Days: 4 - 4 days of riding
Level: Expert
Mileage: 63 ave - 255 total
Start/Finish: Portland, OR
Price: 750

 

Meals: All included
Restaurants: none
Motels: Belknap Hot Springs
Events & Activities: none


This tour is for those experienced riders who want a good challenging ride. With two 3000' and two 2000' foot climbs in 4 days this one will definitely challenge you. It is a lot of ride in one weekend.

This tour has and "early start" option. If the group gets out town early enough on Thursday afternoon we will have time for an easy evening ride into camp. Otherwise we will simply ride the bus all the way to camp.

With an early start we travel to Cottage Grove where we drop everyone off with their bikes for a late afternoon ride. We ride the Row River Trail, a rails to trails route that goes up the Row River Valley past Dorena Reservoir. This route is so scenic and accessible, that is is rated as one of Oregon's 10 best bike rides. The area is dotted with old covered bridges and we will have a chance to check out a couple of them along our way. After an easy 26 miles we come to our evenings camp along Brice Creek.

We start our day off on Friday with our first big climb. With an average grade of 6%, the first 7 miles of this climb serves to get us warmed up for the finale. The pitch goes up to 12% for the last 3 miles, so the summit better be worthy of a good Kodak moment. We are rewarded with a great downhill ride as we ride past Hills Creek Lake on our way to Oakridge. Oakridge is the Mountain Biking Capital of Oregon and bicycling has played a big part in the areas growth lately. We poke around town and stop for lunch before continuing on our way. As we ride up the Middle Fork of the Willamette River to our evenings camp site you get a taste of tomorrows treasure - the Aufederheide Scenic Byway.

 


On Saturday we spend most of the day riding the Aufderheide Scenic Byway, a ride that is rated as one of Oregon's 10 best bike rides (two of them in one ride, pretty good, huh?). This morning's climb is much easier than the previous morning's ride. We ride about 10 miles at a 2% pitch and the then have 2 miles of an 8% before we get to the summit. Riding down hill on what has been called “the magic carpet ride” the Aufderheide passes through majestic stands of timber as we ride past Cougar Reservoir. A short climb up the McKenzie River past the town of McKenzie Bridge brings us to the Belknap Hot Springs Resort. The resort has a variety of lodge rooms and cabins and we'll set you up in one or the other for the night.

Our climb on Sunday is another one of the "easy" climbs - 2000' of elevation gain over 22 miles. It is just a long climb up to the Santiam Pass. There will be plenty of nice sights to take your mind of the climb though as our route goes past a number of alpine lakes and several water falls. As we come up to the summit we meet up with the North Santiam Highway so we will have to share the road on our 30 mile descent down to Detroit Lake. We will be camping here for the night.

One more big climb and we do it first thing in the morning. We get about 7 miles to warm up on a 4% grade before we hit the big one - 3 miles of a sustained 12% climb. We hit the summit at 12 miles which puts us into the Clackamas River drainage. That means it's all down hill from here except for two small hills along the way. It is pretty much a 55 mile downhill cruise into Estacada. We'll get cleaned up here and the the bus will shuttle us back into town.

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.