the halfway point to dump the video and free up my SD cards. Oh, and I'll probably miss her by that time, too, LOL.

I carry an assortment of tools, parts, first aid, water filter, purifier tabs, and safety gear, including bear spray and a pew pew. I normally don't bring a tent, opting to sleep in the open with just a sleeping bag and inflatable pad. If it's raining, I have a slicker and rain pants and can lean up against a tree.

On this trip, I'll have a "Spot" device, which is a sat based tracker. It will be linked to an event tracking site so everyone can check progress of all the registered riders (even you guys!). It also has an SOS feature so I can get airlifted out in an emergency (as long as I can press the button, obviously). If nothing else, it will let authorities know where to start a search if necessary.

I usually publish a daily journal including pics on my facebook page for my friends to follow, but I only friend people I've actually met, so if you try to friend me and we haven't yet met, please don't be ticked off if I decline the request or ignore it until we DO meet. I'll be at the SNCCC Fall show, manning the CCA table. That would be a great way for us to meet and for you to support the SNCCC show at the same time. I MIGHT change my default my post publishing status to "Public" for the duration of the ride, in case any non-friends want to follow me on my journey.

If you read this far, congrats and thanks.

Information on the trail: https://oregontimbertrail.org/ride-the-ott-overview
Previous ride segment information available on Strava. Search for or follow "Barry Sherwood" and search for "NorCal" and "Reno to Roseville" to see my segments.
Other pics of rides or setup or my mashed finger (just looks like any other "you're gonna lose that nail" picture) available on request.

2017 Norcal Ride, Bike Setup

2017 Norcal Ride, departure pic with my lovely wife, Gayle.

2015 Reno->Roseville (and back) Gear

2015 Reno->Roseville (and back) Bike Setup

2015 Reno->Roseville, day 2. My buddy Jason joined me. Here we are at the top of Squaw Valley (now Palisades) Ski Resort and heading to Foresthill CA.