Crater Lake Tour
via Washington and Oregon Coasts

Day 8 - July 27th - South Beach SP to Reedsport
118km

 Even though the sun was out this morning there was a chilly breeze off the ocean. I poked my head out of the tent and there was Daniel - the French guy - huddling over some more burning twigs in the fire pit - he said he was cold again last night. I think that he was expecting warm California type evenings for his whole trip from Seattle! I told him once more that it would be a few more miles down the coast until that probability happened!

 Anyhow, after my quick breaky, I said "Bon Voyage" to him and wended on my merry way. I can't believe how cold and strong that wind really was this morning though - good job it was at my back, but it really chilled me after a quick sweat up some of the hills. Right about noon it warmed up considerably and now I feel like there's a heat wave here in Reedsport.

 Lots of great sites again today, the dunes start right after the town of Florence and even the sides of the road have blown in sand in many places. This will be the case for quite a few more miles down Highway 101, but this is my last night on the coast and from here I'll be taking Highway 38 east for a while tomorrow.

 I've opted for a motel tonight - good chance to visit the Laundromat and wash some stinky bike gear. Also I'll be able to watch the final stage of the Tour de France tonight - hmmm, pizza and beer sound good too ;-)

 Second breaky was in Waldport, lunch in Florence, ice creams in Reedsport! Food glorious food! Well it's fuel really for me, honest, even the ice creams and bakery goods!

 I hate the thought of leaving the wonderful coastal scenery tomorrow, but I'm sure that my final destination will make up for the inland trip there.
 Well, gotta go, laundry's done - and I'm hungry!

Day 9 - July 28th - Reedsport to Roseburg
121km

 Wow, that was one hot ride! When I arrived in Roseburg the temperature was 102°F; now at 5:00 p.m. it is 104°F! The ride itself was thankfully on mostly flat roads and curved back and forth following the course of the Umpqua River. Any hills that I did encounter were a real grind in this heat though. My Gatorade and the water that I carried and drank were definitely unpleasant at those temperatures - I could have made tea with the water! I drank it anyway as I have to try and keep hydrated in this heat, so any chance at a store or restaurant, I gulped down some cold drinks. There weren't too many opportunities though, and tomorrow I feel that there will be even less. I start into the mountains tomorrow with some serious climbing due later in the day, when the heat will be peaking - perhaps I'll have to shorten my planned route and duck into a campsite somewhere shady!

 Today, I quickly ducked into an air conditioned motel, there's no way I was going to even try and camp after a day in that heat when I don't have to.
 Apart from the heat though, it was a fabulous route today, nice views of the river for many miles and relatively quiet roads too, especially when I left Highway 38 at Elkton to travel on Highway 138. At one point along the riverbank, I came across some kayakers shooting the rapids - they were having a blast! Then as I continued on, some massive rock formations began appearing on the opposite bank of the river. One was named "Eagle Rock," and sure enough, there were a couple of eagles soaring above it - too far away for a decent photo though!

 Once I reached Sutherlin, I thought that I had to ride south for a few miles on the busy freeway - Interstate 5 to Roseburg, but a quick stop at the visitor's centre furnished me with information as how to get onto the old highway that parallels the I5 between Roseburg and Sutherlin. Funnily enough, it was the road directly behind the visitor's centre! What a treat to glance over at all that traffic on the I5 and not be riding with it!

 The last 20km from Sutherlin to Roseburg were a real drag on my resources though; with that extreme heat, I was truly glad to get off the road. I'm hoping for an early start tomorrow to try and beat some of the worst heat - wish me luck, and cold drinks!

 At some point today the odometer clicked over 1,000km - I couldn't see exactly when, as I had too much sweat in my eyes!

 Saw a herd of elk today, but they were a little too far away to get a good photo. Also saw some Canada geese, Basil figured they were lost, so he wanted to tell them which way was north! - Silly beaver!

Day 10 - July 29th - Roseburg to Diamond Lake
142km

 Just as I thought, today was uphill. The first half of the day was a gradual uphill and the rest involved some steeper grades - made more challenging by heat similar to yesterday's. I arrived at the campground absolutely bushed; I had doubts whether I would make it over the last 20km - only Basil's nagging kept me going! I'm sure glad that I started early this morning - I was on the road at 6:00 a.m., and it was not too hot until after about 10:30 a.m. when the sun got higher. A lot of my earlier riding today was also blessed by shade from the larger trees along this route. And talk about this route! It is easy to see why it is designated one of Oregon's "Scenic Byways." It is a real "purdy rowt," as one fellow explained to me last night as I waited for my pizza. And quite true, it is very pretty and pleasant riding, with low traffic volume. Just the heat made it more demanding today - but 100 degree temperatures make any bicycle riding challenging - even more so with 45lbs of gear hanging on the bike!

