Check Ride - Palouse to Cascades Trail

Meeting Place is Cedar Falls Trailhead near Rattlesnake Lake. Time to be determined and announced to course participants ahead of the trip

This is a required one day field trip to do a shakedown of your bikepacking gear (bags and all overnight gear), test ride your loaded bike and gauge your current fitness riding a loaded bike.  Total mileage  planned is 12-18 miles round trip.

At check-in, please be ready to go and show us how you have your bike set up for an overnighter. Instructors will be there to help and provide advice, but it is up to the students to bring the necessary gear and bike attachments.

After everyone has checked in, we will have a trailhead meeting and answer additional questions. We will then ride a few miles along the trail to a nice open area where we will practice setting up camp and using our camping gear. After we eat lunch, we will re-pack our bikes and return to the trailhead parking lot. The ride may include additional mileage along the trail.

The primary objectives are as follows:

• Practice fitting gear and contents on the bike
• Feel how the bike handles with overnight gear loaded.
• Evaluate the gear, the mounting mechanisms, how it handles on the bike
• Gain an idea how long it takes to pack and unpack
• Gauge fitness
• Ride in a group and understand group dynamics
• Share ideas and gain  feedback from others