Author: Dennis Blanchard

My goal today was Sisters, Oregon, only about 42 miles away. However, to get there I had to climb up and over McKenzie Pass, around 5324 feet (1623 m).

I packed up my tent and headed back to the Belknap Lodge for a breakfast and look at the hot spring. I didn’t bother going into it, I was already packed and they wanted $7.00 for it.

Leaving the lodge, I went back up the road about a mile and turned onto route 242, towards McKenzies Pass.

The highest point, the pass itself, was 22 miles away. I started at 10:30. The first seven miles or so were not too bad, I was using my middle gear ring and lower gears. Then the climb began for real. For the next 12 miles (19.3 km), I stayed in my lowest gear and crept along at 3-5 miles per hour.

As one nears the last few miles before the pass, you pass through the Belknap Lava Field. An eruption about 1700 years ago buried the entire region in a deep lava flow. Nothing has started to grow there yet and it will be a long time before something does.

As exhausted as I was, I stopped to take lots of photos and use the photos as an excuse to rest.

I was totally spent when I arrived at the top, some five hours later. It was, without a doubt, the most grueling ride I’ve ever done, rivaled only by, perhaps, the Vermont 50 Mountain Bike race. Climbing to the pass with 71 (weighed in Missoula, MT at Adventure Cycle, it was 85 lbs, 38.5 kg) pounds of bike and gear is memorable.

A local fellow I talked to at the pass filled me in on some of the area, such as the hunting, lakes for fishing, that sort of thing. I expressed being thrilled at now being able to go downhill into Sisters. He didn’t seem to think it was very much downhill and deflated my expectations. True, I wasn’t going down as far as I had come up, but the ride down did prove to be a thrill.

I hit peak speeds of 45 MPH (72 km/hr). There were numerous curves where the speed limit was 15, 20 or 25 and I usually went through a little faster than the limit. I felt like I was back on one of my old motorcycles.

Having taken over five ours to reach the pass, it only took me about 25 minutes to do the 15 miles to Sisters, Oregon.

When I arrived in Sisters, a thunder shower passed through. I pulled under a cover at a tire store that was closed on Sunday and waited out the rain. I had sent a request message to a WarmShowers.org host and checked my phone to see if there had been a reply. There was. I had two voice mail messages from the person and they apologized for not being available but offered me some great advice. I called them back for details and they explained that they were in Iowa for a wedding but wanted to help me out.

They suggested going just a short distance north and camping in the National Forest, or, going to the Creekside Campground, which is operated by the town of Sisters. I checked in at the campground and had a wonderful tent site, right next to the river, with hot showers; all for only $5.00. I was thrilled!

I set up the tent, went back into town for a pizza and then came back and fell into a very deep sleep. All was good…McKenzie Pass was behind me.

I set out from Rachel’s, a WarmShowers.org host in Eugene, OR, on an early Saturday morning. Most of the town was still asleep but after a mile or so I found a Starbucks shop open. I put the bike in a bike rack, locked it up and went in for a light breakfast. The hot tea really hit the spot.

While I was sipping my tea I observed a city worker come along the sidewalk with a golf cart, carrying water tanks. She stopped outside the cafe and stuck a hose up into some hanging plants and turned on the water. When the pots filled up they started draining onto the sidewalk below. I panicked for a second but the water missed my bicycle below. Even the worker looked concerned and I could see her trying figure if she could move it, but she spotted the locking cable and didn’t try.

In the end the bike didn’t get too wet, just the rear wheel. I finished breakfast and rode off. My goal was to get out to the intersection of state roads 126 and 242, about 48 miles away. Following 126 out of Eugene I had no idea where I would stay for the evening. I had messaged a WarmShowers.org host to find out if they would have any room, but had not received a reply.

Most of the ride was uneventful, but very hot. Just a few miles from the destination intersection I had to decide on what to do for the night. I stopped at the McKenzie Bridge General Store and had a meal at their restaurant. I asked a few local fellows I ate with about Bigelow Hot Springs. One of the fellows is a neighbor of Joe Kurmaskie, author of the Metal Cowboy. I’ve read his books and have enjoyed them.

Bigelow Hot Springs is in the National Forest and free. It was late in the day and it was apparent that I’d not get there in time to get to the hot spring. Close by there was a hot spring at the Belknap Lodge Hot Spring, but the lodge is one of these fancy lodges that has a hotel, tour buses and recreational vehicles. Bikers with a tent are the camping equivalent of a homeless person. The RV park was full and they just gave me a sideways glance as if to say, “Get out of here kid.”

They did have a small camp store there, so I picked up a few small items and headed out into the National Forest. I went across the road from the lodge driveway and went up a forest road and found a trail off into the woods. I rode up a way into the woods and started setting up my tent. I heard some kids laughing and realized that there was a family some distance away, on another branch of the trail, that had already set up their camp.

I quietly finished putting up the tent and I don’t think they were aware that I was camped there.

After settling in, I put up an antenna wire and operated the ham radio for a while and then went to bed. Tomorrow was the assault on McKenzie Pass.

I’m currently in Eugene, OR. I’m staying with another WarmShowers.org host, Rachel. She lives in a little funky community of homes that remind me of something you might see in Lord of the Rings. If Bilbo Baggins jumped out of the door, it wouldn’t surprise me.

The 43-mile ride today was hot and dry. There is no rain predicted for the next week, so my record is intact for now. Rumor has it that it “doesn’t rain on Dennis.”

I rode by miles and miles of blackberry bushes today. They are everywhere and delicious. I think I ate about 5 lbs (2 kg) of them.  I also rode by endless fields of blueberries, but they were being commercially grown, eating them may have gotten me shot!

This state is one big breadbasket. All I see are vast fields of oats.

Of course, no discussion of Oregon is complete without mentioning the Redwood trees. Directly across the street from where I stayed last night there was a whole row of them. They were planted in 1932 and are now 200 feet (70 m) tall. They were planted too close together and will eventually kill each other off until the stronger ones win more room. I wouldn’t want to live across the street when that starts happening!

I’m planning on riding to McKenzie Bridge, OR, tomorrow. It is about 54 miles (87 km). I may camp there and get on the air with the ham radio. If I’m really up to it, there is a hot spring, known as Deer Creek, or Bigelow Springs, about ten miles further, and camping near it. That would be comforting after a long day’s ride.

Thus far on this journey. the drivers have been decent, but going a little too fast for my liking. Then again, this is the west and the roads are long and straight.

Rachel, my host this evening, was off to a birthday party. She asked me to put the chickens away for the night and do a head count to make certain they were all there…all eight were. They’ll have a lot of nice fresh eggs. Now that the chickens are in for the night, I am too!

Good night all.

Dennis, K1YPP