Behind the Scenes: Filming the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway

It is hard to believe, but it has almost been a year to the day since we rode the Old West Scenic Bikeway. For the unfamiliar, it is part of Oregon’s innovative Scenic Bikeway program, which is designed as an economic development tool for small towns to attract the growing bicycling travel market. Of all the bicycling initiatives and programs in Oregon (there are a lot!), the Scenic Bikeway program is nearest and dearest to our hearts. It captures the essence of what we experienced during our years on the road. Small towns and rural places are awesome for bicycle travel and the exchange can be mutually beneficial – small towns get tourism dollars and bike tourists get amazing riding experiences.

This summer, we get to work on an awesome project that combines both our love of bike travel and storytelling! Partnering with TravelOregon and the local communities, we’ll be riding, filming, photographing and telling the story of each of the Scenic Bikeways. It’s an amazing assignment that will put all our skills (both in bicycling and media creation) to the test! Since filming the OWSB a year ago, we’ve jumped headlong into video production, doing a handful of film projects with local organizations (Clever Cycles, Hop in The Saddle, Adventure Cycling) and honing our skills.

We just finished filming the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway this weekend and we are currently editing the video. Looking at the footage, it’s amazing what a difference a year makes! We’ve improved technically and have added a few tools to our video toolkit to increase production value. While our video kit is fairly small compared to what others use, it is bigger than when we road the OWSB.

McKenzie is a fairly short Scenic Bikeway with only one real climb. Since we didn’t need any camping gear, I decided to pull out all the stops and bring a tripod, slider and a jib! The first challenge was simply to figure out how to carry all equipment! I contemplated using our Burley Travoy, but a week before we left, I decided instead to make bike scabbards for the tripod and monopod. Setting up a tripod once or twice a day isn’t a big deal, but those minutes spent setting-up quickly become hours when you do it 100 times. I fashioned some crude missile-silo-looking scabbards out of PVC pipe, steel pannier hooks and bungees. The idea was that I could just stop the bike, pull out a monopod and grab some quick B-roll, without dismounting. Not elegant, but very functional. To make sure they wouldn’t fall apart in the middle of McKenzie Pass (and to get into shape), I rode with the rig up and down Mt. Tabor in Portland.

Of course, you can prepare all you want, but you won’t know what the actual conditions are going to be at a shoot until you show up. Driving over Mt. Hood to get to Sisters, things were not looking promising. The “dry side” of Oregon was anything but dry. In fact, it was down right raining. We contemplated what we would do the next day if it was raining, but opted to not make any hasty decisions until the morning. It was a gambit. If we canceled the shoot, all the time spent in pre-production, arranging of talent, accommodations and shuttles would all go down the drain. Fortunately, the next morning, the sky looked a little less threatening. There were still clouds, but there were also patches of blue. After a quick breakfast, we decided to go for it. We shot some footage of the talent checking out of their cabin at the beautiful Five Pine lodge, loading their bikes and pushing off. Then we all saddled up and headed toward McKenzie Pass.

The McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway is unique in that there is a brief window of time when a portion of the route is open to cyclists and closed to cars. The dates are different every year, due to snow levels. This year, it opened early to cyclists and will be closed off to cars until June 16th (which means you still have time to get out there and ride it!). This is the best time to experience the Bikeway (and was also the best time for us to film it). The ride itself is fairly mellow. Although you are constantly gaining elevation, the inclines are never very steep (at least going from East to West). Some of the highlights include the eerie lava landscape near the summit and the very surreal Dee Wright Observatory.

Through most of the day, we benefited from intermittent sun breaks, and that is when I would pull out the cameras and start shooting. Our talent for the video, Kristen and Jake, were good sports about riding back and forth in front of the camera. (These sorts of assignments are a mixed blessing: Yes, we are riding our bikes in amazing country, but it’s still work.) As we rode, I was constantly scanning for the best viewpoint and mentally ticking off the shots we would need for continuity. I was trying my best to get everything in a single take (I would shoot video and Laura shot stills), because the weather continually threatened to get worse and I knew I wanted to get to the summit before it started raining. About 3 miles from the top, we encountered some cyclists coming down, who told us they got snow and sleet after Windy Point.

When we got to Windy Point, the clouds were thick and we were buffeted by some really cold winds. We had taken a gamble in the morning and now that we were close to the top, we had to decide again what we were going to do. We had been lucky all day with a patch of blue sky that followed us up the climb, so we pushed on despite the warnings from the cyclists. Just as we were within spitting distance from Dee Wright, we had another sun break. We staged a few vignettes, and then it started raining (and even snowing a little bit). We quickly hustled into the observatory, set up a lunch sequence with the talent (getting all the shots as fast as possible because a cold wind was whipping through the windows), and then quickly inhaled a real lunch.

The descent down the west side was cold and wet, but about two-thirds of the way down the mountain, we got a few more sun breaks. We really wanted to do justice to the ride, despite the wet conditions. We were all slowly counting down the miles until the hot springs at the end. When we got to Belknap, we shot some arrival footage, a few quick details of the space, and the talent enjoying the hot pool – and then we sunk in and relaxed (and warmed up). After getting the hotspring footage and soaking for a few minutes, we took off for dinner at Takoda’s in the nearby community of Rainbow. We chatted with the friendly owner who also happened to be on Big Brother, listened to some local music, and enjoyed a hearty dinner.

The next day, we had to shoot some pickup footage in Sisters, and we had an amazing lunch at Open Door.

