Anyone here riding Cycle Oregon in September?
 

That ride looks great.

The really are recycling their routes with some frequency. This year's is much of what was done in 2007. We started and ended in Sisters. Went to La Pine, Diamond Lake, around Crater Lake (no-move day), Dorena Lake, Oakridge, Rainbow and then back to Sisters.

Assuming they are doing Aufdeheide (Sp?) again, the day to Rainbow is really nice. Dorena Lake is just outside of the town of Cottage Grove, where the homecoming parade scenes of "Animal House" were filmed. Leaving Diamond Lake, the "net elevation loss" is something like 20 miles. The first night in La Pine was below freezing. Woke up to ice on my tent fly. A week or so before the ride it snowed there. Be prepared.

If it's run the same way, the climb from Diamond Lake to the rim drive of Crater Lake is 13 miles. I then rode around the lake. When I finished that I was so tired I didn't even want to descend the 13 miles back to camp. 60 miles and nearly 6,500' of climbing. If you are going to be at Crater Lake prior to the event you might consider riding around it then rather than as part of the event. The short out and back to Cloudcap Overlook is worth it.

Here is the profile from the day we did back in 2007:

It looks very similar to the 2007 route. I only I wish I had my 2007 legs!!! I don't know how this new hip is going to do with that much climbing but we'll see. Thanks for the tip on the weather. I really hate being cold. I'm fine with riding in the cold but I've frozen sleeping in Colorado one night when the temperatures dropped dramatically and it was awful....Since I'm driving I expect I'll pack heavier than if I was flying.

I think they also chose this route in 2017 for the 30th anniversary. That may have been the year it was cancelled due to fires.

Crater Lake is a big draw. They did it again in 2012 for the 25th anniversary. That year we rode up from Ft. Klamath, rode around the rim and then descended to Prospect. If you are out there a few days early and have the time, the drive down OR 62 is nice. Right near the junction with OR 230 there is a gorge with scenic falls on the Rogue River. You can see the location on Google Maps. We ate out in Prospect at the historic hotel and dinner house. Nice meal.

Way back in 2006 I did a motorcycle trip up there with a friend that lived in Salem. I think I left on Sept 12th. He said the weather would be great; Indian Summer, he said. As it turned out, it was mid-40's for most of the trip with rain every day for 4 days. We got snowed on crossing one mountain pass in Central OR.

Thankfully, I had expected some cold weather and had purchased some heated gear before I left not expecting to have to use it. Would have froze my butt off if not for the jacket liner and gloves. It was spectacular country though. Would love to do that again one day.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ab7657a67d.jpg

I'm going. I've wanted to do the North Entrance since I rode CO 2012 when we went up the South Entrance. I rode it fix gear (changing cogs; on that ride the climbs were so long and few that except for the rim, there were few stops for cog changes and on the rim I only needed my highest and lowest gears. No flat.)

The day to Crater Lake was advertised as 88 miles and 8800' of climbing. I took a wrong turn off the rim, did a glorious descent, then had to climb back to the rim from almost the North Entrance, roughly 1000'. Not fun. I had just enough snacks in my pockets to get to lunch riding just the rim. Couldn't enjoy the rim at all; it was just drag my butt over two more climbs and 2000', get to lunch and eat. Then I felt OK and enjoyed the miles of downhill to Prospect but no way was I backtracking 10000' to look at beautiful lake I spent so much money to see.

So I've been waiting for CO to go up the north side since then so I can do that tough climb fresh and enjoy it. (I am a mountain goat, but even mountain goats can see too much!) I set my Mooney up to ride the ride 2 years ago when the North Entrance and gravel was promised. (Way more gravel than I will do on my skinny tired fix gear.) Fires got in the way. So I am in again, probably on my good fix gear. There's one gravel stretch, I think about 20 miles. We'll see how I feel about doing that on those tires.

