Bikepacking the Pine Mountain Observatory Loop || 79 MILES || PNW Weekender

I rode the Pine Mountain Observatory loop clockwise on 5/15 and 5/16. I had a lot of trouble finding overnight parking. Maybe I was missing something but the suggested parking area now has 4 hour parking limits. I parked a little ways off route and ended up doing the route clockwise. Day 1: Overall I had a really great time on the route. Going clockwise, day 1 had a lot of tarmac. It is also a lot easier to climb up to Pine Mountain on the gravel road from this direction. I got to the observatory around 2:00 PM with no one around. There are quite a lot of camping opportunities leading up to the observatory, at the observatory, and just leaving the observatory. A few parties ended up trickling in over the course of the evening. Day 2: Day 2 had much more gravel and single track. I was happy to be trending down on this terrain because going UP would have been far less fun. (In particular the sandy single track) I did a detour to explore one of the caves... In retrospect, I wish I’d have checked them all out a