metalheart44

My wife wants to visit a friend near Eugene on 9/8 and since we are in the area, I plan to take advantage of the care free day on 9/9 to Ride the Rim at Crater Lake. I would like to do another couple of days of riding and I'm looking for suggestions. One thought is to ride from Crater Lake to Bend via La Pine the day after the Crater Lake ride then maybe ride from Bend to somewhere for another day then drive home. Or, maybe after Crater Lake go to the Eugene area and head to the Coast or toward Applegate Valley then drive home (near Sacramento). A couple of days of road riding 70 or so miles is what seems like a nice addition to the Crater Lake ride. Any thoughts?

busygizmo

This guy has a lot of ride suggestions for Oregon.

Home Page - Jay's Essential Bike Rides

There aren't a lot near Crater Lake though. Many years ago we spent a few days in Ashland and I did both of the rides on this site near there. Local clubs refer to one as the lakes loop and it is really nice IMO, I've also ridden the old highway and on up to Mt. Ashland ski area and that is a good ride too.

Heading north only one I've done is from Sister over McKenzie Pass to the the intersection of Highway 126 and back, really a stunning ride. We got lucky and got to ride it without cars before the road opened in June last year.

Another ride mentioned on the site is the Aufderheide Highway near Eugene that is supposed to be really nice.

I know there is someone that posts a bit on this site about rides on forest service roads in Oregon, there seem to be a lot of them that are paved and have very low traffic. Might try searching for those.

B. Carfree

Do you need pavement or is a bit of gravel a good thing? Either way, come back to Eugene and go ride into the coast range. The beach is 80 miles of mostly carless roadway away or you can do some nice loops of 75-150 miles that take you along nearly car-free rivers and back into town. Hills are plentiful (coast range, duh). (The shorter ones are best with a very early rise to avoid having cars about on the way out through the suburbs.) Even riding an out-and-back is kind of fun on those coast hill roads in the O&C.

If interested, I can find some mapped routes for you. In the meantime, take a look at the satellite image of the roads west of Crow Rd (west of Eugene) out Wolf Creek Rd along the Siuslaw and Smith Rivers to get a look at what you will enjoy. I lived in your neck of the non-woods for two decades and nearly every ride into the O&C makes me wonder what took me so long to leave there and come here.

metalheart44

Thanks for the suggestions and comments. Looks as if we might visit our Eugene friend then stay somewhere between Eugene and Crater Lake the night before the Rim ride then head back to the Eugene area and I can ride to the coast and then do another day riding down the coast before heading home. I will check out the WolF Creek, Smith River route B. Carfree suggested and go from there. Thanks again!

TJClay

Most of that area is full of smoke from the fires. Cycle Oregon just cancelled their ride.

B. Carfree

Crater lake may still be a mess, but we're predicted to have a chance of rain over the next week, so our air might return to something breathable. The last three days have seen PM 2.5 levels at 450 ug/m^3, roughly 13 times the level considered acceptable by the EPA and 30 times what one would want to breathe while cycling. If he's going to be here anyway, the coast hills might still be okay if the fires go down a bit, the wind comes from the NW and we don't get any new ones from lightning, campers or fireworks (yes, some dimrod started a fire near Hood River with fireworks this weekend.)

Rider51

I just flew over this area two days ago and there is a very thick haze stretching for many, many square miles right over this area. Even if you head to the coast, you're going to want to avoid going south of about Port Orford, as there's a massive forest fire in the Siskyou National Forest over 100,000 acres. While most of that is drifting east, you don't want to be caught in the wrong place.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/38/

fietsbob

Maybe next year there are so many fires, now, air-quality is poor.. even the air on the Coast was Hazy , and will be today.

trailangel

Talking Chetco fire? 250 square miles! That's huge! Pray for rain, without lightening.
Brookings on alert? Unbelievable.

Rider51

Even more large wildfires have popped up. One near Crystal Mountain in WA came on so fast the area was evacuated overnight. Now both Chinook Pass, and Cayuse Pass are closed entirely. Another in Eagle Creek, Oregon closed I-84, it's so intense it jumped the Columbia River!

[Deleted this section, due to incorrect information]

It's going to take more than a rain storm to quell this. It's going to take a large Pacific system to head straight into the area to really stop the fires, and clear everything out. And that may not happen until October, or later.

Rider51

Wednesday, morning update - I was completely wrong about the coast. I would say the entire coastline is almost as bad as the rest of the western state of Oregon, and Washington too. Just looking at the latest satellite photo from this morning, it's like the entire western part of Oregon, and much of Washington are covered in smoke. Large swaths of the regions are of hazardous air quality as well. So if you are planning on riding anywhere, please use good judgment. It appears the coast may get somewhat of a reprieve in the coming days, but likely be socked in with damp, foggy weather, which isn't the most fun to ride in either. The weather may shift back to where we are next week.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Er66CJV-U...01.54%2BPM.png

skimaxpower

Ride the Rim registration is closed. They hit their expected participant numbers (capped at 6,000 per day). So if you haven't registered, it's technically too late. That being said, it's very loosely policed and registration doesn't appear to be very necessary.

I had planned to ride on 9/16, but decided against it when I saw this air quality map...

B. Carfree

Rain in Roseburg yesterday. Rain in Eugene today. Maybe there will be some actual air to breathe some time soon. (But maybe not.)

metalheart44

I bailed on the ride plans because of smoke/fire issues .... next year.