Days: 4
Level: Aggressive
Mileage: 47 ave - 188 total
Start/Finish: Portland, OR
Price: $600

 

Meals: All included
Restaurants: none
Motels: none
Events & Activities:


This tour takes you on THE alpine mountain ride in Oregon. The Cascade Lakes Highway is an eighty-seven-mile signed route through the Central Cascade Mountains. The route skirts past nine alpine lakes and many stops with amazing views of the Cascade Mountains.

This is mostly a pretty easy ride with 40 mile days and fairly flat terrain... except for day 2 when we ride from Bend up past Mt. Bachelor Ski Area. It is a long gradual climb up 3200 vertical feet over 30 miles. Your reward will be an easy day 3 ride with magnificent views.

With this tour we use our early getaway from town to get us up on the Santiam Pass where we stage for our ride. We will spend our first night at the campground at Suttle Lake.

Friday's ride is pretty easy going as we drop down into Sisters where we stop for a morning break. Leaving Sisters we take a route less traveled as we head towards Redmond. As we pass Eagle Crest we turn south for an easy ramble through the Central Oregon ranch land. We finish up our ride at Tumalo State Park where we will camp for the night.

We start our ride out the next morning by skirting around the east side of Bend. After our morning break in Bend we start our big climb of the weekend. We have twenty miles of climbing to do to get to the 6000' pass just past Mt Bachelor that is our "gateway" to the Cascade Lakes. Luckily the grade maxes out at 4% - its just a long slow climb up into the mountains. An easy downhill finish takes us in to Elk Lake where we'll stay in the campground.

Our ride through the alpine lakes on Sunday will be the highlight of the ride. Expansive views, beautiful alpine lakes, and gentle rolling hills are the calling for the day. This day is all about taking pictures and enjoying the ride! We finish up our days ride as we drop down to the campground at Crescent Lake where we will camp for the night.

Monday's ride is a short ride up past Odell and Waldo Lakes. Waldo Lake is one of the purest lakes in the world and it is one of the largest natural lakes in Oregon, and the second deepest. It only seems fitting to end our weekend of Cascade Lakes with this most beautiful lake. After getting cleaned up from our ride we head back to Portland.

 

Tour details may change without notice. Although you'll have an up-to-date itinerary prior to departure,
changes due to unforeseen circumstances may occur at any time.