I am home from Cycle Oregon and it was a cold and wet one. I had thought that the riders would have been complaining about it being to hot and not to cold since we were riding in Southern Oregon. It was a great ride in spite of the cold wet weather.
On the down side was that we lost one rider. A 60 year old lady from the Portland area died when she lost control on a very steep down hill on day 3. Also there were two other accidents that I heard about on this hill, a broken jaw and a broken collar bone. There were also several less serious accidents on this same hill.
My daily ride log: My miles were more than the normal as I wanted to reach 500 miles for the week so I did ride a few extra miles almost everyday. You could have ridden as little as 316 miles if you did not ride any of the options and did not ride at all on the layover days. Or as much as 502 miles if you rode all the options. Since the option to ride around the rim of Crater Lake was closed due to bad weather the real max was 468.1 miles.
Two days before Cycle Oregon I headed south towards the start. My first over night was in Roseburg at the Motel-6. After checking in I headed out to explore the town. On the next day, Saturday, I drove the rest of the way to Canyonville the start of Cycle Oregon as will as the finish. After putting up my tent I rode around the area. All throughout the day others were arriving by car and by bus.
Day-1 = My miles = 61.14 (CO miles = 55). I packed the tent wet as it had rained overnight. The start for Cycle Oregon was great, as the day turned out to be warm and sunny. We rode on a very nice back road (Cow Creek Rd) from Canyonville to Wolf Creek, with 2070 foot of gain. I met and had a great talk with Mel Counts (a X-pro, LA Lakers, basketball player. He is 7' ?", his bike was big).
Day-2 = 64 miles (CO miles 62.1). The rain started at 5 am and continued until 11am then it turned into a great day. Again we rode on wonderful back roads with 2518 foot of gain. Our overnight was on the banks of Lake Selmac near the town of Selma. Ben & Jerry's ice cream traveled with us, which I often sampled after dinner (even after having the dessert that came with dinner).
By the way, while I rode alone, there was several friends from were I had worked, from passed Cycle Oregon's and I made a lots of new friends.
Day-3 = 70.28 miles (CO miles = 64.1). This was the day of the big and fatal hill. Last night was cold and it stayed cold until the afternoon. There was no rain. For the most part the road was 1.5 lanes wide with a rough surface. At times, on the down hill side, the road was only one lane wide with some loose gravel on the shoulder. The up hill side was 7.8 miles long with a middle 4 miles of 10-12% grade and no leveling off to provide relief. At the top was a mandatory brake and tire check before the down hill. The down hill side had a grade of 11% and it was very cold on the way down. I had two good things going for me, warm gloves and hydraulic brakes. There were many sharp turns that required braking. In fact for the first 6 miles of this down hill my brakes were on most of the way. Cycle Oregon had people posted before these sharp turns warning us to slow down, most of the riders listened, but not all. What went wrong with the ones that crashed is not known (to cold of hands to brake, hitting the loose gravel, gaining to much speed or what). At the end of this day we had another climb with a great down hill where you could just let the bike go. Today's gain was 5220 feet. Our over night was in the town of Jacksonville where we will spend two night.
Day-4 = 50.36 miles (CO miles 0 to 40). This was a layover day and the riders had several different options. Some just enjoyed the town of Jacksonville, some took a shuttle bus into Ashland to attend performances of the Shakespeare Festival (an annual summer activity for Ashland) while others rode into Ashland for lunch and back, a 40 mile round trip. The day was warm but there were on and off rain showers for most of the day. I rode into town and then took the long way back to enjoy more of the great back roads. I did have my only flat today. Our campsite in Jacksonville was poor due to it being to spread out (the camp, food and the main stage where the nightly announcements and entrainment was held were many blocks apart).
Day-5 = 108 miles the long option (CO miles 105.7 for the long or 73.3 for the short). 500 of the 2000 riders took this long option the others took the main route which was 73 miles. Many of these riders were saving themselves for tomorrow's ride up to Crater Lake (87.8 miles) and/or the option around the lake (total 114.1 miles). Since I had ridden around the lake on passed Cycle Oregon's I opted to ride the long option today and see how I felt the next day. I had over 7000 miles of riding so far this year so I was not to worried about either day. The elevation gain for the long option today was 6700 feet with a 13 mile stretch of 7%. The route followed "Dead Indian Memorial Highway" the classic hill climb of Southern Oregon. The down hill side was wonderful with long sweeping turns and you could just let the bike run. It was a great 108 miles and I finished felling pretty good.