Jake and Kristin left that afternoon, but we were planning to stay in Bend for a few more days to do some mountain biking. Of course, two days after the talent left, the weather was absolutely stunning! We decided to ride back up to Dee Wright (and sadly forgo hitting the trails) to shoot more pickup shots of scenery and the lava landscape. (There are worst things to do for work than having to ride up a stunning mountain pass twice in a week.) We got some great beauty shots of the Cascades and also managed to capture a curious little chipmunk inspecting our bikes.

When we got back to Portland, I backed up and reviewed the footage, and then the real work began. Beautiful footage really doesn’t amount to much without a story, so we started writing the script (with the help of a few beers). The script writing is one of the toughest parts. Since each video is only 2 minutes long, each word has to be carefully selected to move the story along. After about a day and a half of script writing, Laura searched for music. We recorded her voice over, and I started assembling it all in Final Cut. For some, the editing process can be maddening, but I really enjoy it. There is something supremely satisfying when all the visual and aural media come together to make perfect little moments. I love photography, but more and more I am drawn to video. It is so challenging but fulfilling creatively!

Now, the video is in the hopper and is off for final approval. We’re hoping to release it soon to get people out to ride McKenzie Pass. It really is spectacular and we’re excited to be part of telling its story.

Oregon’s Bike Friendly Business Program

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the video projects we’ve been working on. Oregon is about to launch the nation’s first state-wide bike friendly business recognition program targeted specifically towards bike travelers. This is huge! With a new study that cites that bicycling contributes $400 MILLION dollars a year (a little more than a million dollars a day), Oregon is getting serious about making it even easier for people to come to the state and recreate by bike.

We’ve been tasked with interviewing businesses who are bike friendly (and have seen the economic rewards of welcoming cyclists) and creating a piece to inspire other businesses around the state. We’ve had a chance to sit down with business owners large and small, from a B&B in Salem to the VP of operations at Chris King to the head roaster at Stumptown. Although we’ve got a few solid interviews in the can, we really want to knock this video out of the park. It really is becoming a passion project. So if you’re a business in Oregon (specifically a lodging property, restaurant or retail) that is bike friendly, contact us for a possible interview!

USBRS Campaign Video

We love Adventure Cycling. It was a few issues of Adventure Cyclist loaned by a friend that got us really into bike touring. We were excited when they asked us to create a campaign video for their US Bicycle Route System, a signed series of roads that are meant to criss-cross the country. The campaign went live yesterday and below is the video we made.

Support the USBRS today!

And Now for Something Completely Different: The Dutchtub

Things have been a bit crazy at PLP headquarters. We are jumping headlong into a ton of different bicycle themed video projects (more on those later). One of the short pieces we just completed was a short web video for Clever Cycles to advertise their Dutchtub rental service. It was great to work with Clever Cycles and our friend Brock from The Sprocket Podcast who provided his voice talent and burgeoning acting skills. What we’re slowly learning about video (neither of us were trained in this field) is that it’s A LOT of work for just a few seconds, but you sort of have to accept that. We’ve essentially been giving ourselves a crash course in video production the last few months with Laura taking on the producer/interviewer/sound recordist role and with me as DP/camera operator/editor. Perhaps the most satisfying thing about this Clever Cycles spot (aside from the fact it was absolutely hilarious to film) was seeing the storyboards come to life.

I had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted it to look like (flat, 2D, tongue-in-cheek) and the visual setup for the punchline with Dean from Clever Cycles wearing a chef’s hat. To see it all come together was extremely gratifying (to make it flow in the edit was extremely time consuming ).

In typical Portland fashion it threatened to rain all day. We almost canceled the shoot, but it would have been too hard to reschedule everyone again so we just went for it. The weather held out as we shot all the b-roll of setting up the Dutchtub and getting it ready for Brock to step in. OF COURSE, a few minutes before we were about to start shooting Brock’s speaking parts on camera it starts raining! Once Brock was in the tub he was the warmest person on set while we were all in our rain jackets trying to complete the shoot. I had some scripted lines for the opening that we tried out and then just started to ad lib, feeding Brock lines. The one that made the edit (“Nine months out of the year, the weather in Portland, Oregon sucks..”) was actually the last line we tried and came out of the frustration of the rain that was soaking the camera equipment. Thankfully, it worked.

” alt=”" />

Filming the closing sequence with Dean in the chef’s hat was hilarious. If you look really closely at the video, you can see Dean accidentally drop the shrimp in the tub. The ensuing laughter didn’t make the final edit, but I left in the falling shrimp as a little Easter egg for the eagle eyed. If this project has taught us anything in video production is it’s good to have a plan, but it’s also good to be able to break the plan if it feels right…and also, to bring an umbrella to cover the camera when it rains.

Technical: For the camera nerds out there, here’s what we used for the shoot. GH2, 20mm 1.7, 45mm 1.8, Genus Variable ND filter, Benro S4 Tripod, Zoom H1, Sennheiser MKE-400 and a Burley Travoy to carry all the gear to the site. When you buy the gear from the affiliate links it helps us keep doing these projects.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

The Memory of Metal

Laura has been making headbadges for few years. She made them while we were traveling, literally carrying a bag of hammers while on tour. She’s made them on picnic benches in national parks, inside motels and on the dining room tables of homestay guests. When she first started, she never thought that it would allow her a glimpse into people’s lives. Here’s her insight on the unexpected bond that happens when she makes a headbadge.

To learn more about her headbadge work, check out her site or send her an email.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)