To all of you who pedaled south from Portland to the path of totality — welcome home!
From all reports it seems like biking to the eclipse was a huge success. We’ve seen dozens of posts from people who made the relatively short journey (25-35 miles, depending) and it seems like everyone had a great time.
Here’s a recap of BP reader Toadslick’s adventure, shared via a subscriber post this morning:
“My partner and I woke up at 4:00 am and loaded up our touring bikes with coffee, burritos, sandwiches, and moon pies that we’d made the night before. Our route took us to the Trolley Trail to Oregon City to Highway 213 until Wagonwheel Park, south of Mulino. At the time, we didn’t know that this was one of the BikeToTheEclipse.com suggested routes. Nor did we know that it was pronounced “Mul-EYE-no.”
The trip there was blissfully quiet until Highway 213, where eclipse traffic was in full effect. We often outpaced the stop-and-go car traffic, despite riding slowly because we were wary of right hooks… As we waited for the eclipse, we were happily surprised to see group after group of people on bikes arrive! I stopped counting at thirty bikes. Most of the people that we talked to mentioned that they had followed the BikeToTheEclipse website to get there.
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After the eclipse, the ride back to Portland was a completely different experience. Northbound 213’s shoulder was narrow to nonexistent, and the traffic was moving much faster. Despite this, the number of bicycles on the road together created a relieving sense of safety in numbers. From Wagonwheel Park all the way back to Portland, we were always between other groups of bike riders. The groups would regularly change as people peeled off to take breaks in the shade, but at no point were we the lone bike riders on the road. Because of this, the return trip was much more fun and enjoyable than the trip there.”
Today's ride was so amazing! Up there in all-time favorite bike rides. Biked 55 miles roundtrip to St. Paul, Oregon for #SolarEclipse2017 pic.twitter.com/FpfVz5NM2n
— Ms Fast (@_The_Clearing) August 22, 2017
BP reader Naomi Fast said she biked down to St. Paul to take it in. She reported meeting lots of other bikers out on the road. So many in fact that some turnouts turned into de facto pit stops.
And what about that dude who rode a Biketown bike down to Mollala!
https://twitter.com/BIKETOWNpdx/status/899773631848267776
Reader Nathan McNeil took this awesome time-lapse video of his ride. He even kept the camera rolling during totality. Nice work!
Great to hear that there were lots of bike riders out there. Nice work everyone.
Did you bike to the path of totality? How was it?
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Have to say I am totally regretting not making the journey into totality myself. Coulda/shoulda/woulda. I was ignorant of how much cooler that last 1% or so would be.
Well, how about the many cool bicycle and people experiences that you’ve had? I’d love to try that southern Oregon coast bike route that you’ve done.
me also
Never too early to plan a little bike tour to catch the one in 2024. 🙂
Fantastic experience. We took the same route as Toadslick, were also gently schooled in the pronunciation of Mulino, and hung out in Wagonwheel Park with about 200 others, including at least 40 or so cyclists. That could be a terrific route if not (and this is a big if) for the aforementioned shoulderless stretch heading north. Like others, we were inspired by the ‘Bike to the Eclipse’ site and the safety in numbers made all the difference. Added bonus: Oregon City Brewery was the perfect lunch stop after the rolling hills from Mulino to OC……
Oregon City Brewing is great. A perfect destination for a trip down the Trolley Trail.
Most definitely.
Drove to Canby and biked down to Woodburn on 99E (about 11 miles each way). This was the best of both worlds as traffic wasn’t too bad outside of the path of totality and 99E from that point on provided ample space in the shoulder. There were dozens of cyclists that made the journey and this was a great ride!
Canby ferry definitely was an excellent choice: on my ride from Portland thru there to close to Yoder (https://ridewithgps.com/trips/17071568), with the exception from ake Oswego to Stafford and a short stretch after Canby, there was hardly any traffic — south of canby also mostly cyclist rather than cars 🙂 — and scenic roads to boot. Definitely beat riding on 99E ….
So thankful for my eclipse experience! Biked down to McMinnville on Sunday and back on Monday. Took OR-47 and parallel roads on Sunday; back on what I’d hoped to be quieter country roads through wine country on Monday. Turns out a lot of drivers also took the quieter roads back Monday. The spots with the worst traffic were narrow roads with no shoulder…took some focus and gravel riding skills to navigate, but we passed a lot of cars. We didn’t see many cyclists on either day, but it was so worth getting out of town to totality!!
We did the same! Sweet ride!
