Michelle Hildebrand participated in the 2020-2021 session of BaseCamp, and she shared her story of the Oregon Trail Grinder event the summer following.
Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder is in the books! Five days of climbing, rocks, sand, deep gravel, and the occasional smooth section covering 350 miles and 32 kilometers of climbing. This "race" was downright hard and still type three fun in my mind.
My prep was not ideal: finishing Unbound two and a half weeks before and then taking twelve days off the bike due to saddle sores. I thrive on routine, so being unable to ride for that long threw me off. Given that, I felt pretty flat throughout the ride but was so thankful to be able to finish the event and meet other likeminded folks to share the suffering with, plus central Oregon is beautiful!
If you’re looking for a really challenging multi-day event, this might be the one! Although there were many of us out there just looking to finish, the overall strength of riders was the highest I’ve seen at an event. Seeing true racers (like Serena Bishop Gordon, who CRUSHED it) hammer up and down the course was damn impressive.
Thanks to those of you who already reached out with congratulations…love the BaseCamp community!