Photo by Keita Oodaira & Takashi Inoue / Text by Keita Oodaira
Bonfire Time
A few years ago, I never could have imagined that I would be traveling by bicycle in the United States like this.
You really never know what life will bring.
Looking back, I am deeply moved to think that a series of unexpected encounters and experiences led me here to Oregon, USA.
Throughout this journey, there were many moments when I found myself reflecting on my life in this way.
Almost every night, I would sit around a bonfire, staring into the blazing flames and letting my thoughts wander.
It was a truly luxurious time.
Every night, the bonfire would flare up in no time when we lit some fallen dry leaves, quickly growing into a magnificent fire. We repeatedly gathered fallen branches from around us, trying to keep the fire going as long as possible.
At that time, large wildfires were also occurring in California. Along our route, there were several trails where wildfires had occurred in the past. Given how easily we could start a bonfire, it was easy to imagine that such large wildfires could occur in these dry conditions, and we had to be extremely careful about properly extinguishing the fire. Kyle, my travel companion, also taught me the importance of this. He seemed to have naturally learned from his parents and his upbringing from a young age how important it was to properly extinguish fires.
Before going to bed, we would pour water on the bonfire, make sure it was completely extinguished, and then enter the tent. This became our nightly routine.
The deliciousness of the hamburger brought a smile to my face
By the fourth day of our journey, we had finally become somewhat accustomed to the pace of the trip, or rather, to the way of life.
At first, we woke up with sore muscles and some lingering fatigue, but our bodies gradually adjusted. It was around that time that Inocchi, who had also been having trouble sleeping, said he was finally able to sleep soundly.
There were no incredibly long climbs like the one on the first day, which had been such a grueling start. This was exactly the kind of trail ride we had been hoping for! The smiles on both our faces increased.
After three days, we finally arrived at a place with a lot of people.
Cactus Lake, a resort town along the lake.
It had a restaurant and was the first place where we could resupply. We had been looking forward to this moment. When we went to the restaurant, we ordered hamburgers, French fries, milkshakes, and beer, and they were so incredibly delicious that we ate them with great enthusiasm.
After having had nothing but instant food for a while, we had really been craving a warm meal prepared by someone else, and we truly realized that food can make you feel happy.
Here, we calculated our food supply for the next few days and bought everything we needed.
We ended up buying a little too much because we were worried that if we didn't buy it here, we wouldn't have anywhere else to buy food for another two or three days, but the desire for peace of mind was important.
Feeling American 
Restocking supplies 
It had a great resort feel
While we were resting and looking at the beautiful large lake, some bikepackers in their 50s? came by and talked to us.
According to Kyle, they had apparently come along the same route we were about to take, but there were so many fallen trees that carrying them was difficult, so it had taken them longer than they expected.
With that information, we suddenly changed our plans and decided to take a detour on the road.
We were greatly helped on this journey by such valuable information from fellow travelers.
They told us about the road ahead
We made great progress on the road
To the best campsite on this journey
We continued riding for a while and arrived at Sparks Lake, our campsite for the day.
This campsite had truly magnificent scenery, and it became one of the most memorable campsites on this journey. We were speechless at the overwhelming natural beauty before us and stared at it for a long time.
The next morning, Kyle had picked a purple flower from the bushes and placed it on the table, wedged between two small rocks that had fallen. That alone showed how nice a guy Kyle was.
That really made us feel rich and made it the best breakfast time.
A single flower 
The scenery is amazing 
Breakfast is important
Britenbush Hot Springs
Kyle said we should go to the hot springs on the route map.
We had only vaguely imagined it as a "hot spring," but he told us it seemed like an interesting place. It sounded great! We all wanted to go, and Kyle made a reservation over the phone. At times like this, we were really helped by Kyle's presence because of our lack of English skills.
Three days later, we arrived at our destination much earlier than the 3:00 PM check-in time.
There was a small reception hut at the entrance to the very spacious and pleasant natural grounds. There were many cars parked in the parking lot, but it didn't look like there were many people who would come by bicycle like us. We received a map of the facility and listened to a thorough explanation.