Day-6 = 91 miles (CO miles 87.8). Now I know you are wondering why did I not ride the 122 mile option, well let me tell you. But first, our campsite was at Lost Creek where we would spend two nights, meaning that I could just get up today and ride and not have to pack up. A big plus for a day with a long climb and an even longer option. Today elevation gain would be 5407 feet to reach the rim of Crater Lake (7145 feet) with another 3400 feet of gain if you rode around the lake with a high of 7680 feet. Cold weather was forecasted for today and there was a chance for snow at the summit. If it did snow, it was forecasted to be melted by the time we reached the summit. Cycle Oregon told us, the night before, that if we wanted to have our rain gear at the summit they would shuttle it to top for us. I opted to carry all my gear on my bike (turned out to be a very smart move).
On the climb up it began to rain and it was still cold. Halfway to the top I learned that the weather at the top was bad and getting worse so the option to ride around the lake was closed to ALL riders. By now I had started to put on my rain gear (I had the following and it was all fully water proof, helmet cover, jacket, gloves, long pants and shoe covers). Reaching the top the temperature was in the mid 40s. I could see the lake but decided not to take a picture until I had lunch. The rain was getting heaver. Lunch hit the spot with a hot baked potato with chili on it (there were other toppings available). Just as the last bit of lunch was eaten the temperature started to drop very fast has the rain turned to hail. The view of the lake got socked in, meaning the great view of this most beautify lake was gone. I was told that the temp reached down into the 30s.
I was afraid that Cycle Oregon would not let me ride down so I very quickly put on all my rain gear and headed down. After all if you ride 45 miles up hill you deserve to go down hill. I later learned that all the riders who were still on their way up were stopped 7 miles from the top and not allowed to continue. I was dry but still very cold. I also knew that as I descended it would get warmer. The first 4 miles down was no fun and I took it very slow, brakes on most of the way. On this stretch of the road there were still riders who were on their way up. A lot of them were riding in just shorts and a jersey as their rain gear was waiting for them at the top. When they reach the top and found their rain gear they would be soaking wet and I doubt that they could have gotten warm. Six school bus loads of those who were on the top were saged (got a ride) back to camp and it would take many truck loads to get the bikes back to camp.
As expected it did get warmer as I got lower in altitude. By the time I was some 20 miles from camp I was riding in shorts and a bike jersey again. Funny, that my 7 week tour in Alaska this year I got wet only twice and was never this cold.
Day-7 = 65.64 miles (CO miles 61.1). It rained during the night but stopped in time to pack up, even through everything was still very wet. It was our last day so it did not matter how wet your gear got. Before we had a great 40 mile down hill into Canyonville we still had one last climb of about 10 miles with a gain of 2300 feet. As I reached the top of the climb Cycle Oregon had a food stop but the rain started and it was cold. I grabbed a quick bit to eat, put on my rain gear and hit the road. The first 15 miles of this down hill was great, again with wide curves and a smooth road. Canyonville had a wonderful welcome for us and we received our Cycle Oregon "finisher" T-shirt.
Some stats:
I did find a coin each day
I rode 509.98 miles (good thing I rode those extra 10 miles back on day 4
Fastest mph 40 (many went faster but with age one gets wiser)
Flat tires = one
Start and ending weight was the same (they do feed us good and thanks to Ben and Jerry)
Total number of riders = 2080
Youngest rider = 6
Oldest rider = 81
Average age of the riders = 47
Male riders = 68%, female riders = 32%
States represented = 46 (I don’t know which 4 states were missing)
Cost = $725
Nice things that Cycle Oregon did (a change from when I last rode):
Had hot coffee and cold lemonade available all day (on layover days)
On the long climbs dropped of cases of bottle water every few miles
They gave every rider a “LIVESTRONG” wrist band, donated by Lufthansa airlines - thanks
Another Cycle Oregon comes to an end, my ninth. Will I ride another Cycle Oregon, yes, if the course is interesting.