Bike rides in southwest Oregon/northern California.

August 6, 2017 1:51 PM

I was planning on hitting up Crater Lake on the 14th, but it's pretty iffy whether that's still going to happen with the nearby fires. Looking for suggestions for another scenic + safe ride within a few hours' drive of Medford. I'm camping on the coast over the weekend so somewhere between Coos Bay and Crescent City would also work well.
posted by curious nu to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

So many great rides around Ashland! A weekend favorite used to be biking from there to Jacksonville for coffee, or, for more elevation gain, biking the Old Highway up to Callahan's on Mount Ashland. Favorite ride of all was to bike up Highway 66 to the Green Springs Inn, get coffee, go north on Hyatt Lake/Prairie Road (beautiful view), and finally down Dead Indian Memorial Highway into town (This one is pretty and hilly, and I only mention it as a possibility because your Crater Lake ride has about 4200 ft of vertical gain). Finally, if you have a mountain bike, there are great single track trails at the end of Lithia Park that you can take around a watershed for a 40-mile loop or take up to Mount Ashland. All of these rides are pretty low on car traffic, or they were 8-10 years ago.
posted by klausman at 3:27 PM on August 6, 2017

Regarding klausman's comment, be aware that Highway 66 is currently closed for some reconstruction work before you get to Greensprings Inn. The detour goes up Dead Indian Memorial.
posted by uncaken at 3:33 PM on August 6, 2017

Suggest checking this website out: http://rideoregonride.com/rides/scenic-bikeways/

Did a few rides from there earlier in the year and they were really nice.
posted by knownfossils at 7:14 AM on August 7, 2017