The Oregon Sweet 6
This year KOMPAS embarked on its first major project: The Oregon Sweet 6 - OS6 for short. OS6 is composed of six, you guessed it, *sweet* adventure bikepacking routes throughout landmark regions of Oregon. Each ride is designed to be completed in a weekend, because you know… life doesn’t always let you take more than a weekend away.
We, Texas and Grayson, designed OS6 to facilitate the people around us to load up their bikes and spend a weekend in the wilderness with the bare essentials, guided by little arrows on their wahoo following our route.
OS6 rides are about forging relationships with place and people.
Photo of campsite from KOMPAS Community Bikepacking Event in June. Deschutes National Forest, OR.
Spending an entire weekend navigating and exploring on two wheels allows you to slow down and become intimate with the landscape. We've found weekends spent this way cultivate experiences and feelings that you simply can't find within the confines of a concrete civilization. Driving home after 36 hours of wilderness immersion leaves you with a deep sense of respect for the place you just explored. A feeling of clarity and gratitude that you can bring back into your day-to-day life.
This connection to place was the catalyst for OS6, except it was missing one crucial component: friends. We didn’t just want to share these stories with people. We wanted to embark on the journey together and share the experience. We wanted to create meaningful memories with others, forge friendships based on trust, and see the smiles of others light up as we stare out across an ocean of rolling hills and forest from atop a ridge line.
Our intention with this project is to build a community of bikers through facilitating bikepacking to spread the good word.
Photo of riders from KOMPAS Community Bikepacking Event in June. Deschutes National Forest, OR.
We’ll admit it, bikepacking is daunting at first but the weekends spent on OS6 are some of the best. We want to get riders hooked on bikepacking the same way we did. We want you to come along, and invite your friends. We want to enable an inclusive space for others to connect with each other and the environments we’re so lucky to ride our bikes through.
Come with us as we demystify bikepacking, bring people together, and share the stories of those we meet along the way.
We’ll help answer all your essential questions about routes and gear, and share our mistakes and failures so they don’t have to be repeated. Let's ride.
Photo of riders on Lookout Mountain trail. Ochoco National Forest, OR.
