Eastern Oregon – Day 19-21; Crossing the Cascades. Cold Springs Campground, Sisters to Armitage Campground, Eugene

Day: 19 – The McKenzie Pass
June 16, 2023

Distance: 35 miles (763 total)
Cold Springs Campground to Belknap Hot Springs

Did you notice we went from cold springs to hot springs today? It’s like we planned it that way.

The McKenzie Pass over the Cascade Mountain Range has been on our radar from the get go. With a summit of 5325ft we knew it was going to be a doozy. Luckily it’s our last major climb before we get home, and even better it was closed to traffic. 

Typically the McKenzie Pass is closed to vehicular traffic until the third Monday in June (weather dependent) so June 19 this year.   Fortunately being a couple days before the opening it’s the perfect time for cyclists, because the snow is melted, the roads are clean, and of course no cars!

While this pass was our biggest, it honestly wasn’t the worst. That probably had a lot to do with the lack of traffic and amazing weather, but it was actually pretty fun summiting this climb.  Our ride up included a lot of burnt forest, but the lack of foliage left a lot of views out to the mountains to the north.  As we got higher we also saw a lava field which was really cool.

There were a lot of cyclists out on the pass today.  Most of them seemed to be the kind of people who’ve climbed the route before because we seemed to be the only ones taking photos on the way up.  Granted there was a huge congregation of cyclists snapping photos at the top.

At the top of the McKenzie Pass is the Dee Wright Observatory. A super cool structure built out of the lava rock on the summit.  It offered amazing views in all directions, and fun fact, had cell service at the top. We spent a long time up there eating second breakfast, taking pictures, and just generally chatting with folks.

At some point we decided it was time to start the hard earned decent (some of this descent was earned back from our climb of day 4).  It started off pretty chill and shallow, but then turned to a steep twisty downhill.  Even though we had to use our brakes a bunch on the sharp turns, it was still awesome. (I’m glad we climbed the eastern side). 

We opted to break for lunch around the 4000ft elevation marker. We did our usual stop on the side of the road break spot but today’s spot was way more entertaining than usual. We were on the edge of a pretty steep hairpin turn so we saw all the downhill cyclist zip by, and had plenty of time to chat with/cheer on the up hill cyclists. It was great. We probably saw around 30 cyclist in the short lunch break we took.

The rest of the downhill went by pretty fast, figuratively and literally. We were always shocked to see we had already ticked off another 1000ft of descent.

We ended our ride today at Belknap Hot Springs (which also coincidentally is the end of the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway). After checking in and showering we made our way over to one of the hot spring pools. Ahhhhh. What a relaxing way to end a ride.

For dinner Andrew decided he wanted to try out a new recipe. Fried rice! He had even safely brought a half dozen eggs over the mountains from Sisters to make it. While yes it was delicious, it needs some improvement and practice to make our dishes less painful to clean afterwards.

Belknap Hot springs has surprisingly nice tent sites. Each site is nestled into its own little forested area. Each site feels very secluded because of the distance and underbrush. (Did I mention how much I miss the west side greenery? cause it’s great to be back).

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
2nd Breakfast: Peanut butter burrito and cashews
Lunch: Bean burritos with sundried tomatoes
Dinner: Fried rice with dehydrated veggies, vegan jerky, and fresh eggs (new recipe!)
Snacks: Bars, trail mix, cashews, mangos, ice cream, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate milk

Day: 20 – Funny Business
June 17, 2023

Distance: 20 miles (783 total)
Belknap Hot Springs to Blue Pools and Back

Who needs an alarm when you can wake up to a tree fall?! Andrew had gotten up moments before telling me our alarm would go off soon, but that he was gonna make the trek to the restrooms. Shortly after he was gone I hear a loud crack and a thunk. Turns out Andrew actually saw a tree fall right in front of him maybe 100ft from our campsite across one of the paths through the campgrounds. Everyone appears to be fine, and the closest campsite was still a good distance away. But just a friendly reminder that trees can fall in perfectly fine weather.

Since we paid for two nights at Belknap, rather than take a zero mile rest day we opted to do some “funny business” and explore the single track trail nearby. Our high optimism thought we would make it all the way to Clear Lake, 16 miles away, but that single track trail kicked our butts and really made us work for some of those miles on our touring bikes. New turn around goal quickly became the famous Blue Pool at the 10 mile mark.

The trail itself actually started off pretty mellow from Belknap. It was nice to do some fun exploring without all our gear slowing us down. Our bikes felt so light and nimble.

As we were riding along we came across a somewhat local mountain bike rider who gave us a little run down of what to expect on the trail. He also warned us that it gets real rocky near Blue Pool but it’s absolutely worth making it out there.

We rode along going slow, but still feeling confident when we came up to the Deer Creek hotspring. This is a non commercialized natural hot spring on the side of the river. It was a little humid out for us to want to take full advantage of the hot spring, but we did stick our feet in for a little while before carrying on on the trail.

There was some washout on the trail that led to a detour on some gravel roads. Unfortunately that gravel riding also came with a big hill. Around this time is when we started to wonder if we had packed enough food for what we thought would be an easy jaunt. Regardless, by this time we were committed to making it to Blue Pool. As promised the trail definitely got harder and so we did a lot of walking. There were a lot of steep bits and tree roots and rocks adding to the difficulty.

