RV trip 2006 - day 44

Day 44 (October 3, 2006) - Portland, OR

The weather outlook for Crater Lake is pretty bad. Originally they had predicted snow, now they have changed it to rain, but we have no choice. I am flying to Boston tomorrow night and we can't postpone the visit. The drive through the Umpqua National Forest to get to the north entrance of Crater Lake is very nice. It goes along the Steamboat river, through canyons and gorges, with old-growth forests all around. We stop a few times along the way to take pictures of the landscape, then Petr decides to take a nap and I switch with him in the driver seat. I see a sign to the Toketee Falls and decide to follow it. It's a short hike in the woods and the falls are really cute. Definitely worth a small detour.

We get to Crater Lake with overcast skies, a few dark black clouds closing in. We stop immediately at the first outlook point and although we don't see the blue water they describe, we can imagine what it must be like on a sunny day. I try my luck and tell Petr "This is not a good day for biking, is it?". To my surprise, he is up for it and I quickly jump at the opportunity. It looks like a 30 mile circle around it, Petr says it's less. We change into biking clothes, and off we go, circling the lake counter-clockwise to get to the Visitor Center first. Ahhh, with cold muscle we hit a pretty steep climb right away and I am on the verge of giving up. However, by toughening it out a bit after a couple of miles it's all downhill to the Visitor Center through some pretty narrow switchbacks. Max speed 34 mph - fun. From the Visitor Center though I have a feeling that we only did uphill and more uphill and nothing but uphill. It took us 4 hours to complete a 35-mile loop, and although we stopped frequently to take pictures, have a snack and simply catch our breath, we must have ridden 25 miles up and 10 down. It was a though journey, but we both finished it and I am very proud of it.

We leave the park around dusk and head to Ashland just south of Medford from where I will be flying out tomorrow. The way there is something I want to forget, our GPS cannot tell a paved from an unpaved road and by punching in the fastest route, it took us on 10 miles of unpaved roads through the Rogue River National Forest. I am sure it's a marvelous place to visit during daytime, but in the dark, with an RV and no cellphone signal in case of problems, this is not where you want to get stuck. 4 hours to drive 79 miles. We almost hit a deer and we saw at least 8 ready to jump out in front of us. We get to Ashland around 9:30pm, just in time for a shower and a quick meal.