Bob on Cycle Oregon 2009

Day 6 Route

“Layover Loop’re Saving”
"A day of choices: lounge around on the banks of the river, explore town, take a ride… or do it all. This moderate loop with a couple climbs (OK, one has a stretch of 10% grade) will keep your legs fresh and leave plenty of time in the day. Head out west, then north, and loop back as you pass through oddly but wonderfully named places like Merlin, Hugo and Winona, as well as along Jumpoff Joe and Louse creeks".

Today's ride was optional. We could either find something to do in grants Pass or we could ride and then tour the town. We chose the latter. We headed west out of Grants Pass and rode parallel to the Rogue River. Most of the time we couldn't see it, but we did see lots of farm land and trees. The first rest stop was at Wildlife Images, a rehabilitation and education center for all sorts of wildlife. We saw several birds that were being rehabilitated including a great horned owl, a South African raptor (I can't remember its specie name but it could have been a black sparrowhawk) and three bald eagles. We could only visit a small part of the center because the great number of us would have freaked out the other injured animals.

Pedaling along, we rode north over a couple of bumps, turned east at Hugo and then had lunch at an LDS church just past I5 near Jumpoff Joe Creek. Our VS friends caught us here. Most of them ate faster than we did and left the lunch stop before us. Jim Duncan decided to ride with us for a while.

We were not done climbing yet. We had to ride over a couple of nasty walls before our final descent into Grants Pass

After showering, Jeff, Jim, Christie and I caught the free shuttle into town. Jim and Christie went shopping while Jeff and I walked to the Wild River Brewing & Pizza Company for a couple pints and our second lunch of pizza. Good beer and good pizza. Yummy.

When we were finished, we walked around town looking at all of the shop and sidewalk vendors that were looking for CO riders' patronage. They got a lot of it. The restaurants and shops were full of people. This might be another CO stop in the future.

Back at camp, we settled into the normal after-ride routine. We hung out with Rich Fuller, a rider friend of mine from Berkeley.

You can take a simulated tour of today's route by clicking here.