Two wonderful friends biked 60 miles each way from St. Johns down to our family compound NW of Salem for the eclipse. I’ll let them weigh in with their first hand experiences if they wish. It was great to have some non-automotive participants join us.
Biking there on Sunday we took rural roads to Salem, it was fun as they allowed overnight camping.
Home we figured that aggressive drivers would be pushed to the side roads so we bet it would be safer and quicker to take the shoulder of I 5. We beat Salem traffic to Wilsonville and took WES-MAX home.
In the dairy Queen line on Woodburn we were quite the topic of discussion as we had passed sone of the customers four times……some took Pictures of us..
We were prepared to bike, having put our bikes atop the car in expectation of hitting terrible traffic, but instead it was smooth sailing from SE to Molalla at 5am. We considered getting out and biking the final bit so we could tell the grandkids one day, but opted instead for taking in the full sunrise while cozily sitting in lawn chairs.
Drive home had more traffic (took 90′ instead of about 60′ on the way down), but nothing terrible.
Eclipse was amazing, absolutely stunning, exceeded all expectations.
We experienced it at Smith Rock State Park, and the effects with the rock formations as a backdrop were stunning. The experience was even more awe-inspiring than I expected.
We saw several cyclists that must have come from the Bend/Redmond area. Cycling was right call if you had to get south after totality. I heard that it was taking people 6 hours to drive from Madras to Sunriver…
I was one of those cyclists that you saw. Our group of four went out Kline Falls Hwy, turns to gravel for a few miles, then zig-zagged over to the Crooked River bridge. Lots of people parked along our route (probably thousands) and we saw at least 100 other cyclists. It was pretty mellow going north, but coming back, yes, lots of traffic, but drivers were pretty respectful of us. Great day!
It was a great TriMet WES train ride and bike ride to Aurora from Wilsonville. A French Prairie bridge would have been great.
My folks live near the Canby Ferry so we began our Journey from there and rode across the Ferry, through Canby on the old logging road path and then due south on small rural roads. 32 Mile round trip for about a minute of total eclipse time. Aside from about 1 mile of riding an OK shoulder on a busy road it was all bike lanes / paths and near traffic-less roads.
The trip back across the Ferry had so many cyclists filling in around the cars that some had to wait for the next trip. Was truly awesome to see 30 cyclists using maybe half of the space and making the Ferry twice as much money as the 6 cars that had maybe 2-3 people in them each. Everyone from road cyclists, families, and cruiser bikes were in the mix.
Also, I hate to be “that guy” but Molalla River State Park is not in Molalla, it is north of Canby and was not in the path of total eclipse… maybe this guy did ride to Molalla (which is 15 miles further south) and this was just a pit stop photo op? Impressive regardless.
Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm had an excellent little festival going on, and lots of bikers showed up from Portland. Great day.
I would have loved to ride, but wound up having to join carmageddon (it was still very much worth it). I saw a number of cyclists along the way but fewer than I expected — I took 213 and 51 from Albany.
This is one of the very few instances where reality was better than the hype. I don’t have a bucket list, but full totality followed by the diamond ring was bucket list worthy. I’m willing to go to a lot of trouble to experience that again.
As a ride, this strikes me as one that would be more about transport and less about an enjoyable ride. I suspect anyone taking two lane roads dealt with lots of fast cars in the open sections and blocked lanes in shoulderless areas with backups. I-5 would have been a flat boring ride with debris.
While riding would have been better than driving, the driving experience was not nearly as bad as I was mentally prepared for.
Glad you, and apparently everyone else, had so much fun. If you are indeed willing to go to some trouble to experience another totality, there’s always April 2024. You’ll have to make your way to either the South or the Midwest, and that can be tornado time.
After so many people had such wonderful times this go ’round, I suspect there will be even greater enthusiasm for this next eclipse in the US. You even have the benefit of other people’s not-so-great experiences, like making sure the fine-print of any lodging you book doesn’t allow them to cancel you and raise the rate once they see the market will bear more.
Just so happens that my folks live in the totality zone for the next eclipse (they did for this one too — talk about lucky). So does my GF’s folks. So I’m totally covered with free lodging 🙂
But weather at that time of year can be a crapshoot. It was spectacularly good in most of OR for this one.
I too found totality to live up to the hype, but some of my family didn’t. I’m curious about what different people find in the experience that makes it amazing (or not).
My GF couldn’t see what the big deal was about the diamond ring. I thought it was one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my life. She just saw the end of the corona with a bright spot of light. Gah! At least she liked the corona.
