Bike touring has seen me through a LOT of life changes... in 2013, it helped me make the jump from being a corporate Washington DC attorney to being a vagrant world bike tourist to moving to Bend, Oregon and becoming a legal advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Then somehow in the midst of creating a new life for myself, I lost got a little off track. I went from having a flexible non-profit schedule with tons of vacation time to running a free legal assistance program in family law cases at the Deschutes County Circuit Court and found myself working in an office from 8 am - 5 pm. And while I was fulfilled by my work and found comfort in being able to make systemic changes from within, my soul started to wither in my windowless office.
Last year, I had the opportunity to join two friends and colleagues from the social justice world to found a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting company. I was already constantly being asked to do this kind of work for free and so I jumped at the opportunity to change the dialogue around unpaid labor. Fast forward to 2020, and my life has shifted once again as profoundly as it did in 2013. We had barely incorporated and we had more business than we ever anticipated. I found myself working 80 hours a week and neglecting my bike as is evidenced by the fact that my last bike tour was in August of last year! After a miserable work-filled winter, I quit my day job with dreams of finding work life balance again and having time to do all the bike tours. I started making a list of long weekend getaways and my bike touring partner-in-crime and I bought tickets to Morocco...
And then all of my bike touring dreams started to crumble with COVID-19. But really, in the grand scheme of things, I have been incredibly lucky and privileged these last few months. My business is still thriving, I live in a beautiful place with lots of wide open spaces, the pandemic gave me some much needed breathing room, and I am in good health. Instead of far flung bike tours, I have been doing lots of beautiful exploratory day trips from town... some of those day trips would make amazing bike overnights, like this 100 mile self-supported route from Bend to Prineville and back again (on the map, it shows 97.2 miles, but I had about 2 miles each way to ride to and from the start).
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| Overlooking the Crooked River. |
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| Ani (aka my bike touring partner-in-crime) zooms down the hill into the canyon. |
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| Fleabane peeks out of rocky sandy soil. |
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| The first paintbrush of the season is always special. |
A few tips for cycle tourists:
- This route takes you on the Crooked River Scenic Bikeway, so there is a ton of information out there already.
- Be careful on Alfalfa Market Road especially on the weekends where you will be sharing with road with OHV folks. Some respectfully passed us and some made us feel a little unsafe. If I did this again, I would probably go in and out of Bend on Bear Creek.
- If you decide to ride this route going west out of Prineville, the crossing to get to the 126 on the west side of town is a bit hairy. There is a big shoulder, so once you are on the 126, there are a lot of fast moving cars, but it's not too bad and the turn off is right after the climb.
- Similarly, the short section on Highway 20 provides a huuuuge shoulder and it went by quickly with much less traffic than the 126.
- I had never ridden the backroads around Powell Butte and aside from the descent into the Crooked River Scenic Bikeway, that part was my favorite for the wide open views, smooth pavement, and zero traffic.