 Well, Roseburg was at 500ft elevation, and now I'm about a mile high at somewhere around 5200ft. The campground is virtually deserted though - two reasons...

a) The lake is toxic with an algae bloom, so no swimming etc.

b) There are two forest fires that just started from lightening strikes, one 15 miles north and another at 15 miles northwest and they are expecting hundreds of firefighters in this area tonight. After talking to some of the firefighter's supply crew at the store here in Diamond Lake, it seems that they are confident that the fires will be under control very quickly, as no high winds are forecast. Nevertheless, more lightening is forecast for Thursday and Friday, which could create more wildfires. There shouldn't be any problem with my destination of Crater Lake tomorrow though, and I will not be returning via any fire routes - hopefully, keep yer fingers and everything else crossed!

 What a good deal for camping here at the south end of the lake - the hiker/biker sites are free - can't argue with that! And it's not far to the store for a cold beer either - Mmmm, that'll go down nice with dinner tonight!

Day 11 - July 30th - Diamond Lake to Mazama Village -
Crater Lake National Park
78km

 The ride to the north entrance of the park involved a short climb on Highway138; once through the gate of the park,there is another climb and then the road flattens out a bit and runs through a pumice desert that was created when the volcano erupted. After that, the road goes up and up!

 But what a spectacular sight to see this huge body of water nestled in the caldera of Mount Mazama, which erupted about 7,000 years ago and then collapsed within itself leaving a void which filled with water and formed "Crater Lake." It really is breathtaking and very much worthwhile all the extra effort climbing the hills to get here. I decided to take the longer route around Rim Drive to get to the campground at Mazama Village. Talk about hills!The sights from Rim Drive are wonderful, but what a hilly road - perhaps some of the hardest climbs of my whole trip were in that 40km partial loop. I still have about 20km left to complete the loop, which will happen when I leave the park. Rim Drive itself is quite the sight, as in places the road drops off towards the caldera and lake, then in other places the road drops off towards the mountain side of Mount Mazama. It's a strange feeling to ride around the top of a mountain! Lots of rock-falls along the route too, in many places there are huge divots in the asphalt where large rocks have fallen off the shear cliffs that line the roadway periodically.

 There was no water anywhere on the loop, but fortunately for me, a couple parked at one of the lookouts had some to spare. There were in a car, but are avid cyclists who took the water along on their drive - just in case some other cyclist might need it. Good for them, and very lucky for me to come across them. I chatted with them for a short while - in between gulps of cool water - boy that tasted good and refreshing! They told me that they were camped at the campground that I was heading for, and I managed to find a site where I'm camped directly across from them (Barry & Melanie) - I'll go chat later. As it happens, it was a coincidence that I picked this spot - I picked it for the location of the(only) bear bin, which just happens to be on Barry and Melanie's site!

 So, not too many miles today, but lots of climbing - any sane person would have ridden Rim Drive unloaded - I did say "sane" though, didn't I! The bad part is that Mazama Campground is 1,000ft below the north junction where I entered the park. And although my riding took me to almost 8,000ft today, I'm camped at 6,100ft. Hence when I leave, it won't all be a downhill ride! Mind you, it never is, is it?

 Well, I've ridden quite hard without a break to get here, so I think that tomorrow will be a laze around, day off. The temperatures today were still soaring and there seems to be no break in sight, other than a vague possibility of thunderstorms. So that's it, no riding tomorrow. Mazama campground is 5km south of Rim Drive and part of Mazama Village, where there is a small general store and other services to keep everyone happy. I can see lounging over a newspaper with a coffee not being too hard to take in the morning!

 I'd just vacuumed down a fair amount of food, when Barry wandered over with their (substantial quantity of) stir-fry left-overs - I managed to find room for that lot too, then wandered over to their site and stumbled into desert - what nice neighbours!

 We chatted for quite a while, in fact it was dark when I ventured back to my abode (unusual for me as I'm always in my tent relatively early) to hit the hay without any concerns about breaking camp in the morning.