This was my first time attending the yearly Ride the Rim event around Crater Lake and it was just as beautiful as I had heard. I did the ride with 10 other people, most of whom drove down from Washington as well. We were staying at an airbnb about an hour and a half away from Crater Lake national park and we woke early the day of the ride to get there in time. We left our airbnb at 4:30am and got to the lake at 6:00, just in time to catch the sunrise across the lake. The weather was nice; mild temperatures and no wind, but unfortunately a lot of smoke in the air from nearby wildfires. It could have certainly been worse, but still, the odor of the smoke along with the high elevation of this ride would be giving our lungs a proper challenge.
We started on the northwest quadrant of the lake, the designated start point although we were starting about two hours earlier than the designated start time. The first part of the ride was in the early morning fog and after about an hour we found ourselves at the first rest stop. It was near this rest stop that there was the only trail with access to the lake, a short but intense 1 mile hike that brought us down about a thousand feet in elevation to the water.
The water was beautiful and many in our group took a short swim. The sun was getting quite high at this point so we all applied our sunscreen or got out our protection clothing. We next had a few ups and downs on the ride before the “big” climb; a bit over a thousand feet over 5 miles. The climb went by quicker than I thought it would, even with a short detour to the Cloudcap lookout. The descent was fast and fun with my max speed topping out at 42mph.
The final part of the ride involved waiting about 2 hours for the transportation logistics to resolve themselves; I waited at the finish point bike corral while a few other members of our group took the long and slow shuttle bus back to where we had parked that morning before driving back to load up our bikes.
Overall an incredible ride and experience but with frustratingly tedious logistics. I would certainly do this again at some point but probably not year after year.
7/10
Water & Lava
I found out about this route while looking up gravel rides near Bend on the fabulous website Dirty Freehub. They have many rides that all look like great adventures in their own way, but this is the one that I settled on. It was about the length I wanted since I was doing it on the same day I was driving back to Washington, and it was relatively flat which I wanted after all the climbing at Crater Lake.
The route started at the Cascade Lakes welcome center about a 15 minute drive southwest of Bend, I immediately departed the pavement of the parking lot and was riding on a dirt trail weaving around sparse trees. The trail snaked through the forest and past a few more unpaved parking spaces as it took me to and from the river. I then passed Benham falls, the largest waterfall of the Upper Deschutes river. I crossed the river on a narrow bridge and the trees soon thinned as Lava Butte approached.
I later learned that this area, including Lava Butte, was used by NASA to train astronauts to traverse rocky terrain in spacesuits before the first moon landing in the ’60s. The Butte and surrounding area was thought to very closely resemble the surface of the moon. Their practice in Oregon caused the realization of some improvements to the spacesuits, such as a larger faceplate to see the ground better, as well as sturdier gloves and more flexible ankles.
The climb to the top of the cinder cone was short but very enjoyable due to the beautifully paved, bright red road. This whole ride had some of the most perfect surfaces one could wish to ride on; carved dusty single track, hard-packed gravel roads, and pristine cycle paths.
This was without question one of the most enjoyable rides I think I’ve ever done. Absolutely worth a small detour and arguably worth the trip from Washington to Bend on its own.
10/10