Sunriver, OR
 

The family and I arrived home the other day from a short trip to Sunriver, Oregon. This was the first time I had been to that area of the country and I have to say that the trip was great! I enjoyed by far, the most pleasurable cycling experienced in quite a long while. The area is inundated with cycling paths which were great for getting around with the kids. I had a trailer (with two kids in it) attached to a Trail-A-Bike (with one kid on it) which was attached to my bike when we went on short jaunts around the area. The kids had a blast biking to the park, the swimming pool, the horseback rides, etc., etc. Never have I been in a community with such a resounding cycling theme. It's as if the developers laid out the bike paths first then the rest of the development. If only that mentality was the norm.

As for the paths, they were great for getting around at a reasonable pace. There was a VERY high degree of etiquette demonstrated by about 99.9% of the people we encountered on them and there were no unleashed dogs running rampant, no in-line skaters to contend with and only a few pedestrians. Kiosks with free maps and signs in intelligently-placed areas indicate areas of interest and direction. The only downside was that they were generally busy enough to not allow a quick pace if fitness or ticking of a lot of miles was the goal. To accomplish either of those you had to get to the other road systems around the area (bikes are NOT allowed on the roads within Sunriver, according to the signage).

Getting on the major road systems outside Sunriver proper was easy and the traffic encountered was always courteous. I biked around Mt. Bachelor for a few days and had not one bad experience.

All in all I was very impressed with the area and am even more impressed with the effort that has obviously been expended in the Bend area to accomodate cyclists. As I said earlier, if only more areas of the country could follow suit...

I have heard rumor the the Portland area is very similar in its accomodation of cycling but don't know that firsthand. What I do know is that what I saw of the Bend area blows Seattle away (in my opinion) and Seattle is supposed to be one of the best cities for cycling.

Anyway, if ever you have a chance to get to Sunriver and do some biking, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Don Johnson

I'm familiar with the area Don, it is nice. You have to remember, though, that this is a tourist town - and designed as such. It's like saying Disneyland is great for pedestrians. :D I'd wondered about attaching a trailer to the Trail-a-bike, how does that set-up handle?

What you say about the tourism aspect of Sunriver is certainly true. Regardless, it was really nice to see an area so accomodating to cyclists.

As for the handling of the "train" I had going, stopping was about the only real issue. It's not that I couldn't stop at all, it just took longer. On really tight corners I had to swing a little wider to keep the trailer on the path and I now know from the few hills I encontered that my low gear is not nearly low enough for the amount of weight I was towing, even with the little help I was getting from the stoker on the Trail-A-Bike.

When first reading your description of Sunriver it made me think you had stumbled onto the set of a movie entitled "The Stepford Cyclists"

Sounds like a great place, the planners deserve kudos.