Shadowing Cycle Oregon 2009

Cycle Oregon 2009 had filled up without us, so Doug and I decided to follow them by a week  using their maps.  We met some of them finishing up as we were starting on day 1.

Day 1 19 Sep 09 Gold Hill, Oregon to Yreka, CA 81.2 miles 6:51 riding time
My internet search for campgrounds took us to the KOA campground in Gold Hill, about 14 miles out of Medford, CO's (and therefore our map's) starting place. Starting in Gold Hill added to the first day’s mileage and reduced the final day’s distance, and the facility turned out to be clean and had a swimming pool. Doug arrived just in time for supper at a Mexican restaurant down in Medford. Each day we arose at first light of dawn instead of the CO routine of arising earlier, having breakfast, and returning to take tents down at first light of dawn. About 14 miles into the trip we passed through Jacksonville, where the first pace line of the day from Cycle Oregon caught us, calling out the familiar “on your left” as a truck was passing from behind. Maybe there are advantages of cycling the route with just a group of friends! A couple more groups in a hurry to finish CO that morning passed us before we turned south on our shadow ride. None of Ashland’s shops caught our eye as we passed through, though the architecture was interesting. Since we weren’t supported by those wonderful “ODS” stops, we stopped at Albertsons for grapes and apples, and Doug picked up a subway sandwich which we stashed in our panniers. As we climbed our first mountain, we passed a local cyclist who gave his highest recommendation to “Callahan’s Restaurant”. Great food there; far surpassing any Cycle Oregon lunch I’ve ever had. “Maybe we didn’t need all that support after all”, I thought as we made the final short assault over the mountain into California. Here we got on the freeway for a few miles. We might have gotten on the freeway about a mile earlier than the official party, and that first mile was a bit nerve wracking as road construction had our side of the freeway restricted to one lane- fortunately we could ride on the right side of the traffic cones. Then it was a rapid descent down the California side of the mountain. We enjoyed our afternoon snack of fruits in the lawn of the same rural school CO had used, and we cycled on into Yreka, where we found the newly built “Yreka Travel Plaza”, a new RV park with flat well manicured grass perfect for our needs. Dinner was at “Grandma’s Kitchen” where Doug made some special request, and the waitress’s answer was “this is Grandma’s kitchen, of course, you can have whatever you want”. Maybe we really didn’t need all the CO support! 

Steve climbing the Siskiyous Mountains south of Gold Hill, OR - photo by Doug

Steve arriving at Willow Creek School Lunch Stop - photo by Doug

Day 2 20 Sep 09 Yreka, CA to Happy Camp, CA 83.3 miles 6:51 riding time
It was downhill nearly all the way as we followed the Klamath River to Happy Camp watching the flora turn from semi-dessert to almost coastal forest. A turn of the last century building housed an extremely efficient little eatery where Doug and I had homemade coconut cream pie and met some BMX’ers who are students at a bicycle repair or building school. Down in Seiad Valley a good hamburger or chicken sandwich was our lunch. Lots of motorcyclists enjoy this road, but they and many state police seemed to be the only real traffic for the day. As we entered Happy Valley, Doug noted a sign that read #1 Rated RV Park in the West. That’s where he wanted to go though I thought we should check out the city park and I would have stayed in the USFS Campground on the edge of town. Showers were available at the laundromat, and the Klamath River looked good for swimming. Doug had decided he wanted a hot shower in the #1 Rated RV Park in the West”, so we rode up the hill which required my low gear of 20.6" - which is low enough to give me bragging rights in most touring groups- but I prefer to brag about having it- while never using it!! The other side of the hill is just as steep, but it turns into washboards and gravel for the descent! The entrance to the office was a rickety wooden steps that appeared not to have been swept in several years. An older woman who seemed to be quite indifferent to our staying there met us, and I thought we might escape to the USFS campground nearer to town, but a very friendly tenant showed up greatly excited for us to stay there. He showed us to a somewhat flattened but dusty site where we could erect our tents. The RV park was, in fact, a trailer park with at least one double wide; most of the residents lived year round in camp trailers of various sizes and ages. Everything in the trailer park was covered in dust. At this point Doug was more uncomfortable staying there than I was, but neither one of us wanted to climb that hill again to escape it, and our fee had been paid. Doug smelled someone smoking marijuana. The mountain stream was extremely cold, but we both had brief swims in its nearby swimming hole and never made it into the showers. We left for dinner, and even on an unloaded bike, I needed my 20.6" gear to get over that washboarded hill. Happy Valley was once a saw-mill town but now seems to be a mixture of retired Californians from the Bay area and the chronically unemployed/underemployed. From the outside, its one restaurant looked seedy. We decided on the competition, a pizza place in the “strip mall”- a strip mall in a town with about two businesses downtown! The pizza wasn’t very good, and the place was a bit seedy on the inside. On second thought, maybe I do need that CO support! Although I slept fine in the dusty “#1 Rated RV Park in the West”, I was glad to escape it the next morning. Breakfast presented two choices: 1) eat in the apparently seedy restaurant or 2) make our own PB&J sandwiches- with no known lunch stop. Well, in contrast to the restaurant's outside, its interior was clean, recently remodeled, well lighted, and the food was good. None-the-less, Doug was happy to shake off the dust of Happy Camp from his cycling shoes!

