Day 10: To the Rogue River (again)

August 13, 2005

I got on the road at 9AM and it was already warm and sunny. It will be hot today. Just outside the campground I passed the Seven Feathers Casino, then into the town of Canyonville. It's a charming town that is booming thanks mostly to the casino and businesses surrounding the casino (restaurants, motels, a big truck stop). The casino is run by the Cow Creek band of the Umpqua Indian tribe. In downtown Canyonville I turned southeast onto highway 227 which follows the South Umpqua river upstream and eventually over the "Rogue Umpqua Divide". It's a state highway, but it has very little traffic. Maybe one car every five minutes. The valley is wide with many irrigated farms. The river is slow and placid so the road climbs almost imperceptibly.

Highway 227 stays close to the South Umpqua River.

I took a long swimming break at a roadside county park that has an excellent swimming hole. Most swimming holes around here don't have such a nice sandy beach.

A great swimming hole along the South Umpqua River.

Shortly before Tiller the valley closes in and the road stays close to the river with very nice views. The "town" of Tiller mostly consists of a store and a National Forest ranger station that has several historic buildings built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. The ranger station also has a fire lookout building that was recently relocated there to allow the public to see what they look like without having to go to a remote mountaintop. The door was locked but I could look inside the windows and see the 1930's era furnishings.

This fire lookout was relocated to the Tiller Ranger Station to allow people to see it without hiking to a mountaintop.

I ate lunch and bought groceries at the Tiller store, then continued south on highway 227. At Tiller the highway turns away from the South Umpqua river and begins climbing a ridge that separates the Umpqua watershed from the Rogue river watershed. It was another hot sunny afternoon with the temperature in the 90's but it did cool down slightly as I climbed to the summit at 3305 feet (1001m) elevation. South of the summit I descended to the Rogue river just north of Shady Cove. By then it was late in the afternoon and the temperature was dropping. I turned northeast on highway 62 which is the highway that goes from Medford to Crater Lake. 3 miles up highway 62 I turned into Rogue Elk County Park. All the designated campsites were full so I camped at an overflow area at the north end of the campground. I pitched my tent very close to the large and fast-flowing Rogue River. Not bad. I took a 50-cent shower, made dinner, and tried to ignore all the commotion in the crowded campground.

Today was a good day. Most of the route has almost no traffic and the road is well paved and well graded. The scenery is very pleasant, but not really spectacular. I had no aches and pains from the cycling but I still had a cough and congested head. The weather was hot but it would be even hotter in a low valley instead of climbing a mountain during the hottest part of the day. I kept a slow pace to ensure that I wouldn't get sore and to be well rested for tomorrow's big climb to Diamond Lake.

Distance: 57.2 mi. (91.5 km)

Climbing: 2956 ft. (896 m)

Average speed: 8.5 mph (13.6 km/h)

Maximum speed: 36.7 mph (58.7 km/h)

Hiking: none

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 480 miles (772 km)

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