Crater Lake
Route Review
We took part in the Crater Lake Ride the Rim event to ride all the way around Crater Lake.
The event suggested that we ride clockwise, so we started from the southwest part of the lake, near the Steel Visitor Center, and did just that.
The western rim part of the ride was with car traffic, but there were so many cyclists on the road that I never felt pressured by cars or unsafe at any point. The eastern rim was car-free, so perfect.
The roads were almost perfectly smooth the whole time, except for a 7-8 mile stretch of imperfect (but manageable) road on the southern part of the route.
Because of the event, there were stops every 5-6 miles. Every stop had water, toilets, snacks, and repair kits.
Because of the lack of cars on the eastern rim, the ride was exceptionally quiet. The loudest parts were electric bikes speeding past us on the uphills.
The views of Crater Lake were jaw-dropping. Especially given that we could stop anywhere we wanted on the eastern portion of the loop.
What I Learned
This was Cassie and my first time participating in an organized ride and it was super nice! I usually avoid people, but everyone was so nice and the rest stops were super convenient. They had everything one would need--water, fruit, snacks, electrolyte drink mixes, and bike repair kits. I especially thought the volunteers manning these stations were awfully nice.
On the last uphill, I sprinted in front of Cassie so that I could take pictures and videos of her cycling since I had the energy to spare. While the first two stops and sprints were manageable, the third one was tough. I just felt really tired and I could feel it in my thighs. Still, I am very happy that I did it since the footage was worth it.
It was my first time trying the LMNT drink mix, and it was better than I expected. We tried watermelon and lemon flavors—while the first sounded more interesting, the lemon flavor was better going down. We thought we could feel the effectiveness of the electrolytes, and we think we’ll start using them on future trips.
At half of the rest stops, they had pickles and pickle juices that they were handing out to cyclists. While I did not partake, Cassie tried a pickle at rest stop number two. She liked it!
I brought a big bag of wafers as I found out that this bag would give me 1.5k calories! I ended up eating half of it at the halfway mark and I give it full credit for keeping me energized for the brutal uphills.
Cassie ended up borrowing my windbreaker as I was getting hot and she was still cold even though she had on a light sweater. It ended up working out well with her being able to stay warm even on the downhills and me being able to keep cool on the uphills.
I barely touched the brakes on the extended downhill segments and it was exhilarating. We hit 40.6 MPH! I felt super safe too as the road was smoooooth for the most part.
For the event, the eastern rim was car-free and it felt so safe riding it with no one else but a bunch of cyclists. Oh, how I wish my bike commute could be car-free!
It had been about a year since I did a bike ride that had a 4000-foot elevation gain, so I was a little nervous about how I’d perform. As usual, there was no need to worry as the ride was not too difficult. I would say that it felt as difficult as maybe Mount Diablo. It was definitely easier than the Mount Hamilton or Lake Tahoe bike rides.
We tried gel packs for the first time and maybe it was the flavor (salted caramel), but it was disgusting. It tasted like salted caramel for about two seconds before tasting a bit too much like soy sauce... in gel form.
What Happened?
33.3 miles, 4 hrs 44 mins, 4183 ft of ascent
I forget how I heard about this event, but as soon as I found out, I moved a previously scheduled camping trip out and signed both Cassie and me up for the ride. Usually, I try to keep our trips a surprise as Cassie likes surprises, but this one would be Cassie’s most difficult cycle to date, so she found out sooner than usual--with a workout plan to boot!
Cassie spent the weeks leading up to this trip hitting personal bests in cycling and I also made sure to stay in cycling shape so that this trip would be fun.
We arrived a bit later than planned with both of us prioritizing sleep over an early start and at first, the decision seemed to be disastrous with the wait at the southern entrance of the national park taking 45 minutes! But when we got to the event, we were able to fit into the overflow parking, where we packed everything we’d need on our 30+ mile bike ride and headed off to the visitor center to check in.
At the check-in, we experienced what we’d experienced at all rest stops, which was friendly volunteers, snacks galore, and lots of bikers having a great time. The check-in was fast and easy, and we grabbed some extra snacks and an LMNT electrolyte mix.
From here, we had the option of riding only the eastern rim loop, but we wanted to do the whole thing, so we headed up the western rim portion.
The ride was with cars, but there were tons of cyclists and the automobiles were patient. The riding was tough as the ride from rest station 5 to 1 was the most amount of elevation gain between any two rest stops, but we had fresh legs and the climb was broken into two big pushes. In no time we were at rest stop 1 where we got more water and more snacks, and Cassie ate a pickle.
The eastern loop could be summed up with the following observations: the uphills were long and tiring, the downhills were long and exhilarating, the views of Crater Lake and the surrounding landscapes were beautiful, and our fellow cyclists were really nice. On that last point, many cyclists encouraged others, showered others with compliments, and shared lots of laughs. For us, stations 2, 3, and 4 came and went quickly (we actually skipped station 2 as we didn’t need anything; station 4 had home-baked cookies!).
We were pretty tired as we came close to station 5 and followed fellow cyclists to our overflow parking spot, where Ramona was patiently waiting for us to return. We packed up our bikes and headed off to Annie Creek Restaurant and Gift Shop to eat a late lunch and get some patches to celebrate this trip.