Meals were at 6:00 PM that evening, 8:00 AM the next morning, and 1:00 PM, and we were to go to the lodge at those times.
There were no other rules or requirements.
We were staying in a small cottage with three beds, but apparently, there were no keys to the cottage or anything.
Since check-in was after 3:00 PM, we headed to a nearby river to relax for a while.
It was a place with a mysterious atmosphere, and we were very excited.
As we headed to the river, we heard voices from down the stairs. We carried our food and change of clothes from our bicycles and went down the stairs.
We were so surprised by the sight.
Everyone playing by the river, young and old, was completely naked.
I looked back and urged, "Inocchi, hurry, hurry." I never imagined that there would be naked people at the bottom of the stairs, so we both laughed out loud as we looked down from the stairs. It wasn't in a lewd way, but it was just funny.
We never expected to experience a nudist beach-like culture at this timing. As soon as we got down to the riverbank, Kyle also took off his clothes and jumped into the river. Even I, who can't swim, jumped in. We gradually got used to the situation and relaxed by the river for a while.
Using the map as a guide, we explored the facility and found a meditation building, a yoga room, a sauna, a large kitchen hut accessible only to staff, a souvenir hut, a fire circle, and many other things, as well as several small outdoor baths in the middle of nature.
The hot springs were not large like those in Japan, but there were several small ones that could hold about 5 to 6 people. The hot springs were also mixed-gender and naked, just like the scenery by the river. I was nervous at first, but I quickly got used to it.
We headed to the large lodge that served as the dining hall for the 6:00 PM dinner. When the time came, people gathered in droves, and I think there were probably over 100 people.
The meals were served buffet-style, and everything was a vegetarian style centered on organic vegetables, and everything was incredibly delicious.
For us, who tended to lack vegetables during our journey, it was very welcome, and we took full advantage of it and had several refills of veggie pizza.
After filling our stomachs, we relaxed by the river again, took baths in the hot springs, and spent a lot of time just relaxing in the large garden.
Of course, there was no cell phone reception here, and no Wi-Fi.
Many of the people spending their time there carried books with them and read in whatever place they pleased.
Some people did yoga, while others meditated.
Even if we left our belongings in the cottage without locking it, we didn't feel any worry.
In my interpretation, I thought that this place was probably a kind of sanatorium in that sense. It was probably a place where you deliberately cut off outside information and valued time to slowly face yourself. We also spent a lot of time touching our smartphones whenever we had reception, but here we spent a lot of time spending time in nature and facing ourselves. I think a very peaceful time flowed here. The people who come here probably seek that kind of thing.
We thoroughly loosened up the fatigue from our eight-day journey there, tried our best to relax, and truly felt from the bottom of our hearts that we were really glad to come here.
We woke up after a deep sleep just after 7:00 AM.
The light shining into the forest was so beautiful that we stared blankly at it for a while.
Looking at the clock, it was almost breakfast time, so we quickly got ready and headed to the dining hall. Many people had gathered at the lodge again.
At breakfast, gentle meals such as muffins, yogurt, salad, and soup were lined up. As we were slowly eating, a white man came and talked to us, and when we told him we were on a bicycle trip, he listened very happily, said "good luck," and we parted ways.
During this journey, we had such small encounters again and again, and many people talked to us while we were riding our bicycles. Every time, our hearts were warmed, and we felt glad we came.
The people living in Oregon are very kind. At least everyone we met through this journey was like that.
We gave up on the 1:00 PM lunch this time, and we carefully repacked our belongings again and prepared to depart. We felt so comfortable that we wanted to stay here for several more days, but we made up our minds to definitely come back here again, and we started riding again before afternoon.
But we again suffered at the long climb that followed right after the start, and while thinking that we wanted to return to the paradise-like place we had just been in, we continued to pedal.
We continued our journey while encouraging each other.
BACK TO OREGON TOUR #01
https://circles-jp.com/feature/back-to-oregon-tour-01/
