# Cycle Oregon??



## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Has anyone here gone on, or more importantly, volunteered to help with, Cycle Oregon?

It was just announced in our local paper, that there is a _chance_ our town will be a stop on an upcoming tour, and the park they would be interested in using is literally across the street from me. I'm thinking of volunteering if they do. I mean, why not? It would be easier to go with the flow (and use a few vacation days), rather than ignore the visitors.


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## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

PDXMark on this forum is heavy on CycleOregon.


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## PdxMark (Feb 3, 2004)

I rode it 7 years (the last 2 fixed) and have volunteered the past 4 years. 

There are 2 flavors of volunteers: the local folks at each town we visit and the traveling volunteers (like me) that sign-on for the week. If CO is coming through your town you can help alot if there's not already a strong local organizer to help with the volunteer effort. That can be a pretty gratifying way to get very involved with lots of folks in your community.

If you're covered locally and want to come along for the week, there are lots of different jobs to do. There are always lots of returning volunteers, but there are open jobs too - everything from driving a SAG van each day to being on a site team that sets up and breaks down the different campsites to running a rest or lunch stop each day to rider services, which is what I do, which is a combination information and problem solver booth. Except for missing the riding, I like volunteering about as much as I liked riding CO.

This link ion the Co site talks about volunteer opportunities:
http://www.cycleoregon.com/volunteer.htm

Let me know if you have any other questions.


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Thanks PdxMark (from another Mark, who went to school in PDX). I was thinking along the lines of local volunteer. After all, the CO course for the year has not been announced yet, so the local politicos can still mess things up. But like I said, the park CO planners are interested in is across the street from my house. So_ if _we make the cut, why fight the flow?:wink:


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## PdxMark (Feb 3, 2004)

PomPilot said:


> Thanks PdxMark (from another Mark, who went to school in PDX). I was thinking along the lines of local volunteer. After all, the CO course for the year has not been announced yet, so the local politicos can still mess things up. But like I said, the park CO planners are interested in is across the street from my house. So_ if _we make the cut, why fight the flow?:wink:


It would be a hoot to have CO across the street! The final route will be announced February 5, so you should know by then. Your local city manager's office would know who is coordinating local volunteers, if there's anyone doing it yet.


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Well, CO won't announce this year's route for another couple of weeks. _However,_ it like if our town makes the route, the next door camping thing will be ok, The city council passed an ordinance allowing camping in the (un-named for now) park on a case-by-case basis (with advance request being necessary).

So in the meantime, I'm thinking happy thoughts. (Just wish I could say the same about work.  ).


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Have been watching the Cycle Oregon web site tonight. They were supposed to have the route posted about 15 minutes ago. Looks like the website has crashed. Hopefully they'll have it working soon. (Having dealt with my own company's ecomm/website teams, I'm not too optimistic that this will happen for at least another half hour).:mad2:


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## RoadBikeVirgin (Nov 21, 2008)

PomPilot said:


> Have been watching the Cycle Oregon web site tonight. They were supposed to have the route posted about 15 minutes ago. Looks like the website has crashed. Hopefully they'll have it working soon. (Having dealt with my own company's ecomm/website teams, I'm not too optimistic that this will happen for at least another half hour).:mad2:


I work for a software company, and when asked to estimate how much time a task will take, no one is allowed to say anything less than 2 hours  So it looks like you may have a BIT longer to wait!


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

At least now they have a message up saying they are having problems. If C.O. used our ecomm/website teams, the on-calls would still be saying "it's not our code, must be the other team's". (FWIW, the website, and ecomm teams report to different V.P.'s as well.  )


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Well, the route is now posted on the Cycle Oregon web site. Grants Pass got the nod for two nights. They will be camping in Riverside Park. Since that is across the street from my house, I will have to volunteer to help in some manner. In other words, put my money where my mouth is. If anyone registers for the ride, post here and maybe we'll connect while you're in town.:thumbsup:


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## PdxMark (Feb 3, 2004)

PomPilot said:


> Well, the route is now posted on the Cycle Oregon web site. Grants Pass got the nod for two nights. They will be camping in Riverside Park. Since that is across the street from my house, I will have to volunteer to help in some manner. In other words, put my money where my mouth is. If anyone registers for the ride, post here and maybe we'll connect while you're in town.:thumbsup:



The route looks great... some interesting new places, which are hard to find after 20+ years. 