For those new to Cycle Oregon - first, welcome! It is an event that goes way beyond the riding and the support is amazing. Good food and lots of it, good music, great ride support and mechanics (some of the best in the business and they go overboard when needed. All labor is free (bikes have been welded up in the early hours before dawn, wheels built from scratch, you name it. If you need a weird part, odds age good that a mechanic has one. Or will make it. My first CO. I broke my seatpost Day 2. The lead mechanic lent me a Laprade from his stash that I rode almost a year while the replacement was being made. Cost me nothing except the optional loop to see Hell's Canyon. The 3 miles into camp seat-free was enough for that day!)

I'll be riding my brakes of choice - Shimano dual pivots (picked up used, nice but I have no idea what model or level they are) and Tektro V-brake levers (to "de-tune" them so I can hit them hard when I see that corner my pedals won't clear and bleed speed fast and predictably). The downhill off Crater Lake will be a blast. Remember - I've done it. Fixed on a 42-12. Ear-to-ear grin. (I did it with an antique car club driving up, They had yet to see the hundreds of bikes, so I was their first and I got all the waves and classic honks.)

Ben

Bring a good ground sheet for your tent. The camping conditions at Diamond Lake were such that many people, myself included, ended up walking into the trees off the side of the campground drive and finding a clear enough space to pitch. Lots of debris on the ground. Hanging out by the lake was nice. BTW...Diamond Lake was cleaned up and restocked thanks in part to grant money from the CO fund.https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5b8080567e.jpg

Oh, man ... I would love to do this. But I'll probably be doing the Mammoth Fondo instead.

I've ridden four COs ... II, III, IX and X. CO II went from Portland to Medford, along the spine of the Cascades. Sisters, Bend, Kanetaa, La Pine, Crater Lake, Ft Klamath. OMG, what a great ride and great route that was. It was my very first tour, and I was hooked like a flounder.

I think it's highly unlikely to happen, but I would go again if they reprised the 2002, which was the 15th anniversary and my first one. We started at Nyssa on the eastern border of the state and rode all the way to Florence on the coast. Overnights were in Ironside, John Day, Mitchell, Sisters (rest day there, then McKenzie Pass), and Coburg.

Why do I think they will never do that route again? It was a Bataan Death March. I averaged something like 90 miles/day, if not more, although part of that was self-inflicted as I did the 117 mile option to Mitchell. There was only one route to Sisters and it was a century. Also, the camping arrangements were less than ideal at Ironside and Mitchell. Both were on ranch land. The campsite at Ironside required a trip down a gravel road, and there were lots of dried cow pies on the camping field. It got down to about 28 degrees that night. Probably the only reedeming factor is that if you got out of your tent to take a leak you could see every star in sky. Mitchell featured a two-tiered approach. Most of the services like showers and food were at road level. The tenting area was down below in a deep depression. I remember pulling in late after 117 hot as hell miles, looking down at a packed tent city and thinking "Holy hell." The entire site was comprised of fine, dry dirt, and it was blowing around in the wind. I made an instant mind's eyes comparison to some refuge camp in some drought-plagued place in Africa, only with nice tents and lots of Porta-Potties. Any appreciable rain would have turned the entire place into a mud pit. A lot of the route to Sisters was chip seal. Butt cream was at a premium. The last couple of days many people became short with each other, which I attribute to the heat and fatigue. Even after crossing over to the west side of the Cascades it was still very hot in Coburg. It wasn't until the final day, when we had to cross the coastal range did we get some humidity in the air and some cloud cover.

But even with all that, I it remains the coolest supported tour I have ever done.

If my son had stayed in Oregon, I might have been tempted. But ironically he transferred to North Carolina. If it were closer I'd love to, but as things stand - nope. Too bad you can't do the road from Crater Lake to Roseburg. 80 miles of riding the brakes, with just a little climbing at the beginning!

Matthews. If I remember, you're somewhere in the Charlotte area?