Pacific Northwest - Reedsport to Eugene...need help!

Hi all...I'm planning on touring Oregon this summer and need some help....The route as planned is:

Amtrak from Long Beach, CA to Portland
Portland to Astoria (by way of Vernonia)
Astoria to Reedsport
Reedsport to Eugene Amtrak Station

Everything up to Reedsport has been easy to find info about. However, I have had no luck about HWY 38 from Reedsport to Eugene.

Anyone ride 38? Suggestions for alternate routes to Eugene from Reedsport?

Thanks in advance.

The best way to go is up the Smith River Rd (between Reedsport and Gardner), over Oxbow Pass, Wolf Creek road, Crow Road into Eugene. This is a beautiful and low traffic road through the forests of the coast range, but you need to be prepared before you start it. There are long stretches with NO services at all, be sure to have food and plenty of water when you start out from Reedsport. Start early, there are lots of places to camp along the way, but to do it in a day takes an early start. Check tires before you start, have extra tubes.

This is a beautiful ride, it has 2 big climbs, Oxbow pass and Wolf Creek road, they will slow you down. There is a store in Crow for drinks and snacks, from Crow you are 14 miles from Eugene.

I'll make you a map and post it in a few minutes. This is the way to go to avoid traffic, it sure feels remote at times. All paved.

Here is a map of the route, it is pretty well signed, look for signs to Oxbow, Eugene and Crow. The Amtrak Station is in Downtown Eugene at 5th Street and Willamette Street.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1092840

Shifty..thanks so much....I saw those squiggly lines and wondered if that was a bikeable route....looks like it will be a nice ride in...thanks again for your help!

My girlfriend found this route and wants ride it in a week which sounds good to me except by "lots of places to camp" do you mean something more or less official than patches of ground that don't look too sketchy? I don't see much of anything on the map between Crow and Sulphur Springs/Smith River. This will be the first night of our trip and it would be nice to not be too worried about getting in trouble for trespassing.

My girlfriend found this route and wants ride it in a week which sounds good to me except by "lots of places to camp" do you mean something more or less official than patches of ground that don't look too sketchy? I don't see much of anything on the map between Crow and Sulphur Springs/Smith River. This will be the first night of our trip and it would be nice to not be too worried about getting in trouble for trespassing.There are developed campgrounds with tables on Smith River at Smith River Falls and further east at Vincent Creek. At Vincent Creek you take the left fork in the paved road toward Oxbow Pass. Over the pass the road descends to the Siuslaw River, there are quite a few campsites right along the road by the river, you'll see them. No pump for water here, so take a filter with you. from those campsites it's about 45 miles to Eugene with one pass to cross. Also a few campsites on Wolf Creek, 10 miles closer to Eugene from Siuslaw River. Take everything you need, no services along this route.

Hi, It looks like this journal covers part of that ride.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=3Tzut&page_id=84010&v=6F

Thanks for the tips! It was beautifully green... and raining almost non-stop. Thankfully it wasn't very cold so wasn't too bad once we got used to be being soaked to the bone. We ended up camping at a random small clearing. It felt totally safe because the land seems to be mostly national forest so we didn't need to worry about angry farmers. The next night we stayed in a motel to dry us and our gear :-)

I added the established campsites to OSM: http://osm.org/go/TX66NW3Ox- http://osm.org/go/TX66ylvvw-- and they appear in the garmin GPS map you can download from http://downloads.cloudmade.com/north_america/united_states/oregon

Here are GPS tracks of our ride from Eugene to Reedsport http://cycletracks.appspot.com/a/27247.pub http://cycletracks.appspot.com/a/27248.pub
and all our pictures on a map EugeneToSantaRosaAll/photo#map (http://picasaweb.google.com/thecaporg/EugeneToSantaRosaAll/photo#map)

So quiet back there, and so beautiful. On the other routes with traffic AND the rain, it would have been awful, you went the right way, glad it worked for you.