Doug on one of the bridges

Day 3 21 Sep 09: Happy Camp, CA to Cave Junction, OR 58.9 miles; 5:56 riding time
The first 25 miles were uphill- steep, but the scenery was beautiful with little traffic. The CO maps shows 5,200 feet of climbing this day (with 4,497 ft of gain in the first 20.0 miles), but CO didn’t start out in the Dusty Trailer Park! This is incredibly beautiful country- with near coastal rainfall forest varying to the dry scrub oak forest. I’ll let Doug’s photo’s do my description of the terrain! With no towns, we had snacks later in the day than we’d have liked in “Holland” another turn of the last century country store. We altered CO’s course slightly and spent the night in Cave Junction, OR which offered all services. If Happy Camp was in the land of weird people, Cave Junction might be its capital! Doug seemed most uncomfortable with the untrimmed beard on almost every male. I was most uncomfortable with the glazed look in the eyes of so many (drug use?). Lots of them weren’t overly clean, and I decided this is where many of the San Francisco Hippies of the 1960's came and reproduced leaving a distinctive “culture”. Dinner was at “Taylor’s” a meat shop with a very clean attached diner.

Doug enjoys a quick swim

Day 4 22 Sep 09: Cave Junction, OR to Gold Hill, OR 92.5 miles 7:27 riding time
Maybe because we had left the route the day before, we missed a turn this day. I kept wanting to turn north, and suddenly Doug noticed the morning sun was in our face or slightly on the right where it shouldn't be. Although it was beautiful riding in the mountains, Doug flagged down a USFS employee to ask if we were going where we intended. His map reading skills were poor, but eventually we verified we’d missed the turn north and were headed east as the sun had told us. It turns out the turn we missed was one of those “Oregon” wonders- a one lane paved road through the mountains. It looked more like a private driveway than a public road when we returned to it, to cross another mountain. After we passed “Lake Selmac” where CO stayed we knew we were back on route, but this day’s cycling would reach almost a century in length in heat hovering around 100 degrees. As we approached Grants Pass, we had to put together portions of 3 days of the CO route although we could have chosen a closer route between Grants Pass and Gold Hill. We were hot, tired, and hungry when we arrived back at Gold Hill's KOA, and we both enjoyed a swim in its pool before driving off to the nearest Olive Garden for the Italian dinner we’d been promising ourselves since Happy Camp.

Steve on a short, steep gravel section - photo by Doug

Doug going into the detour near the CA OR border

Day 5 23 Sep 09: Circling Crater Lake 32.9 miles 3:21 riding time
A great way to spend a day. It was up and down constantly. See Doug’s photos. http://www.flickr.com/photos/doug_goodenough/sets/72157622451834674/show/
This was a great experience. I missed the ODS stops (snacks) and CO's high quality breakfasts and dinners, and inevitably meeting cycling buddies from prior Cycle Oregons. I didn’t miss the morning passing and being passed routine, the long lines at breakfast, the porta potty lines, the shower lines, and the hurry up and wait feeling that I sometimes have on CO. In as much as cost matters, shadowing the CO route came it at just under $50 a day- a lot cheaper than $125 per day for the supported ride. I knew Doug to be a faster rider than I, so I feared he might “rush” me. Not so, he enjoyed photography and looking over each town or site of interest we passed in fine touring tradition. In the future my friends could sway me either way between shadowing Cycle Oregon again or riding as part of CO as CO’s routes are always challenging, well researched, and with many great back woods paved roads as we enjoyed this year. However, most years we wouldn’t be able to cut the route short and finish in 4 days! I do look forward to reading Doug's post (we all have different perspectives) and seeing his photos!

Happy cycling for fun, fitness, and transportation!

Steve