Seeing the corona and diamond ring was cool I guess. I’d be more amazed to see PBOT install high-quality protected bike lanes in the central city, though. Now that would be truly amazing to see.
The next eclipse will happen first.
I rode from work near Newberg to St. Paul and back. 219 does not have a wide shoulder but it is at least a bike width wide except for a bit on the bridge across the Willamette. The road is relatively wide also so it felt pretty safe. There were a lot of bicycles riding between Newberg and St. Paul. Traffic was very light on the way to St. Paul and heavy coming back. Cars were going a bit faster than bicycles and all road users were polite. The roads went from empty to full within about 5 minutes of the end of totality. It was well worth the ride to get into totality.
I rode an e-bike and my cousin & sister-in-law rode on another cargo e-bike w/ kid back. 67 miles round trip with minor charging on the way home. It was so great to see tons of bicycles on the route, including several other e-bikes. One flat tire, a nice guy who had a floor pump rolled up and sped up our pumping process considerably. He said he had helped out 2 other people already. Totality was incredible. We went a bit outside of Molalla to see it in a bit more serene setting which was great. Stopped for a nice swim in the Willamette on the way home. Awesome day all around.
I lead a team participating Willamette Randonneurs Dart to Darkness. We had to ride a minimum of 120km in 8 hours. Beaverton to the destination in Willamina was almost exactly that far. We rode on Sunday; traffic was maybe a bit heavier than usual, but nothing bad. Lots of loafing in Amity, at the 6-hour control (Broadmead and Ballston Rds), Sheridan, and Willamina proper, so as not to finish too soon :-). Great fun and and astounding venue to enjoy the eclipse the next morning. The spouse followed with the camping gear, and we drove back Sunday afternoon, sticking to the back roads.
I took the bus and had no issues. We hit a bit of traffic around Wilsonville, but it only added about 20 minutes to the trip. Once in Salem, I had my folding bike and getting around was super easy. While it seems like ODOT basically had a field day with Salem and virtually all streets downtown are three lanes wide with angle parking on both sides, riding around was a breeze because the streets were mostly empty. I had time to check out a few breweries before my evening train ride home. Only dodgy part was a 40 MPH road with no shoulder or sidewalk near the airport.
All the hype about the carpocalypse on I-5 or cities running out of water and food, or cell towers going down was all hype. Places in Salem all reopened after the eclipse ended, and there was plenty of food, coffee, and beer to go around. I got to meet lots of different people who all come up to see the eclipse (the folding bike is definitely a conversation starter) and got to see a really cool astrological event. I’m so glad I ignored all the hype and panic.
Agree regarding hype, from what I saw traffic in Portland itself was much lighter yesterday (and the weekend before) than normal. But at least those local News channels got to sell commercials before and after each “Eclipse preparedness” segment! Maybe the hype was enough to keep enough people at home that it wasn’t so bad though…?
The traffic in and around Madras was horrendous, but southbound was by far the worst. While it may have only taken folks 2-3 hours longer to get back to Portland, I heard that it took some people from the bay area 20+ hours to make what is normally a 9-hour drive. I’m happy that many people stayed home, which made my experience better; but I’m also sad that they missed totality.
I drove my 5yo to Oregon City then we hitched up the bike trailer and rode 213 to Mulino (17 miles round trip). It was hilly and exhausting, but well worth it. Traffic on the way home was a little fast for my taste, especially with some loss of the shoulder in areas but we felt relatively safe with everyone else biking around us. What an experience to share with my little guy! I keep telling everyone that seeing totality was as wonderful as seeing my kids for the first time. So worth it!
A huge thank you for sharing the bike to the eclipse website. It gave me an extra boost of courage knowing others were going the same route.
I recall passing who I assume to be you, Andrea. My partner and I were in awe of your badassedness pulling 40-plus (?) pounds up and down those hills. What a lucky kiddo to have you as a mother!
Well we must have all been riding together. I too was profoundly impressed with your kid trailer. That was a long 37mph descent going in and a long climb out!
I saw another mom with TWO! kids on her extra cycle! I was quite impressed. It was so fun riding with everyone, or more accurately, trailing you all.
P.S. Does anyone know how the person who was on the ground is (possibly right-hooked)? This was southbound on 213.
