Oregon Outback 2015

Gravel ride across Oregon likely to roll into Prineville today

Crook County proving popular for bikepacking and gravel riding

By Beau Eastes / The Bulletin / @beastes

James Good expects the first Oregon Outback riders to reach his Prineville bike shop, Good Bike Co., some time today.

The Outback, the 364-mile unsanctioned and unsupported off-the-grid gravel ride/race that starts in Klamath Falls and concludes in the Columbia River Gorge, kicked off Friday in Southern Oregon. While most of the 200 to 300 bicyclists participating in this year’s event will take five to seven days to complete the ride, a handful of hard-core “bikepackers” — camping via bike — will be shooting to finish the whole trip in around 24 hours.

With his shop located in the only full-service town on the route — the Outback riders also roll through the booming metro areas of Silver Lake, Fort Rock and Shaniko, to name a few — Good is planning on helping cyclists 225 miles into the Outback any way he can.

“We’ve got a map room, coffee, beer, a lot of different resources,” said Good, who last summer opened his bike business in a former service station on U.S. Highway 26 right in the heart of Prineville’s downtown. “We’re in an old gas station, so we try to help people refuel, whatever way that means to them.”

Cycling is becoming more prevalent in Crook County, which in the past has been known more as a ranch and ag area than a place supportive of spandex and singletrack.

In less than two weeks, on June 4, Good’s shop will celebrate its grand opening in conjunction with the official introduction of the Lower 66 mountain bike trail network on the west side of Prineville. Later this summer, Prineville hopes to break ground on a BMX bike park, and the Central Oregon Trail Association recently adopted several mountain bike trails to maintain within the Ochoco National Forest.

City and county officials are working on earning a scenic bikeway designation from the state for a ride south of town in the Crooked River Canyon. And Prineville has long been a stop on the TransAmerica Bike Trail, the road cycling route that starts at the Pacific Ocean and ends at the Atlantic.

But the regional surge in bikepacking and gravel riding may be where Crook County truly makes its mark in the cycling world. The county is home to hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of gravel and dirt roads.

“The Ochoco (mountains) and gravel roads are five to 10 miles from town,” said Good, who in August is putting on the inaugural Ochoco Gravel Roubaix, which will offer 10-, 45- and 120-mile gravel races. “There’s a lot of designated and primitive camping in the Ochocos that you can turn a beautiful ride into a fun, short weekend experience.”

The incredible growth of the Oregon Outback highlights the soaring interest in long-distance bikepacking trips. After organizing a handful of gravel rides around the state, off-road enthusiast Donnie Kolb put together the unpaved beast that would become Oregon Outback in 2014. He figured he would have a hard time attracting more than 50 people on a ride that climbs more than 14,000 feet over 360 miles. To his astonishment, he had to shut down registration after 400 bikers signed up. Slightly more than 100 cyclists actually completed the first running of the Outback. This year that number was expected to be closer to 300.

“The riding in Central Oregon is spectacular,” said Abraham Sutfin, who owns the bike shop Abraham Fixes Bikes in north Portland. “It’s some of the best in the state.”

Sutfin, who has done long-distance bike tours all over the Pacific Northwest and even New Zealand, says the allure of gravel riding is the chance to get off the grid and provide for yourself.

“It puts cyclists in a place where they don’t have to rely on state parks and bike hostels,” said Sutfin, whose latest project is to find a rideable route along the Deschutes River from its conflux with the Columbia all the way to Bend. “In Oregon, you can pull off on the side of any dirt road and camp and not bother anyone. … Getting off paved roads, it brings people to places where they don’t have to rely on civilization.”

Even Travel Oregon, the marketing arm of the state, is getting in on the gravel craze, publicizing popular gravel rides around Oregon.

“This isn’t just a fad,” Good said about newfound popularity of bikepacking and gravel riding. “Yeah, they’ll be some ebbs and flows … but I just see it growing.

“There’s something to be said about Prineville,” he added. “It’s still very Western and real life. It’s refreshing for folks. The area’s not this big, hyped up place, but instead it’s real and fun and you can have a unique experience out here that’s hard to find.”

Crooked River road may become scenic bikeway

By Beau Eastes / The Bulletin / @beastes

Published Mar 2, 2015 at 12:11AM / Updated Mar 2, 2015 at 05:48AM

One of the prettiest stretches of highway in the state may be soon getting a little more attention.

Leaders in Prineville have submitted applications for portions of state Highway 27, which runs through the Crooked River Canyon, to be listed as an Oregon scenic bikeway and scenic driving route.

“No. 1, it’s just beautiful,” Crook County Commissioner Seth Crawford said about the reasoning for the proposed designations. “And we’ve seen the success of the different scenic bikeways around the state. (Travel Oregon) puts out some amazing videos for the bikeways and the (driving) tour route gets put in their magazine, which is marketed all over the West.”

The bikeway, which would be the 13th in the state and fifth in Central Oregon, would start at Crooked River Park on the south end of Prineville and run 20 miles on Highway 27 along the Crooked River to the Powder House Cove day-use recreation area on the Prineville Reservoir. Both anchors on the route — the start and finish — have ample parking, bathrooms and drinking water.

The scenic driving route, which would become the sixth official “Oregon State Scenic Byway,” would start at the Bowman Museum in downtown Prineville and traverse the same stretch of Highway 27 as the bikeway but continue south all the way to U.S. Highway 20, approximately 45 miles.

“You look at the scenic bikeway map, and there’s a hole in the middle where Prineville and Crook County are,” said Greg Currie, a land use planner with the Bureau of Land Management and one of the projects’ leaders. “Part of the (reason) for doing this is that a lot of people use (the state’s scenic bikeways and scenic byways) when they’re exploring. The Crooked River and Highway 27 are incredibly scenic and really fit into that concept.”

Both applications are in the early stages, Crawford said. The bikeway designation goes through Oregon’s Parks and Recreation Department while the driving route application is handled by the state’s Department of Transportation.

“It’s pretty early in the process,” added Crawford, who expects both application processes to last at least a year. “We’ve got letters of support and the applications filled out. Soon the ball will be in their court. But so far we’ve gotten lots of positive feedback.”

Once a route is selected as one of the state’s scenic bikeways or driving byways, special signage is placed along the road and, in the byways’ case, informational kiosks are also a possibility. The routes also receive a healthy dose of publicity through Travel Oregon, the state’s official tourism arm.

“Something like this can heighten the whole region,” Crawford said, noting that Travel Oregon’s website and annual magazine are produced in six languages. “That’s why we chose these designations, because they’re the ones that have the potential to bring people here.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

beastes@bendbulletin.com