Day 21 - August 20: Sisters OR - Rainbow OR

44 miles.  2393 feet up, 4342 feet down. 

Another fabulous day!  After a lovely rest day in Sisters, we were back on the bikes shortly after 8 this morning.  The weather was perfect, and I was sooo looking forward to riding McKenzie Pass one more time.  The only sad thought of the day was that maybe this would be the last time for me.  Who knows, but I did think of that both on the way up and the way down and I tried to savour every pedal stroke.  The temperature was nice and cool to begin (really, all the way up), and we had shade for quite a ways at the start.  Lovely Ponderosa Pine forest with very little undergrowth.  Oh - and fresh pavement all the way to the top!





I believe it was about 12 km into the ride when we first started seeing evidence of previous burns.  Several major fires have been through the area in the last 10 years.  And shortly after that we started to see some lava flow rocks.





Mount Washington visible behind the burn zone..............


We all stopped at 11.4 miles at the Windy Point viewpoint.  It was our first good look at all the distant mountains.

Little Belknap (l) and Belknap Crater (r).  These two are responsible for much of the lava flows.

Mount Washington

Mount Jefferson


And then the climb continued for about another 3 miles.  









The end is in sight!


Mounts Washington and Jefferson


The North Sister and the Middle Sister

And finally........  the pass............ at 14.7 miles.


I just love the Dee Wright Observatory!






North Sister and Middle Sister

Mount Jefferson

Mount Washington

Little Belknap

Belknap Crater


The origin of much of this lava - Belknap Crater and Little Belknap


Let the downhill begin!  Pretty much 30 miles and 4600 feet of downhill - whee!  And - about half of that was sweeping, winding, really fun downhill without much traffic at all.  So fun!  And beautiful!











At 36.6 miles we came to the end of the McKenzie Highway and headed west on State Route 126.  


Since the day was still young and I was just about done, I stopped in at a Ranger Station.  They had some great info boards outside and a really good relief model of the area inside.  



Happy Birthday, Smokey!





And still we're going downhill!!


A quick stop to look at the McKenzie River.  I think we'll see a lot more of it tomorrow.






And into the booming metropolis of Rainbow.  Lovely folks running the place here.  Apparently they had to boot out some firefighters to make room for us.  I don't feel great about that...........


Another delicious dinner - BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, roasted peppers, and salad.  A great day!

The Ride:

Garmin:  71.27 km.  3057 feet up, 4666 feet down.

RWGPS:  72.5 km.  782 m up, 1376 m down.

Temperature range:  12C - 29C


The Route:


Rainbow OR.  Population ?

My source, Wikipedia, doesn't give any population info and the google search identifies it as a commune.  The post office there opened in 1924 and closed in 1937.  The post office got its name from the rainbow trout that swim in the McKenzie River.  













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