These experiences (and we’ll likely hear and see more in the coming days) illustrates the need for ped/bike paths up and down the valley. Haven’t heard of anyone who biked to/from John Day (which had no crowds, according to reports) or Madras. Tri-Met’s Facebook page last night ran a pic of the large crowd at Tillicum Crossing. In Salem, the state fairgrounds amphitheater and the plaza near the State Capitol drew large crowds. The city park in Independence had a good turnout, according to KWVT’s Facebook page. This, I hope, will increase the interest for a valley wide ped/bike path system, with a national bike route designation, perhaps, in the future.
My three friends biked to Madras to camp with me. Back route involving 224, Timothy Lake, and Ollalie lake, then back up 26 last night towards Timothy Lake and home today via Estacada. They said 26 was smooth last night.
Glad to hear conditions for cyclists weren’t nightmarish, as I’d feared. And like Jonathan, I didn’t fully realize how amazing that last little bit would have been.
It just goes to show how incredibly powerful the sun is, that blocking 99.4% of the sun’s light (I watched from Hillsboro) still doesn’t make it dark. It was dusk-like in terms of both the strength and color of the light, to be sure, but weirder since the light wasn’t coming from the horizon. Watching later coverage on TV of South Carolina going into and out of totality, I hadn’t realized how dramatic that would be. Pretty impressive to see things go from partial daylight to near darkness in just a couple of seconds, and then the same in reverse a couple of minutes later.
I was glad that we were still able to see the “light snakes” waving on the ground here. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to from where I was, but we did get them maybe 20-30 seconds. That was just as amazing as all the crescent images on the ground.
It was a surreal experience. I was watching west, towards the cascades and saw Mt. Washington plunge into darkness, and then it raced up to us in just a few seconds. I can see how people get addicted to chasing these things.
Biked to view it on the summit of Mt Lowe, past Ripplebrook. Bus to Estacada, 50 miles to Tarzan springs to camp. A couple hours the next morning of dirt road and a bit of trail we were at the top at 9am. 40 people, 6 children, 3 dogs, 2 musicians (with guitars), 1 ham radio operator. We met 2 other bikers that day, one who saw it a Memaloose lake (“I don’t know how to describe how the lake looked”), and another who saw it near Breitenbush with a small group and the theme of Kubricks 2001 playing.
Pretty incredible day. We went down through Canby and south on Needy Road, which we had to ourselves on the way south, but had quite a bit of traffic on the way north. Cutting across to the Canby ferry on the way north got us out of any return traffic. I made this video including a timelapse of our ride south: https://youtu.be/3P1jSbjC24Y
Wow Nathan that video is really cool. Thank you for sharing it. And that’s Joe Broach with you, right?!
Thanks! Yep that’s Joe.
Did the same here, Needy Rd was perfectly empty. Lone Elder to Canby on the return was only bad spot for us.
That guy who rode Biketown to Molalla is my new hero.
3 of us cycled 99W from Tigard to Terry Park in Lafayette. Not many cyclists. Auto traffic slow and well behaved and it appeared we were faster on our bikes. Sparse chill crowd at the park, all rose and exclaimed in amazement and awe at totality. A most fantastic experience made even better by getting there by bike.
How was Dundee ?
We took the MAX to Hillsboro and biked HWY 47 to McMinnville. We saw a few other cyclists doing the same. There was lots of traffic but not too bad and we were passing cars stuck in the traffic on the way back to Hillsboro.
I decided to pass on totality, and opted for partiality instead, taking the eclipse in from Fairmount Blvd on the east side of the mountain atop which sits Council Crest. Actually, I’d thought about sleeping through the whole phenomena, having been over-saturated with hearing so much ecstatic talk about it all. Got up to experience it anyway, and glad I did. Nice people shared their eclipse glasses with me.
One of the coolest effects I never expected: The partially eclipsed sun passing through the tree canopy, projected a myriad of crescent shapes onto the road surface…bunches of them all lined up parallel to each other. Seeing the sun with the glasses was exciting, but seeing the eclipse projected onto the pavement in such a free form composition was for me, more beautiful and fun. Overall, the eclipse, with its darkening the sky to a twilight like character, and dropping the temperature dramatically at mid-morning, was an odd experience.
Rode a bakfiets with my girlfriend in the box (she sprained her ankle or would’ve ridden herself) 55 miles each way. Took 7.5 hours Saturday on the way there and 8 hours Monday on the way home. Not sure too much what to say.. I think seeing totality was pretty cool; the corona is an amazing sight with the naked eye. Riding a loaded cargo bike that far is difficult, and traffic wasn’t real friendly on Monday despite all the visibility gear I had and my girlfriend’s nice waving. Today, my legs hurt.
