First Overnight Trip – Western Washington (Iron Horse Trail)

Just finished up my first overnight trip using my old mountain bike from high school. I started near North Bend and took the Iron Horse/Palouse to Cascades trail heading east. It was \~25 miles to the campsite. Really beautiful area and the trail takes you through a cool railroad tunnel.

This was a VERY budget setup and I used mainly what I already had at home. I like to backpack so most of my camping gear is decently lightweight, it was just a matter of getting it attached to the bike. In the end, a gym bag ended up being the best fit due to having good space and fewer dangling straps. I used paracord to lash the duffel to my rear rack and it was surprisingly stable. The handlebar bag is some no-name bag i found in my closet, also attached with paracord. Looks a little goofy/ghetto but it worked mostly fine.

I’m still working on getting into biking shape so that 25 miles (most of which was up a gentle incline) was killer. Downhill on the way back, though, was heavenly. My main complaint was the soreness of my sit bones, taint and wrist after about mile 10. I’m going to tweak my ergos a bit to see if I can get some more relief but I expected some discomfort since this was my longest ride in years.

Lastly, I’m glad I came prepared with my tools and an extra tube. I woke up in camp to my rear tire flat and spent at least half an hour changing it out. In my grogginess, I accidentally reinstalled the same tube that had the puncture instead of the new tube right next to it. Then, after swapping them out realized that I had installed the tire the wrong way around (rotation arrow backwards). Third time was the charm. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed that my tire was going flat again and I eventually saw a tiny sliver of wire that had gotten stuck in my tire.

I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to testing out my space horse on the trails (picking it up next week!).

[https://imgur.com/a/g6iQWBe](https://imgur.com/a/g6iQWBe)

by gtN1