Oregon = Awesome Cycling!

I've always thought the best place on the planet to bicycle tour is Oregon, and that notion has been re-confirmed.  My 1984 Tour from Tacoma to San Diego was so incredible, that at the end of the tour I didn't want to stop.  So the next year I quit working and went traveling for two more years.

The gold mining dredge at Sumpter, OR.

I traveled down the Oregon Coast that year, and rode across Oregon on US 26 the following year.  Both routes have seen some significant population increases in places, so parts of my routes from those years are no longer places that I would want to ride again.  

For a couple of days smoke once again obscured our view...

But our route for the past few days has been awesome.  It isn't as scenic as the routes that I rode in the mid-80s, but two thirds of our route did not allow commercial traffic without a permit, so we might see a half dozen cars go by in an hour.  And since it is miles from everywhere, camping is generally free.  It is an amazing feeling to ride for days without thinking about someone who intentionally drove by too close, or any of a dozen other near daily occurrences that detract from our experiences.

And to top it off, we met a couple near Heppner, OR who had a home built teardrop that had a ten speed bicycle painted on the back!  They were traveling with a second couple who were tent camping.  The two men would bicycle from campsite to campsite, while the women would hang out together, breaking camp and setting things up on the other end.  They have been doing this yearly since 2014 (if I got the story right, they had been traveling for the month of August this year).

The guys hit the road earlier than we do, so we didn't attempt to ride with them.  We had planned on more mileage than normal, in order to set up spending a weekend near Maupin, OR, so Alea and I opted to split our day by riding in 15 mile increments.  I had the first shift.

I normally take my time on long days, but with two bicycles out on the road in front of me, it was tempting to see if we could catch up to them.  I wasn't hopeful, as I suspected they might have an hour's head start on us, but I figured by the end of the day we would overtake them.  I rode at about 80% of race pace for about 14 miles, then Alea told me they were just ahead.  I kicked it up and gobbled them both up within a mile.

Around that same time, a Trek Travel van passed by, which I presumed was followed by a supported tour group.  It wasn't long before the lead group showed up, and then there were stragglers for several miles behind and finally a sag wagon bringing up the rear.  Without a doubt, it was the most touring cyclists that we had seen on any one day in over two years.

On the road from Condon to Fossil, waiting for Alea to catch up.

We are camped tonight in Fossil, OR at the county fairgrounds ($25, full hook-ups, showers), which is the only campground until we arrive in Maupin tomorrow, where are hoping to stay at one of several free BLM campgrounds for the weekend.

The Best Part of the Eclipse

We walked up a pine-forested hill to a spot where we could be assured of a clear view of the sun during the eclipse.  Watching the actual eclipse was fascinating, but probably no more fascinating than a good tortoise race.  What we found really fascinating was this pattern of light on the forest floor, created by the crescent-shaped sliver of the sun.
 

A path of glowing crescents!

Musical Chairs and the Eclipse

On Friday, we reconnected with our route from this past May, and from there we loaded up our bikes and drove to Catherine Creek State Park, near Union, OR.  It is a no-reservation campground, but unknown to us, that policy had been changed for this weekend, due to the forecast influx of people watching the big eclipse.  We knew we were a little to close to the path of totality, and that camping could be an issue, but we weren't quite expecting that pretty much anything that could be reserved within 100 miles of here had been snapped up early in the spring.

Joseph, OR with Wallowa Mountains in the background.

But fortunately, the day use area at Catherine Creek was opened for camping for this weekend only.  We ended up renting two parking stalls for $10 per stall.  And right now (on Saturday), we have the entire day use area to ourselves, so we feel like we did OK.

Catherine Creek Day Use Area - our own private campground!

The eclipse is like playing musical chairs - you want to have a place to sit when the music stops, which is why we will remain here through Monday night.  On Tuesday we will get up early and drive to near Sumpter, OR to a point where we rode earlier in the year.  From there we will head into north central Oregon.

Backseat driver...

Lots of Smoke

We rode into Missoula, MT about a week and a half ago, only to find that some mail that we had been expecting had not yet arrived.  We opted to wait for it by driving south to Salmon, ID to spend a few nights, and doing a little bit of riding there and back.  We had anticipated riding all the way back to Missoula, but the smoke from the forest fires was terrible - far worse than any smoggy day in LA in the 1970s.

One of the better smoke days - there should be three chains of mountains visible in the distance.

So we drove back to pick up our mail and were once again on our way.  We were passing through an area of spectacular scenery, but much of that was left to our imaginations, as smoke was a problem for several days.

More smoke on the Clearwater River, descending from Lolo Pass.

It rained lightly on the day that we reached Lewiston, ID, and that helped to clear away much of the smoke.  It is still a bit hazy, but a vast improvement over last week.

View overlooking Asotin, WA and the Snake River.

We rode from Asotin, WA to Enterprise, OR on what has to be one of our favorite cycling routes.  The roads are good, the scenery is awesome, and there is very little traffic.  The highlight of the route is dropping into the Grande Ronde River Valley about mid-way.  There is a 13+ mile descent down Rattlesnake Grade, matched with a 10+ mile ascent up Buford Grade.  This was one of the spots where we had considered vacationing during my competitive hill climbing days, and it would have been a perfect training site.

Buford Grade.

We ended up camping in the Grande Ronde Valley.  There were a number of Washington DFW campsites, but they all required a Discovery Pass.  We didn't have one, and had no way to purchase one, so we drove all the way to Troy, OR for an awesome free campsite next to the river with shade and plenty of green grass for Lana.  It was fortunate that we had to drive so far out of our way, as on the return trip we saw five mountain goats and countless deer.  This area is on our list of places to return to in the future.

We are camped south of Enterprise, OR at Hurricane Creek Campground.  We will be spending two nights here before heading on, in order to get laundry done and to make sure we are well stocked, since it may be a while before we are in a town of any significant size.

Second Leg for 2017

We are finally back tagteaming our way through The Rockies.  Forest fires forced us to change our route, which was to have started in Havre, MT, where the plan was to travel southwest toward Missoula, MT.  That planned route crossed The Rockies on Montana Highway 200, which is currently closed due to several forest fires.

There weren't many good options for bypassing the fires, and we needed to be in Missoula to pick up mail.  We finally decided to drive farther west before beginning our journey, which started this August 2nd at Columbia Falls, MT, which is on the west side of The Rockies.

By the way, August 1st was our 2nd anniversary on the road, a day that passed without much celebration. 

The main problem with the fire is that it is re-routing traffic and has caused some campgrounds to close.  As a result, National Forest campgrounds that are near the highways of the detour route are filling up.  We rode an extra 40 miles yesterday before finding a campsite.

We are currently about 20 miles north of MT 200 and smoke is increasing.  The road, which normally has a speed limit of 70 mph, is posted at 35 mph.

Our cell coverage with Verizon has been awesome.  The gaps between coverage are fairly small, even in the mountainous areas that we have been in thus far.