Bend seemed like a nice town, so we decided to spend an extra day. The high mountain climate reminded us a lot of Salt Lake City. Bend has a small, but thriving downtown area with a wide variety of shops and restaurants, so we spent a good part of yesterday walking around downtown. We picked up lunch at a local restaurant and took it to Drake Park which is sandwiched in between Bend’s downtown area and the Deschutes River.

During the rest day yesterday in Bend, I also tried to find a good cycling route headed south out of Bend towards Crater Lake National Park. Highway 97 is so busy now that it’s not much fun for bicycling. I wasn’t having much luck finding a route on my own, so I stopped in at a bicycle shop in Bend. I was disappointed to find out that no, there really wasn’t a good cycling route headed south towards Crater Lake.

I did finally find an alternate to Highway 97 in the Bend area — for about four miles! I enjoyed that four miles, and then, back on Highway 97, I resigned myself to riding on it. It was definitely busy, but it did have a very wide shoulder which was rideable all the way to its far right edge and believe me, I used it. Below is some video of me riding on Highway 97 about 15 miles south of Bend.

Further south, my handheld GPS unit did offer a couple opportunities to get off of Highway 97. Unfortunately, its maps for this part of the country don’t have complete information about the roads because it kept suggesting I turn off of 97 onto dirt roads. As much as I dislike Highway 97, my skinny road tires just won’t do the job of riding in gravel and sand.

When the riding becomes more difficult, I don’t take as many photos. And today was a perfect example of that — I only took one photo and one video clip. Today, I think it was because I was spending a lot more time watching the road and traffic than I was looking around at the scenery. That, more than anything else, is why I want to find an alternate to Highway 97.

Tonight, we’re staying in Chemult, Oregon. It’s nothing more than a wide spot on a busy highway, but it’s wide enough to have several motels. We were told this is the first weekend of deer hunting season in Oregon and there’s also some kind of mushroom hunt going on this weekend, so that might account for all the traffic.

Tomorrow, I’ll have 10 more miles to bicycle on Highway 97, then I’ll turn off onto SR-138 which is a long, gradual, 14 mile climb to 5900 feet and the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park. From the park entrance, it’s up some more to the rim of Crater Lake at 7025 feet.

Total distance:	67.79 miles
Time:	5:28:55
Average speed:	12.4 mph
Maximum speed:	26.5 mph
Total calories:	4891
Average heart rate:	121 bpm
Maximum heart rate:	154 bpm
Total ascent:	2089 feet
Total descent:	1019 feet
Ride profile:	(click on image to view a larger version)
Ride comments: Another day on busy Highway 97. Weather conditions were pretty good. Winds were pretty calm, but by noon there was a 10-15 mile per hour headwind. The shoulder on Highway 97 was mostly good, but it did dwindle down to almost nothing in a few spots which made me a little nervous with all the traffic.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 2:34 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.