Today we finished the tour with a fantastic ride across the car free McKenzie Pass and back down to Rainbow.
When we woke up this morning, we checked the weather again. It still looked much more favorable for our final ride than tomorrow. No rest day for us.
We already paid for the room for the second night. Instead of trying to cancel, we decided to keep it in case we decided to bail. The room has a code on the door, so there would be nothing to physically check out. Anne told the innkeep our plan, and arranged to text later to check out.
As we were getting ready, we spied a deer and a tiny fawn next to the parking lot. We see a group of deer last night on the way home from the grocery store. We haven’t seen a lot of large animals on the trip. I guess they’re all hanging out within the Sisters city limits.
Our route for today would take us over McKenzie Pass on highway 242. The road is still not technically open from the winter, but it’s something of an open secret that there’s a few week window between when it’s cleared of snow and when they open the gates. Bikes can take advantage of the window. It’s unclear to me if it’s legal to be there, or just weakly enforced.
But first we had a nine mile climb through the forest to get to the gate. We saw a steady stream of cyclists headed up along with us, giving us more confidence the closed road would be passable. Some paused to ask us about our adventure. Nobody else had children or a touring load.
There was also a slower stream of gravel trucks and pickups with construction company logos. Word was that there are sometimes crews working on the road past the gate. We originally scheduled today’s rest day to hopefully avoid construction. But then we saw a gravel truck turn off on a side road, and didn’t see any after that. Evidently they were working on a different project.
The temperature was cool, but highly manageable. The grade picked up, so my legs kept plenty warm. As we got higher the wind, mostly a headwind, got stronger.
We came to the gate. “Road closed,” “authorized personnel only,” and for a real kicker, “extreme danger.” But you could see the bike tire tracks going around the gate. As we were finagling our bikes past, a fellow cyclists came by and rolled around the gate without stopping. I guess we were in the right place.
The rest of the climb was fantastic. A little cool, a headwind, but no cars. We heard a report from another climbing cyclist that it was snowing at the top, but we were still a long way away.
We decided on an early lunch, to avoid eating at the summit where it would at least be the coldest. I found an indent in the hill to the left that acted as a windbreak. In the sun, out of the wind, it was quite pleasant. Ruth sat and ate. Max tromped around and played with sticks.
The last few miles before the summit the terrain changes from forest to lava fields – a vast expanse of black rocks with very little vegetation. At first it’s just on one side, with forest (much scarred by a recent fire) on the other. At the end the road snakes through the rocks. It’s like an alien landscape.
And then, the summit, the Dee Wright observatory, built out of the same black rock. But with no cars it’s a bike party. People resting after the long climb (or the longer climb from the other side). People having lunch. People regrouping, or just hanging out.
The kids ran off to climb around the observatory. Anne and I eventually caught up and enjoyed the 360° view of the surrounding mountains. There was no snow falling, though plenty of it in big clumps scattered across the landscape. It was cool, maybe in the 40s, but clear skies, sunny, and great visibility.
Eventually it was time to get dressed for the descent and mount back up. The descent started slowly, still through the lava fields. There were some short uphills, making me rethink my clothing choices.
Then it dropped. The road quickly descended back into forest, with ever-thinning snow at the sides. There were a few bits that needed further clearing for cars – a fallen tree blocking half a lane here, a two-foot rock there. The descent featured many more winding turns and switchbacks than the climb.
We passed a few cyclists climbing. While we were stopped for a picture, one stopped to chat. He had seen us while driving near Mt Bachelor two days ago.
Unusually I say descents are all too short. Not this one. We only climbed about 2000 feet to the summit. By the time we crossed the west gate (this one with just a simple “road closed” sign) we had dropped most of that. But we still had tons of elevation banked from earlier in the tour and were only halfway done. This descent delivers, and keeps delivering.
The temperature warmed considerably as we got lower. We removed some cool weather gear, and put away the green torpedo that had been keeping Max warm for much of the last three days. And he was ready for it.
Everybody goes a little loopy on bike trips. Ruth was in the rain yesterday. Now, free of his green cocooned prison, it was Max’s turn. He pedaled furiously on the downhill.
Anne, pulling both kids at this point, called for help on an uphill by telling the kids to pedal “like a breakfast burrito” (I don’t know what that means either; she and I had both long since gone loopy). Max took offense to this and shouted out “breakfast burritos are tiny. I’m humongous!” It sounds like we finally found Max’s biking name, Humongous Breakfast Burrito.
Even after the gate, traffic stayed very light until turning into 126 for the last few miles before the hotel. Even with a wide shoulder and a slight downhill, it was a reminder of just how wonderful it was to get McKenzie Pass car free.
We took a quick detour at the end to check out a covered bridge. This bridge formed the very start of the last time we did this tour, so it made a nice bookend.
Our hotel reservation isn’t until tomorrow night, but we were hoping we could pull it forward. As we arrived, the no vacancy sign was lit. As I resigned myself to loading up the car and driving into Eugene to find a room, Anne went inside and managed to secure “the apartment”, a suite bigger than the apartment Anne and I first shared, for only a modest upcharge on our original basic room reservation. So no driving tonight, except to get dinner.
Today’s ride made an excellent end to the tour. The weather was fantastic. The road was fantastic. While Anne was getting the room, Ruth was talking to me about how we should do this tour a third time in another eight years.
The kids made me proud throughout the trip. We asked a lot of them – long hours on the bike, bad weather, limited entertainment. They put up with it all. It wasn’t always with a smile, but they found the fun in it with us grown ups. I’m looking forward to the next trip. Though maybe without snow.
