Day 2 - Sept 9th

It rained much of the night, but had pretty much stopped by the morning.  It wouldn’t rain on us at all today while we rode, which was a welcome respite.

Todd wanted to visit the Rainbow covered bridge we had passed late yesterday, so we backtracked about a mile or so to see that bridge before returning to the main route.

Today’s route started off on the highway past McKenzie Bridge.  It also passed Paradise campground, which I had camped at with my family 3 years ago, so I was familiar with some of today’s route (albeit from a car’s perspective).  Soon we turned right and stopped at the base of the road up to the Dee Wright Observatory.  Many others were here, stripping off layers in anticipation of the climb.  I took off my jacket, then started the climb.

The climb starts off relatively flat, but eventually turns to switchbacks.  There wasn’t a lot of traffic on this Monday morning, though there was some.  As the climb leveled off, we reached an alien-looking landscape of old lava rocks.  After a little more climbing, we reached the rest stop at Dee Wright Observatory.  We walked up to the top for some nice views (though the Three Sisters was partly obscured by clouds).

After enjoying the views, we started the descent into Sisters.  The road was not steep, and it was a nice easy descent, then I pounded the flats into Sisters, where lunch awaited under sunny skies.

After lunch, there was a bit of traveling on busy highway 20 (avoided if you chose the gravel option), then a descent into the camp at Tumalo State Park.  We made it into camp before a light drizzle started in the late afternoon.