The State of Oregon has rolled up their welcome mat when it comes to cycling on McKenzie Pass during it’s annual winter closure.
In the past, the closure of this epic highway (OR 242) that’s considered to be one of the best rides in Oregon, was considered an open invitation to bicycle riders to enjoy it carfree. The closure is done each year by the Oregon Department of Transportation at the start of the winter storm season in order to save maintenance costs (it’s considered a secondary highway, so isn’t essential for travel). As word has spread, a growing number of riders seize the opportunity each year in late spring as snow melts. They ride up and over the pass thanks to ODOT crews who plow a narrow path through the massive snowfall — and it all happens before the “road closed” gates open back up for drivers.
But according to the Salem Statesman Journal, ODOT wants to tamp down on this cycling tradition. “Over the past few years, the Oregon Department of Transportation quietly decided that once the highway is closed to cars, it’s closed to everyone else as well,” reads a story published Sunday. The story also says ODOT has liability concerns and is partly motivated by an allegedly large number of close calls between bike riders and maintenance crews during a paving project this past summer.
Now cycling and snowmobiling groups in nearby Sisters, Oregon are shocked and they’ve mounted a campaign to encourage ODOT to reconsider. A Change.org petition to, “Keep McKenzie Pass Highway 242 open for winter recreation,” has gathered nearly 900 signatures in just two days.
When I saw the Statesman Journal article, it struck a nerve. Back in March I found myself on the McKenzie Pass website and noticed language about how the road was “closed to everyone.” That seemed like a big change from when ODOT promoted the route as a carfree cycling opportunity, so I emailed ODOT Region 4 Public Information Officer Kacey Davey and asked to explain whether or not the policy had changed.
“There has been no policy change, as there was never a policy saying that the road was open to just bikes. It was public perception,” Davey shared in an email last spring. “In recent years we have been stronger about our language letting folks know that closed areas are closed to everyone,” she added.
But ODOT is partly to blame for that perception. In 2019, their press release announcing the closure stated, “This is the annual closure of the highway to motorized vehicles… Non-motorized users, including hikers and bicyclists, access the area at their own risk when it is closed to motorized vehicles.” And in 2018, ODOT officials made it clear they expected bicycle riders on the highway. After a fire damaged the highway and crews were on hand to make repairs, an ODOT press release said warning signs about the project would be removed on weekends (emphasis mine), “to indicate that visiting is permitted. However visitors, including cyclists and pedestrians,” read the statement, “must be aware that ODOT is not maintaining the highway for wheeled travel at this time…”
It’s easy to see why folks are confused about the shift in tone around the closure. ODOT won’t communicate an outright cycling ban because they don’t have the enforcement capabilities to back it up. So for now, they’re strongly encouraging folks to not ride during the winter closure and making it clear that anyone who goes past the gates is, “doing so at their own risk.”
— For more information and updates, see ODOT’s McKenzie Pass Hwy page.
