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My son Danny (Fenix on the site) and I just got back from Oregon and participating in the Giant Loop Ride near Burns, Oregon. I thought I would give a rundown on the ride and the trip. Giant Loop makes all sorts of bike bags and accessories and is based in Bend Oregon. They sponsor an annual 3 day dual sport/adventure ride staged from Crystal Crane Hot springs, 25 miles east of Burns, Oregon. The Trip Danny, while searching for saddle bag options came upon their site saw the upcoming annual ride. My daughter in law took care of organizing everything from hotel reservations to searching Yelp for the best restaurants along the way. Being way further than either of us wanted to ride our 450s, we trucked the bikes up. It is just about 1000 miles from Yuma so we spent 2 days up, 2 in Oregon and 2 days back. A stop in Vegas along the way made for a nice start of the trip. The Operation/Facilities The Giant Loop people are great and do an awesome job supporting the ride. Danny’s bike was missing the spark arrester (bad design on the 2010 Exc’s). The only one we could find between Yuma and Oregon happened to be in Bend, Oregon. While checking in with Harold, the organizer, we mentioned we were going to get set up then make the 5 hour round trip to get the arrester. (Not sure how much of a problem it was going to be with rangers but we absolutely did not want to be the ones to burn down eastern Oregon.) Harold made a couple of calls and had one of his people pick it up and bring it to us, saving us the trip. Really nice people. Crystal Crane Hot Springs is a small campground probably a quarter the size of Butterfield. They have a room for trailers, some cabins and nice grassy area for tents. The campground is surrounded by pasture and a herd of cows. Never smelled them but did hear them mooing occasionally. Beautiful view of the surrounding hills. The staff is very courteous and professional. They have the usual forgotten items and ice for sale in the office and a very nice community meeting area. There is natural hot spring pond and showers to use. Great Loop brought in a food truck and a tow along smoker which provided dinner and breakfast for Friday night through Sunday morning. ½ smoked chicken for dinner Friday followed by prime rib on Saturday. Delicious food. Full breakfast each morning. They even had a beer truck with kegs of Deschutes IPA and Pale ale (brewed in Bend) that they tapped each evening. Can it get any better than that? Medical support was provided by Adventure Medics. They are professional EMTs who provide full support for events like these. Friday afternoon they put on a 45 minute class on how to deal with injuries likely to be found on the trail. How to assess and how to handle issues until help arrived. It was great info and encouraged me to get more training going forward. The Ride The ride is in Eastern Oregon which is high desert. There were several different loops that you could take allowing you to see different things and put in as many miles as you felt comfortable doing. Dan and I put in 235 miles. We combined a couple of loops north of camp that took us into the hills. Sweeping views, lots of cows and horses, a few snakes. We both just missed some furry thing that charged out of the weeds that I can only guess was some kind of enraged badger. After lunch we took a southern loop that circled a wildlife preservation area. The entire ride was on street, truck trails, gravel roads and some jeep trails. Nothing to challenging and we were able to keep a pretty quick pace all day. I fully plan to go back up there again but after I get a larger bike, ride up all the way and have more time to explore. Most of the riders were on big bikes and carried all their camping gear with them. Weather was fantastic, in the 70’s during the day and cold enough at night to enjoy a fire. The people Everyone we came across in eastern Oregon was very nice. From the waitresses to the hotels and camping staff, everyone had a smile and acted like they were happy to see you. We spent each night at the campground talking to 3 Canadians who had ridden down to the ride on WR250s, camping in the mountains along the way. When we stopped at Tonopah to spend the night on our trip home, we found a group of 20 riders on the first day of a 3 day ride from bishop staying at the same hotel. We closed down the brewery across the street with a few of them, drinking and swapping ride stories. Great people everywhere we went. The summation I am lucky to have a few close friends who ride and I enjoy my time with each of them. But there is something very special to be able to do this with one of my grown kids. Danny suggested this ride as an early Father’s day/Birthday present to me. It would be hard to imagine a better one. Honestly, a couple of years ago, between mechanical and physical frustrations, I was beginning to wonder if I was done with riding. After a really enjoyable Desert Dash and this trip, I feel rejuvenated. God willing I will be doing this for 20 more years. It’s not just about the bike or the ride; it’s about the experiences we can share. I had a great one this week.