I'll be there as a week-long CO volunteer. Come by Rider Services and say hi... I'm almost always there...


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Just watch out for my 'navigator' and I. Since we live across the street, we won't be hard to miss.


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## MerlinAma (Oct 11, 2005)

Can you veterans give me some insight into this ride?

First of all, the price is $850 (includes an optional $25 contribution to the 2009 Signature Grant. You can opt not to contribute).

That's about double the price of week long tours in Colorado.

Is there a lot included? Meals?

It's also been my understanding that everyone camps. On the tours I've attended, about 20-25% of riders (including me) stayed in motels/hotels.

Where do people actually stay? Is it really all camping.

I was in Oregon on vacation year before last, in the Grants Pass - Medford areas among others. It is spectacular and one day I'd like to consider Cycle Oregon. Just trying to get a better feel for the event.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Some of our riding group signed up today for this. I didn't even realize it exists. They are trying to talk me out of doing OATBRAN in Nevada to do this ride. If PDX wants to flood us with info via PM or posting that would be great. I'd really like to know more about what my wife and I would be getting into (we're both strong riders who have done long tours before, but never camping ones). Anyway, I'm on the fence right now but could be pushed off .


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

Merlin, our friends said you'll definitely want to pay the 350.00 set up fee also. Makes life a lot better I guess.


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## tyro (May 15, 2005)

I'd like to know more about the level of "comfort" in the tent camping situation. I'd like to do it this year as well, but I've never tent camped on a ride before. Are there hotels near the campsites on some of the nights? Anyone done this and want to share some insight/experience?


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## gray8110 (Dec 11, 2001)

tyro said:


> I'd like to know more about the level of "comfort" in the tent camping situation. I'd like to do it this year as well, but I've never tent camped on a ride before. Are there hotels near the campsites on some of the nights? Anyone done this and want to share some insight/experience?


In Medford, Yreka and Grants Pass there will be motels very near the regular camping spot but otherwise, these are some pretty small towns. 

The tent camping is what you'd expect. 2000 people will be camping in a park or school field. All the cool stuff happens around the campsite and between the cumulative miles and the fun in the evening, you'll be pretty well wiped by bed time.


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## tyro (May 15, 2005)

Well, I missed the cutoff for the tent and porter service. Do I have to pack my own tent now? This might be a deal-breaker for me.


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## PdxMark (Feb 3, 2004)

tyro said:


> Well, I missed the cutoff for the tent and porter service. Do I have to pack my own tent now? This might be a deal-breaker for me.


There is a waiting list for the T&P service. I rode CO 11 times and have volunteered on the ride for the past 4 years. I'll be volunteering there again this year, too.

Some people like the T&P service alot, for others it's not a big deal. The camping is basically the same either way, except T&P tents tend to be closer (adjacent tents share corner stakes) so that the crews can manage the 500 or so T&P tents. The set-up and break down of one's tent is an extra job each morning, but most CO riders do it. There are local volunteer porters to carry bags for the nonT&P riders, so it's just set-up and take-down that is the difference.


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## PdxMark (Feb 3, 2004)

gray8110 said:


> In Medford, Yreka and Grants Pass there will be motels very near the regular camping spot but otherwise, these are some pretty small towns.
> 
> The tent camping is what you'd expect. 2000 people will be camping in a park or school field. All the cool stuff happens around the campsite and you'll between the cumulative miles and the fun in the evening, you'll be pretty well wiped by bed time.


