We started with dropping down from Walton Lake. Derik was thinking we would be getting on the Ochoco Hwy (the dreaded Hwy 26). Nope...at least not yet! We had a great gravel section that was mostly downhill. At one point, I looked ahead, and could see three big 5th wheel RVs pulling out from a camping spot. Dang! One, they are dust bombs, and two, I could go faster. Not to worry, one by one they waved me by!
At the bottom, we did have to get on the Ochoco Hwy, but only for 1 1/2 miles. Since it was still pretty early, there wasn’t much traffic.
Turning off Hwy 26 was the beginning of the big climb of the day. It was a paved climb. It had periods of 11% grades. At the top was this view of Mt Jefferson (?).
We had some more pavement, then the road returned to gravel. It had some punchy bits, and spots where it was pretty rutted, but I was able to ride all of it.
Once we came to McKay Creek Rd, it was paved until the finish. Thrown in there were the final two climbs, both less than a mile.
Almost finished!
One final view.
The descent down to the van was pretty nice.
Back to where we started.
Overall, this is a good route. It’s better than a similar route called the Oregon Backcountry Explorer as it does not spend much time on Hwy 26. However, it is not what I would call an easy route. I would recommend taking 4-5 days for lower mileage days, but it was doable in the amount of time we took. Less fitness would require more time. It would be fun to spend some time in Mitchell, and a shorter day to Walton Lake to allow for some swimming would be fun. I enjoyed bikepacking once again with Derik (the last was the Great Divide). He is very accommodating to this oldster!
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