Trans America Trail - 2008

 

Day 17 – Bend, OR to Medford, OR.

 

Miles: 173 (road distance as per GPS)

 

Hotel: Super8 Medford, Oregon

 

 

Commentary:

 

I got out of the Super8 earlyish and headed back south down US97 toward La Pine.

It was freezing cold but little did I know it was going to get a lot colder!

The plan was to turn off at Crescent, OR after gassing up there and head along Crescent road until I got on the trail.

This went well and I had some good riding; I went over US58 and headed up.

 

 

     

 

This railroad was easily passed on the way to Windigo Pass.

 

     

 

But Windigo Pass was out of the question.

I got stuck in this first bit of snow and decided to take a walk further up the trail to check how close I was to the summit.

Turned out I was nowhere near and the snow completely covered the road and forest about 100 meters further up the road.

 

I wound may way back to US97 in a roundabout fashion through some fantastic riding forests:

 

     

 

The interesting thing about the USA is that the National Parks seem to always try to accommodate all.

I passed loads of ‘OHV’ areas that allowed use of off-highway vehicles.

Rather than just say point blank NO the parks people over there would allocate areas for 4X4 driving or riding and manage them.

This was a refreshing change to the UK.

 

 

Anyway, got back on US97 and turned right at Gilchrist along east diamond lake highway.

I ran into Dennis again here with his KLR on the back of his Toyota truck, we pulled off and had a chat.

He wasn’t surprised about the snow. It was good to stop too as my hands were going blue.

Dennis said that the north entrance to Crater Lake national park was closed and would probably stay that way in 2008.

I decided to go to Diamond lake and pick up the trail there.

 

As I swung past Diamond Lake I decided to gas up at the resort there.

I pulled into the station to find no-one around and the store closed!

Great, but looking closer there was a sign in the window:

“pick up phone, dial 11, someone will come”.

Yeah right, that’ll happen, it looked like there had been no-one road since last summer.

But I gave it a try and sure enough an old man rolled up in a 4x4 about 2 minutes later!!!

 

As I was gassing up we got talking about the trail and I showed him the maps of where I wanted to pick up the trail.

He said, “Nope, nope, nope. All snowed in”

He suggested heading to Create Lake via the west entrance for some scenic views.

As I was leaving two guys rolled up on Harleys and filled up too. They looked frozen as well. And they were moaning about the $5,86 gas prices.

The clouds were really low at that point but I went on.

 

 

     

 

I got to the turn off and started up the climb to Crater Lake.

As I was climbing the weather got worse: colder and colder and more clouds.

The snow got deeper and deeper next to the road and was up to 6 feet or so when I got to the entrance (pics above).

 

I decided not to go in at this point as I knew I’d be coming back with Jonathan and I was frozen.

I got on the bike and blasted back down getting warmer all the way.

 

     

 

Getting into Medford was a bit of a relief as it nice and warm but also a bit sad as it was the first big city and I much prefer the country.

I also knew tomorrow would be the end of the trail.

I checked into the Super8 and headed out to an Army Surplus to get some warm clothes. I had been frozen for 5 days in a row now and was sick of it.

I got some inner gloves (to go under my Ski gloves…!) a neck tube and a(nother) fleece. All cheap.

 

Got back to the Super8 and had 2 showers to warm up.

 

 

Journal Quote:

 

Had a good ride out of Bend today and went down to Crescent to the trail. Went for a little way up to the Windigo pass but ran into snow. Crossed a railway and got bogged down into the snow and had to turn around. Rode down and around towards Diamond lake but when I stopped for gas and spoke to a local he said all the roads were closed! The ride into Diamond lake was frozen again and started to rain. Ran into Dennis as he was trucking home and had a chat. He reckoned the passes might be open but no luck. He said that crater lake was open from the west side. Decided to go up but almost froze to death! There was 5 feet of snow on either side of the roads. Got to the visitor center and turned around as the mist was so thick I wouldn’t see the lake anyway. Rode a great ride into Medford; fantastic roads. Got checked in and had a ‘sub’ for supper. Was quite nice actually.