When we finally made it to the Blue Pool trailhead we decided we were not willing to carry on the rocky single track trail with our current bikes and skill level. So instead, we went a little back down a bike path and locked the bikes to a tree so they would be hidden from opportunistic parking lot poachers and continued on foot.

From where we locked our bikes up we still had a 2 mile one way hike to get to the blue pool. We hiked so fast, spurred on by the anxiety of leaving our bikes unattended in the woods. (We had been warned of some recent bike thefts from the Belknap Hot Springs so I think we were a little extra on edge.)

The hike itself was gorgeous. It had cool views of the river, as well as some neat lava rock formations (all things that looked like they would be super difficult on bike, although due to the popularity they do have separated biker and hiker paths to the pool so at least the hikers and bikers aren’t having to share a trail).

As we approached the Blue Pool we started to hear a bunch of counting followed by a splash. We knew we were close. The pool does live up to its name, and is in fact very blue. It also appeared to be a popular cliff jumping spot. A group of folks had drones and cameras set up. They were doing flips of the edge into the freezing blue water below and then scrambling/climbing back up the rocks, which was entertaining to watch, but definitely not inspiring enough to try.

We were very happy to find our bikes still locked to the tree we left them when we finished our hike. A mountain biker going the other way was a bit surprised when we came out of the bike trail with them, maybe we had hidden them well enough after all. Being well past noon, we bee lined it back to Belknap on the main road where we could order lunch from the on site food truck. They even had root beer floats! It was just what we needed to finish our day ride adventure.

The weather had started to cool off so after eating we decided to spend a good chunk of time in the hot spring pool. It was a little crowded, but still very relaxing. The rest of the day was mostly maintenance and preparation for the next day. Unfortunately, rain and busy highways are on the horizon…

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal, coffee, fried egg with tortilla
Lunch: Impossible burgers, fries and root beer floats (Riverside Grill food truck, belknap)
Dinner: Freeze Dried butternut dahl baht and fries from the food truck cause the dehydrated meal wasn’t enough
Snacks: Bars, dried mangoes, nuts

Day: 21 – Rain Rain Go Away
June 18, 2023

Distance: 62 miles +5 more miles for pizza (850 total)
Belknap Hot Springs to Armitage Park, Coburg

At least it wasn’t raining when we packed up camp. Today was all rain all day. Well to be fair it was on and off again rain and it never was like a super hard rain. But it was still a lot of it.

The morning ride was tree lined and beautiful. Or at least it would have been had I been paying attention to the scenery. With the rain it was mostly a get lost in your head kind of day. A few miles in we decided it was cold enough to break out the rain pants we’ve been lugging around, and for once I’m glad we brought them.

We knew the stretch of road today would be shitty traffic wise. But rather than take others advice and ride a bus, we decided to enhance the shittiness by adding rain and road spray to the mix. Our bikes and bags are filthy after today.

Around mile 30 we hit the town of Vida. We opted to warm up in their cafe. It was a much needed break from the wet and cold. And the food was great too. Their building didn’t have an awning though, so we ended up locking our bikes across the highway at the gas station under their awning because we wanted them to have a chance to dry out as well.

As we were leaving the cafe the sun actually came out! It was so nice and we were even starting to get a little warm. We almost (almost!) opted to take our rain pants off, but we saw looming grey clouds in the distance. We had maybe 15 min of sunshine before it was back to riding in the rain. We weren’t even treated to any rainbows. So rude.

We stopped for a late lunch at some random, but really cool park in Eugene. We were fortunate to find one with covered picnic tables! Good thing too because as we were eating the skies opened up and let down a torrential downpour. The nearby children playing on the playground were unaffected, but all the parents took shelter with us by the tables.

Unfortunately in a rush to make sure the bikes were fully covered by the shelter Andrew’s bike fell on mine and officially broke my taillight clean off it’s mount. At least the dynamo and headlight still work, but good thing we’re heading home.

After that craziness the rain seemed to let up for the rest of the day. We even got some more sunshine. Although it was still very windy.

We rolled into Armitage Park around 4:00pm. Since the place is so popular we had previously made reservations to camp there. And not wanting to throw away our $30 reservations, rain or not, that’s where we’ll be tonight.

It looks like rain is in the forecast for the next two days as well, then back to sunshine. Andrew is wanting to get home, but I want to actually enjoy our ride home through the Willamette Valley. After today I wasn’t too excited for another rainy ride. So we compromised. We plan to take a rain rest day tomorrow, and only ride in one more day of rain. Tuesday’s rain is supposed to be lighter as well. Fingers crossed the sunny forecast on Wednesday is accurate! Now to find a cheap-ish hotel that’s not too out of the way for tomorrow….

For dinner we decided we earned pizza. The mountain biker we had run into yesterday on the single track trail had recommended Coburg Pizza Company. Sold. We decided a mostly unloaded 2.5 mile one way ride for pizza would be worth it. It definitely was. (And it also helped that the rain isn’t supposed to start back up until 1am).

What We Ate

Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee
2nd Breakfast: “Logger Pancakes” for Andrew and French toast, hash browns, and some of Andrew’s pancakes for Angela (Vida Cafe)
Lunch: Bean burritos with sundried tomatoes
Dinner: Veggie heavy pizzas (Coburg Pizza Company)
Snacks: Bars, nerds clusters, nuts

Can O’ Beans Count So Far: 11

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