The organizers of Cycle Oregon promoted the last day
of the ride as "going out with grand finale" . They
were not kidding. This day was one of the most
enjoyable days of the ride for us.
We started our day noting that it had rained over
night and that it could rain again during the ride.
One seasoned rider made a loud announcement that there
could be sleat falling once we reached the pass.
This was enough to convince us to dress warmly. The
first thirty miles would be uphill, but the last
fifteen downhill and if the weather was not right, it
could be chilly.
Our ride started following the McKenzie River and
continued on Highway 242 to Sisters. It was nice
that there was a posted sign encouraging "through
traffic" to use a different route. The road was
narrow and full of sharp turns near the top which were
hard enough to handle on bike without the added
confusion of car traffic.
After our second water stop, we found ourselves in a
very unique stretch of the trip. Near the top were
lava fields. In the background, were the famous
Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, Mt. Bachelor, and
others that belonged in the Cascade Range. Our
final water stop was at Dee Wright Observatory. If
you have never been to this observatory, put it on the
top ten places to go in your lifetime! The rock
structure beautifully frames the mountains though
glassless windows and then identifies these mountains
through plaques placed under the windows. Literally,
we could have spent a day just sitting and enjoying
the view. Since it was almost a clear day with blue
skies, the views were postcard perfect!
The last fifteen miles were fun. Steep at times but
fun. They were all downhill miles that took us back
to Sisters. The people and businesses of Sisters
treated us like royalty. The Sisters athletic club
put together goody bags for each rider full of
certificates to entice us back. The Quilt shop had
beautiful quilts on display and there was band
entertainment while we ate our last meal of Cycle
Oregon.
We are glad we went and feel this was a well organized
event. It is hard to fathom all the details that
had to come together to make this such a great, top
notch cycling event. On driving back from Sisters
we talked about the possibility of doing another Cycle
Oregon. We believe we will do one again, but are
not sure if it will be next year. We may check into
doing the Cycle Oregon weekend ride.
Statistics: This ride was 45.5 miles long and 4,188
ft. gain in elevation. We rated this a one Mary's
Peak ride.
Overall we felt the whole trip was the equivalent of
12-13 Mary's Peak rides. Most days our average
speed was 12 m.p.h and we offten cycled 5-6 hours
during the day to reach the next campsite. We ate
more food and did not gain weight than I care to tell
people and drank at least two-four bottles of water
per day. Every morning we awoke between 5:30 and
6:15 am. On average we left camp around 8am.
Usually, we were to the next site by 5pm. Most
evenings we were in bed between 8 and 9pm. Total
miles: 481 and an elevation gain of 28, 463 feet.
List of names of the different tandem brands that we
saw:
DaVinci
KHS
Burley
Santana
Co-Motion
Ibis
Seven
Rans
Jim Teester
Davidson
Yokota
Bike Friday
Canondale
Trek
Calfee
Meridian
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