Road-Biking in Bend, Oregon

In Bend, road-bike is wrong winter-recreation-tool.  However, for all other seasons, road-biking is stellar across Deschutes County, Oregon.  Albeit known for epic mountain biking, inventory of paved routes is worthy.  

Bend offers spokes in all directions.  Expand reach with reasonable driving radii to Sisters, Sunriver/La Pine, and Prineville, for example.  Truly “spectacular” rides, including Crater Lake, Aufderheide, Mount Hood, and Straight Creek/Quartzville are further out, but well worth it.

McKenzie Pass (my favorite) and Cascade Lakes Highway are must-do climbs with unique views.  If climbing is your bag, 97-Paulina Lake, Sunriver-FS45, Sisters-Three Creeks, 27 South-Prineville Reservoir are options, as well as short/punchy climbs such as SW Hill (Crooked River) and NW Summit (Awbrey Butte, Bend.)  

Popular inventory, includes:

*Favorites

West:

Cascade Lakes Highway*

Skyliners*

FS40

North:

McKenzie Pass*…Cold Springs Campground-Observatory out and back or all of 242 out and back   

Twin Bridges*…de facto loop

Lower Bridge*…de facto long ride

Eagle Crest (Cline Falls Highway and SW 58th loop)

Green Ridge*…little to no traffic

Three Creeks…fantastic climb, but some of worst pavement ever 

Squaw Creek

South:

Paulina Lake*…park right off 97 for nice long climb

FS45…Sunriver to/from Cascade Lakes Highway

East:

Smith Rock*…via Lower Bridge or OBR

Old Bend-Redmond (OBR) Highway 

27 South-Prineville Reservoir…Alfalfa is risky

27 North (Millican towards Prineville)…Highway 20 is sketchy

China Hat

Join “BendCycling” on Google Groups for group ride announcements, et al, including Saturday mornings, “Rubber Mallet” (fast) and “Hammerfest” (faster) on Tuesday evenings.

Events, races to charity rides, include Central Oregon 500+, Cascade Classic (race), and Tour des Chutes (charity). 

If you like gravel, leverage even more interesting options.  If MTB, COTA does great job maintaining epic trail system; see https://bendtrails.org and consider http://highcascades100.com event.

Reference Strava, https://www.hutchsbicycles.com/road-biking-routes and http://bestrides.org, for example.

Winter riding?  Try San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara counties, see https://www.theoutbound.com/joel-blatt/adventures.

Safe travels!