That’s hard core. Outta my league, but I love it.
What roads or trails ?
From NE Portland, I went downtown to Terwilliger, then took 10, 210, Roy Rogers, and then picked up 99W from Sherwood. Then I took 221 south from Dayton and went into West Salem via Doaks Ferry. Same route on the return. Probably the worst hill was coming back up 99W from Newberg to Sherwood, a few miles outside Newberg. There was a bit of shade right at the top there, though! Someone had suggested Oleson as a shortcut, and it probably would’ve been better, maybe taken about 4-5 miles off the ride?
Left my house in Hillsdale at 4:30, met up with some of the biketotheeclipse people at OMSI and rode down to Aurora. Having gotten there early, we went further south and ended up at the wooden shoe farm. Some backup on the two lane roads slowed us down, but the decision to ride bike instead of driving was a good one.
thanks for putting the ride meetup and routes together!
We rode from 22 and Powell in Portland to Mt Angel and had a great time.
Barlow Road sucked on the way back because of the narrow shoulder, but we made the best of it by passing oodles of cars at every stop sign or traffic light.
Satisfying! Opted for the Canby Ferry on the way back north and had a great ride back to Portland. Sooooo glad we did this. A ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ that for once lived up to the hype.
It sure was fun!
Due to some rider issues we improvised the return route, but either way the company, weather and experience was fantastic!
There: PDX — > Oregon City –> Canby –> Aurora –> Silverton High School. ~50miles
Back: Silverton HS –> Canby Ferry –> Wilsonville WES –> MAX back to PDX. ~32miles
Our experience in Silverton was wonderful — lots of friends and family out on the fields enjoying each others’ company and reveling in the wide and clear views of the astral delight (plus a plugin for an ebike that came along for the ride, and flushing toilets).
I was with Ms. Fast – ’twas all the more sweet because in the year leading up to the date, first we were going (by Zipcar), then we weren’t (cancelled the Zipcar because what could be more useless in a predictedly unprecedented traffic jam?), then we were (bike camping), then we weren’t (when all the camping spots filled up, twice), then we were (very doable ride to St. Paul & back the same day), then we weren’t (got discouraged by the thought of being amongst “the public” with their drones, guns, booze, loud music, fireworks and plain old inane chatter), and that’s how it stayed right up until Sunday evening, but then we said screw it and went anyway. Glad we did! “The public” were quite pleasant actually. They ought to ban anticipation.
I stayed in Corvallis with my folks and brought my ‘cross bike with me to ride the trails. Dan’s Trail (no relation) is a nice shared trail on the north end of town, where I encountered a rider on horseback, lots of hikers, and a few fellow cyclists. I took time to slow down and say hello when passing, or move completely off the trail to let others go by in the other direction. Not sure what’s so difficult about sharing trails with others and being courteous….it’s a small price to pay to have access.
Then the family & I hiked up to Chip Ross Park with a couple hundred other people for the eclipse. On the way down we encountered some park maintenance guys who were confused by the direction we were heading, saying it was a dead end. I told them that we were heading to the trail by the water tower, just 50 feet from where they were standing and they said ‘if there’s anything there, it’s unauthorized, and it’s our job to discourage people from using unauthorized trails’, which is funny because the entire trail system there was ‘unauthorized’ for decades before somebody finally made some maps of the area. And on those maps, among the spiderweb of trails, was the very trail we were heading to, a trail I have biked on for 30+ years. Funny that they had no idea it was there…
On Sunday, I hauled a trailer with my girlfriend’s bike to Salem (Boone Bridge is suboptimal but more bearable than you’d think). She took most of the camping gear on the bus.
We rode back together on Monday, trading turns on 99E with cars as traffic froze and thawed, as well as other people on bikes, riding solo and in larger groups, mostly—and wisely—carrying less than I did.
The couples that paced me through Woodburn on the way out and up the Trolley Trail on the way home deserve a big shout out. I would have introduced myself but I was just trying to hang on! The better halves were riding a Cielo and Lynskey respectively, and that good taste seems to extend to their partners.
Two days, 50 pounds of gear, 140 miles. I was too exhausted for chewing solid food or even typing after we got home, yet I’d do it again tomorrow if I could. It was a 16/10 experience.
It appears your lead photo is of a cyclist on a two-lane, no shoulder rural highway, taking a selfie while riding. The reason I point this out is that you are very vigilant about pointing out unsafe behavior by other road users and, pointing out advertisements and promos that promote or depict unsafe road behavior.