Day 22: North Davis Creek Campground

It’s always interesting sleeping in a hotel for a few nights. Everything gets spread out, and it seems to take longer to pack it all up in the morning than when camping. Thank goodness breakfast on the weekdays at the hotel is served starting at 6:30 instead of 7. That meant we were able to eat early and get things packed up at a reasonable time. It was cold when we woke up, about 36*, and it didn’t warm up much more by 8:30 when we left the hotel. We said goodbye to Bend and headed toward Mt. Bachelor, one of the youngest volcanoes in the Cascades. Even though we should have been able to see the mountain, we only caught glimpses at first because the clouds were covering it up. Which was a bad omen…

We stayed on Forest Road 46, which is a scenic byway taking travelers between Mt. Bachelor and South Sister, and then through the Cascade Lakes region and has lovely shoulders. We gained and gained in elevation, until we hit just over 6300 feet right at Mt. Bachelor’s base. It was certainly cold, each time we stopped for snacks we didn’t dawdle so we could warm back up with exertion. Then, we zipped everything up in preparation for the downhill, which is usually enjoyable. However, today was a bit different. We came around to the other side of the mountain, and we ran into SNOW! It was just spitting a bit, but there was a tiny bit of accumulation on pine needles on the sides from the night before, the air was frigid, and gaining speed on the downhill was almost painful it was so cold. We really should havbe put on more layers but it was so cold we didn’t want to stop. So, we took it very slowly, and were very happy to get back down below the snowline. We had some great views of South Sister, and some other snow covered peaks and then we were finally down into the lakes region.

The roads were really quiet today, we didn’t have much company. It added to the feeling of remoteness, although I think we weren’t really that far from civilization because when we switched on the phone to check a campsite, we had plenty of reception.

The air temperature was cold, never got out of the 40’s, but we managed to stay reasonably warm by keeping our hands warm with gloves and our shoes covered by waterproof shoe covers, which helps keep out rain AND wind. It did eventually start raining on us, so we added rainpants to our layers. We ate a late lunch at a closed campground around 1:30pm, and then pretty much decided to try to do as much riding today as we could. Each mile we ride today is one less to ride tomorrow, right?

We almost stopped at a campground 7 miles back, but decided to try for this one, and I’m glad we did. The toilets aren’t locked which is a bonus We also have an awesome campsite with the stream right beside us, so gathering water to filter is easy peasy. It began to rain in earnest just about when we got the tent set up, but has since lightened up. We have neighbors in this campground, but hopefully they’re considerate and quiet. Tomorrow, we have just under 50 miles to ride. Today was a good ride, and I think the rest days helped our legs recover from all the climbing last week.

Time: 6:05:45

Distance: 55.00

Average: 9.0

Climb: 3419ft

Max 29.0

Look pine trees lining the road!

Mt. Bachelor 

Snow dusting the tree tops

While snow makes it so pretty my fingers were about to fall off here...

What a view, actually turned around and rode back to get this one

Pam passing in front of one of the lava flows