a good route to bend?

[shnshni]

Hi. trying to do some LIGHT touring this august. Thinking about going to Bend. Anyone know of any good (i.e., not dangerous, not heavily trafficked) routes? I don't mind some bad hills if there's no cars


thanks

hunter

[RonC]

I have no personal experience with this, but an aquaintence of mine from S. California mapped out and rode this route from PDX to Kalamath Falls, which might give you a start for something to look at. The Estacada to Detroit Lake, and Detroit Lake to Sisters legs sounded like fun to me, but it's not a no-cars route.

http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~rpinder/RollOregon.html

[bikieboy]

there's a State bike map put out by ODOT that's a fairly useful planning tool.

Not online, but you can get a paper copy by calling 503-823-CYCL (press 2 for maps & info) and asking those nice people with the City of Portland Transportation Options to mail you one.

Myself, if directness wasn't too big of an issue, might go something like:

- out the Gorge to Hood River
- up the back roads to Parkdale, Cooper Spur, then
- back on Hwy 35
- just past Bennett Pass, follow Forest Service Rd 48 all the way over to Wamic & Tygh Valley (this is A really quiet paved road!)
- Hwy 197 South to Madras (i think this is pretty low traffic?)
- Hwy 97 on down to Bend (you can probvaly find some quiet roads that parallel hwy 97 - check the DeLorme Oregon Atlas, & there's also a Bend area online bike map i think?

I can say from experience that this is a really nice ride as far a Wamic/Tygh Valley, but beyond that i haven't ridden.