Day 1: Steens Mountain Loop

I've had my eye on a bike tour in Eastern Oregon for quite some time that the awesome folks at Oregon Bikepacking mapped out that circumnavigated and went up and around Steens mountain. The route has all my favorite things, including empty back roads, gravel roads, hot springs, and quirky tiny "towns." Sometimes, I find myself on so many adventures, that I just need to commit to a date on the calendar for a bike tour with friends and then make something happen. So a few months back, we put a 3-day weekend randomly on our October calendar for a bike tour.

As the date neared, we needed to figure out where to go. Three days was not enough to do the Steens route I had on my radar, but I realized that by cutting out the massive dirt road climb to 10,000 feet, we could still circumnavigate Steens mountain if we averaged about 70 miles a day. There are only a few people in my life that would find that kind of mileage fun, so team Ecuador was reunited for a lot of Type 2 fun, good food, and hot springs.

We piled our bikes onto Ani's car and headed out the Crystal Crane hot springs to camp before starting our bike tour. The folks there will let you park your car for $5 a day and having a hot soak in the outdoor pool made for a lovely starting and ending point. We demolished a pot of homemade pozole and then soaked and took in the brilliant starry skies, made more brilliant by the new moon. Shortly after sunrise, we pulled our gear together and braved the cold morning to head out for the first day of riding.

It may have dipped below freezing our first night at Crane hot springs. Ed shows off his new swim trunk style.

Crane hot springs is more like a ginormous pool. Don't let the sunny skies fool you, it's only about 27 degrees out.

After a leisurely breakfast, we set out and willed the sun to heat up the desert landscape. We blissfully rolled down the empty road. The air was still and there was nothing but blue skies. While Eastern Oregon does not have the majestic landscape of other parts of Oregon, the vast space and emptiness of the desert has a different beauty. These roads are empty, whether paved or gravel, and the few drivers cyclists encounter are generally kind people. We had folks pull over to ask us if we needed Cokes or water or just slow down to make sure we didn't get dusted out.

And, we are ready to head out, all bright eyed and bushy tailed or something like that.

On the long empty road.

First mechanical of the trip... a broken spoke. We were excited to try out the fiber spoke fix kit! It was amazing and it totally worked.

Road side snack break brought to you by the following sponsors: beef jerky, cheese, Trader Joe's fishies, olives, and peanut butter.

Delicious descent towards the Alvord desert.

The day passed by quickly and we transitioned from pavement to dirt. While the dirt road we easy, it had been a long day. One of Ed's front racks also broke and so Ani took one for the team and threw his pannier on her rear rack. As the sun set, the temperature dropped and we pushed on to make it to the Alvord hot springs by sunset. And then, at long last, the oasis in the desert appeared and we celebrated with some beers and whiskey. It had been a really long day and we decided to splurge on a sweet M.A.S.H. unit to sleep in. That, and Ed thought he had a 3-person tent, which was actually a 2-person tent, and having our own beds sounded awfully grand.

My favorite road sign.

M.A.S.H.

Our mansion for the night... drying out the tent from the frozen night at the Crane hot springs.

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• The route we ended up mostly taking can be found here. Depending on the time of year the route is ridden, it can be insanely hot and my understanding is that the dirt road from Page Springs Campground back to the paved road can be impassable after rain. We ended up camping in the lawn of the Frenchglen hotel and not Page Springs Campground as originally planned. The Oregon Bikepacking website does a good job of marking all the shady spots if you do an earlier season tour.

• Highway 78 has the "most" traffic and it can be fast-moving, however, there are very few cars and most will pass you with a wide berth. After the turnoff onto the Anderson Valley road, traffic is virtually non-existent. There is about 40 miles of good 2-lane dirt road on the eastern side of Steens mountain and it is basically flat. While there are sections with washboard, bikes can usually find a good line. 

• There are no reliable natural water sources between Crane and Fields. There is, however, water available for purchase at the Alvord hot springs office which is generally open from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. 

• It can get really windy on this route. Really windy. Our second day, we biked into a headwind the entire way and it almost broke us. Tent camping could be challenging in high winds both at Crane hot springs and Alvord hot springs, but both have options for "cabins."