Nancy and Dana's Most Excellent Adventures - Day 2 (Cont.)

After hearing a second recommendation for the Loon Lake route we decided we better check it out.  It was beautiful; there was absolutely no traffic; Lucinda and Jill had been correct when they told us it was impassable!  There were landslides, wash outs, and one big bolder that Nancy thought would be impossible to get around!  Dana convinced Nancy that she could get around that bolder so into 4 wheel drive they went with Nancy wondering who and when anyone would ever get there to help them when they got stuck.  Dana was correct - whoopie!  It was a breeze to get around that bolder and the rest of the drive was uneventful.  We are convinced that in the summer this would be a good route to take, but we also kept thinking that we wanted to end up a bit further south.

By now we were wondering if perhaps Hwy 42 between Bandon and Winston wouldn't be our best bet, so we drove to Winston, checked out the road between Winston and Myrtle Creek, then started heading west on Hwy 42.  For much of the road we thought it was ok, with a good shoulder, with a bit too much traffic, but, with the wide shoulder, probably safe.  However, we came to a 10 mile stretch with no shoulder in most places, so decided Hwy. 42 would not work.  We had planned on trying to figure out a route between Bandon and Hwy 42, but since we didn't think we wanted to ride Hwy. 42 we decided that was not necessary.

We had a last option that we had heard about - the Glenwood to Powers Bicycle Route used each year by the Tour de Fronds. http://www.tourdefronds.com/   The town of Powers is a few miles south of Hwy 42 so we took the Powers Road between Myrtle Point and Powers.  We had no problem deciding it would not be safe to bike that stretch of road as it was very windy, narrow and the traffic was FAST.  When we got to Powers, a very small town with very friendly people, we stopped at the city hall to find out about the bike route.  The man who helped us was a cyclist, loved the route, and gave us a map.  We had been in the car too long and were ready for a bike ride!  We got ourselves and our bikes ready, rode about 1/2 mile, and the sky opened up.  We hid under a tree and in a few moments the rain had passed and we took off up the Glenwood to Powers Bicycle Route.  It was beautiful and with almost no traffic.  We were only able to ride about 6 miles up the road as it was getting late, but our minds were made up - this is our route!

We decided we better drive back to Canyonville to spend the night and figure out exactly how we would get around that area by bike as we knew it could be a bit tricky.  We drove back on Hwy. 42 to Canyonville and checked into the Seven Feathers Casino and Hotel.  We had a good dinner, spent 5 minutes at the slot machines (Nancy immediately lost $17!) and collapsed in bed.  The Seven Feathers has a very nice hotel with wonderful beds, and is not expensive.  http://www.sevenfeathers.com/