Useless statistics about this tour:

16 days on the road, camping every night except when I was at home.

Total distance: 752 miles (1203 km).

Distance on gravel roads: 35.5 miles (56.8 km).

Total climbing: 36,744 feet (11,135 meters), measured by my Ciclosport CM-414alti cyclocomputer.

Slowest day: 6.8 mph (10.9 km/h) average speed on day 12, climbing from Diamond Lake to Crater Lake.

Fastest day: 13.7 mph (21.9 km/h) average speed on day 13, descending from Diamond Lake to Umpqua hot spring.

Longest distance in one day: 63.5 miles (101.6 km) on day 6.

Shortest distance in one day: 21.4 miles (34.2 km) on day 4.

Biggest climb in one day: 6295 feet (1908 m) on day 6.

Maximum speed: 48.7 mph on the descent from Bearcamp summit to Galice, day 6.

Highest elevation on the road: 7800 feet (2364 meters) at the Cloudcap Overlook, Crater Lake.

Highest elevation on a trail: 8013 feet (2428 meters) at Watchman Peak, Crater Lake.

Lowest elevation: sea level.

Coldest night: 40F (4C) at Diamond Lake.

Coldest day: 54F (12C) all afternoon at Cape Blanco, day 3.

Warmest day: 95F? (35C?) on the climb to Bearcamp summit, day 6.

Rain: A few sprinkles on day 1.

Flat tires: 2 (both on day 6).

Hiking: 19.5 miles (32.2 km) Much less than on other recent tours.

Scorecard of my informal tour objectives:

1. Eating blackberries-

I did stop to eat blackberries on about half the days. I generally didn't see blackberries on the coast, or at Crater Lake. But blackberries were easy to find in sunny inland areas below about 4000 feet elevation.

2. Swimming-

On the warmest days I typically stopped to swim more than once per day. On the coast it was too cold to swim. I didn't swim at Crater Lake or Diamond Lake (I waded into Crater Lake and swam at Diamond Lake on a 1999 tour).

So I probably ended up swimming on about half the days of this tour.

3. Waterfalls-

I saw 9 named waterfalls, plus several other waterfalls that aren't named.

4. Slow pace-

I definitely had a slow pace when I was on the coast nursing a sore muscle. I also had a very slow pace for the last 3 days of the tour. But if I really wanted to take it easy I should have split day 11 (climb to Diamond Lake) into two days,

and perhaps I could have split day 1 (crossing the Coast Range) into two days.

So I guess the result is mixed. I'll have to try harder to be lazy on my next tour. ;-)

Water:

I carried a water filter on several past tours. On my 2004 tour I went on a weight-reduction binge and carried water purification tablets which weigh almost one pound less than the water filter. But I never used the tablets on my 2004 tour. On this tour I did use them when camped at Umpqua hot spring and at Canton creek. It worked, and the vitamin C pills make the water taste okay. But I didn't really like having to wait for the tablets to purify the water, and having a 2-stage process to get drinkable water. On future tours I will probably carry the tablets only if I DON'T expect to need them. I would prefer to carry my water filter if I expect to camp in areas that don't have drinking water.

Tripod:

I must have gotten over last year's weight-reduction kick, because on this tour I carried a 2.2 pound tripod for the first time. The tripod triples the weight of my photo equipment, but I was very pleased with the results I got in several circumstances.

1. Deep shade, where a slow shutter speed is necessary.

2. Situations where I wanted to stop down the lens for improved depth-of-field.

3. Telephoto pictures, where camera shake is noticeable even with relatively fast shutter speeds.

4. Pictures of rivers and waterfalls, where I use the longest possible shutter speed to make the water look silkier.

5. Self portraits. I only took two self-portraits on this tour, though. On my next tour I would like to take more self-portraits in various situations to give more of a "documentary" feel to my pictures instead of just pictures of pretty scenery.

Footwear:

This was my first tour with SPD cycling sandals. That made it very quick and easy for me to stop and wade in rivers to cool off. As usual, I also carried Teva sandals for hiking and off-bike relaxing. The all-sandal footwear worked very well for me, even on 40F (5C) mornings where I wore thick wool socks with the sandals. I also carried Sealskinz Gore-Tex socks for the first time in case of cold rain. I never had any rain, but I used the Sealskinz on one cold foggy day on the coast.

Physical problems:

I had more personal problems with this year's tour than in previous tours. Part of that is that I was lucky in recent tours. And one explanation is that I'm getting older (44 on this tour). Or maybe I just had bad luck on the first part of this tour, with a sore muscle starting on the very first day, and starting to get sick on day 6. Fortunately I had fewer problems on the second part of the tour, even though the terrain was generally more challenging. One way to avoid some of these problems in future tours is to do shorter days.

Bike problems:

This was my 10th self-contained tour on my present bike. It has had problems in the past, such as a cracked bottom bracket boom. But on this tour I had no mechanical problems except for the flat tires on day 6.

Thoughts about Southern Oregon:

I love this place. It's a great place to live but not the best place to make a living. It's definitely a great place for bike touring. There is wonderful scenery everywhere - on the coast, the coastal mountains, inland valleys and rivers, and in the Cascade mountains. I was traveling during the peak of the tourist season but you can tell by my photos that most places weren't very crowded and most roads didn't have much traffic. Highway 101 on the coast had a lot of traffic but the places I stopped weren't really crowded. Crater Lake was only crowded at Rim Village where all the bus tours and 2-hour visitors go. This area is better for camping bike tourists than credit card tourists (at least on my route). There are few lodging facilities on my route but campgrounds are very common. Not all of the campgrounds have showers. The state parks have showers. But only some of the county parks have showers and none of the National Forest, BLM, or National Park campgrounds have showers. That's why I carry a water sack and shower hose to make my own shower. My route had some long distances between grocery stores. Sometimes I had to carry two days of food. So I guess this area is best for bike tourists who enjoy a certain degree of independence and challenge. Feel free to contact me if you want more information about touring in southern Oregon.

What's the best time of year?

The road through Crater Lake National Park is usually open from early June until early October. But the road around the east side of Crater Lake doesn't usually open until early July. June through September is the dry season, so that's generally the best time to tour. I like June the best because the grass is still green and wildflowers bloom profusely. In July, wildflowers fade away and the grass turns brown and stays brown until October. If you absolutely hate rain, July and August are the driest months, with basically no rain at all. August is the warmest month, and the best time of year for swimming in lakes and rivers. But the rivers in the Cascades are still very cold even then. August and early September is also blackberry season. September has great weather and the tourist destinations are much less crowded. But it's the end of the dry season. All the grass is brown, and the rivers and waterfalls are at their lowest flow of the year. Everything turns green again in October when the rains return. October still has many nice days between the rainy spells, but most of the National Forest campgrounds are closed by the end of October.

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