I volunteer with Rider Services at CO. Medford and Grants Pass are among the larger-sized towns that CO visits. Most towns CO visits don't have 2000 people within 50 miles, so lodging options are very limited. The tent city of CO and the sense of community that comes with it are one of the things that makes CO special. For some folks, tent camping even on grass field just isn't what they want to do. For folks who don't mind tenting, it's a very, very cool experience.


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## PomPilot (May 17, 2006)

Holy thread resurrection Bikeman!

Just for info (in case anyone cares), I have volunteered to help with the local chamber of commerce tent when C.O. is in Grants Pass. So come on over between 4pm & 6pm on Thursday, 9/17 and say hi. Depending on the weather, my navigator Merry may be me, so you could be able to meet the Pom and the PomPilot.  

Heck, if we're having fun, we just might come back after supper. :wink: So if you see us doing any NNC, wave and call out. Sorry, I don't have a lounge kit that you can home in on.

Hey Tyro. Did you get a slot on the ride or not. I hear it filled up pretty fast this year.


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## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

*Very different...Some thoughts on CO, etc.*



Ridgetop said:


> Some of our riding group signed up today for this. I didn't even realize it exists. They are trying to talk me out of doing OATBRAN in Nevada to do this ride. If PDX wants to flood us with info via PM or posting that would be great. I'd really like to know more about what my wife and I would be getting into (we're both strong riders who have done long tours before, but never camping ones). Anyway, I'm on the fence right now but could be pushed off .


 Up front, I have not actually ridden either of these tours. That being said, I've encountered Cycle Oregon 4-5 of times, living as I do on the Columbia River, and I am very well acquainted with Hwy 50 across Nv and Utah,
Two different types of terrain, for sure and very different riding challenges. Probably be quite different experiences.

I think the CO ride has a lot more riders. The CO riders get really strung out. I've seen fast small pacelines and singleton Mtn. bike mounted riders many miles apart. Riders arriving at like 1pm and others dragging in at 9:30 at night.. It seems like in the middle there can be some congestion and traffic among the bikes. Once we passed CO in a remote corner of Oregon (near Silverlake, SE of Bend) and there were police cruisers and two Moto-cops escorting the main 'peloton'. Some 'cute' signs placed along the routes..."are we there yet?"  "only one more mile--straight up" stuff like that. My friends who've ridden CO say it is more about the people and the 'group experience' than all about the riding. The riding is spectacular and diverse and I imaging you could make it very intense if you chose to. The Oregon riding is hilly. Lots of tree-lined small winding highways, but also some high alpine and even semi-urban sections.

Highway 50 and the high lonesome country through which it goes is pretty unique. The population (such as it is) is tiny compared to Oregon. Chop out Las Vegas and I'd bet Nv., the whole state, has a much smaller population than say..Bend, Or. Hwy 50 presents a big challenge. It is either up or down. That route goes across Nv while the mountain ranges go 'up and down the state. These ranges are spaced 50-100 miles apart and generally lay at right angles to the road. There are no C-stores..no gas stations, no houses, no water ..except in the towns after each day's ride.. I've always wanted to ride the whole thing and I have ridden a few sections. You might be able to climb on the bike in the am and see your evening's destination.."right across that valley" but have to ride a looong day to get there...I would think the OTBRAN would be more about you, your bike and the epic rides.

I can only speak to the actual riding from personal experience, not the quality of the "Organized" experience. I am not an 'Organized Ride' guy...I have considered the OTBRAN organized ride, however, because that route is very challenging and it would be extermely hard to do it self-supported. I think all the CO stages can be 'easily' self-supported.

I'd guess that if socializing is your thing..CO would probably be better and if an 'epic challenge'...something to remember (after you've ground out all those hard stark miles) is what you want..maybe the Hwy 50 deal, OTBRAN would be more memorable..

Either one would be a great accomplishment for any rider. Just a different 'focus' a different kind of beauty to the two...


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