Bend OR.... overnight parking for riding/camping?

[chaka]

trying something different for this year's High Cascades 100, turning it into a mini road trip vacation with the family and our camper van.

Bend area mags... what's the situation with overnight parking in and around town? Know of any locations where the city doesn't mind? The nearest legit campgrounds are quite a ways out of town, we'd like to be within a short bike ride of breweries, food etc. and next to start line at Mt Bachelor village (5:30a start). thanks

[mntlion]

just camp anywhere west of town, on the dirt roads that enter the woods

also camping South of sisters, across from the peterson ridge trails, and nice, cheap showers in the sister town park (and AMAZING bear claws at the sisters bakery)

Have fun at HC100 I rode it last year, Mrs mntlion is doing it this year.

[kidwoo]

we'd like to be within a short bike ride of breweries, food etc. and next to start line at Mt Bachelor village

It's like a contradiction wrapped in an enigma.

What mtlion said. All that real estate between town and bachelor is nice. Get some cool overnight breezes and no noise.

[chaka]

thanks mtnlion and kidwoo!
@mtnlion hope Mrs mtnlion enjoys it. Its a great race, this will be my fourth. the organizer (great guy btw) might need to get creative with the course route this year due to the snowpack.
@kidwoo ha, you are right. we are asking a lot

[mntlion]

thanks mtnlion and kidwoo!
@mtnlion hope Mrs mtnlion enjoys it. Its a great race, this will be my fourth. the organizer (great guy btw) might need to get creative with the course route this year due to the snowpack.
@kidwoo ha, you are right. we are asking a lot

nice, I did the event last year, she helped out, so role reversal this year. I'm her bitch, and shes riding. Last year I was on SS and was DFL on entering the gravel climb, but ended up in just over 12 hours overall.

[chaka]

nice, I did the event last year, she helped out, so role reversal this year. I'm her bitch, and shes riding. Last year I was on SS and was DFL on entering the gravel climb, but ended up in just over 12 hours overall.

Same here, SS. hoping to punch under 10 hrs, missed that milestone last time by a couple minutes when it was 100+ deg. the 'high' altitude lave lake climb destroyed me.

[kidwoo]

might need to get creative with the course route this year due to the snowpack.

You're going to miss all that orange dust hanging in the air.

[chaka]

You're going to miss all that orange dust hanging in the air.

maybe get to leave the bandana at home this time. The dust there can get brutal!

So, are the dirt lot trailheads fair game for overnighting? I remember Phil's lot was pretty spacious and level

[kidwoo]

So, are the dirt lot trailheads fair game for overnighting?

I've certainly never been arrested or cited for using them.

Based on that highly scientific and well-researched sample size, I'd say you're good to go. I've never camped there with a few thousand other people in town also looking for places to camp however. But I've pulled off dirt roads and slept around there just to break up road trips, while I'm hanging in bend etc with nary a problem.

[mntlion]

you will be fine camping in the woods

[farmguy]

Ive camped at the Winogoa snow park the first few times I raced the HC 100. Its a few few miles out of town but that was when the start/finish was right there. Every time it was cold as hell camping. 28-30F at 4:30 wake up.

[kidwoo]

Ive camped at the Winogoa snow park the first few times I raced the HC 100. Its a few few miles out of town but that was when the start/finish was right there. Every time it was cold as hell camping. 28-30F at 4:30 wake up.

Yeah the snow park entrances are good places to start. If you don't like the roads, just stay in the lot. Edison is another good one.

[Tap]

Phils TH or the 300 road might be good. Are you actually camping or staying in your car?

[Tap]

Tumalo State Park is great, and not too far. Sisters CG is nice but 25 minutes away.

[Conundrum]

We've slept in our van in town three different times without any issues. We have reflectix cutouts for the windows so you can't see light from outside the van. It's probably illegal but seemed pretty easy.

[chaka]

thanks guys. Wanoga would be great if the start/finish were there but I'm trying to avoid rousing my family to shuttle me to the in town start/finish at 4:30a day of race. For the same reason i nixed Tumalo state park and Sisters. I think we'll wing it either in a dirt road/th lot or a nice looking parking lot in town if we see other like minded folks. We're actually sleeping in the rig (a promaster based class b) so can go fairly incognito.

[mntlion]

Same here, SS. hoping to punch under 10 hrs, missed that milestone last time by a couple minutes when it was 100+ deg. the 'high' altitude lave lake climb destroyed me.

under 10 hrs on SS?, jesus you are a machine

[El Chupacabra]

Bump of old thread -

Planning a group camp trip to Bend area late summer/early fall. Last time I was up there in summer, saw some RVs in a sno-park trailhead -- IIRC it was Swampy Lakes. Are there any restrictions on camping in the sno-parks in summer (other than the USFS 14-day limit)? Any permits of any kind needed?

[SchralphMacchio]

I don’t think it’s a problem with RVs (I don’t think they want tents there), but I’ve never tried it as we usually camp near Marvin’s Gardens. The main Phil’s overflow lot gets super busy with vanlifers, trailers, Class Cs, converted school buses and seems like there is usually room - but we avoid it anyways. Spots close to Marvin’s Gardens can be tricky to nab but we have been able to get spots that accommodate the trailer.

It wouldn’t hurt to call or email the Bend Ranger District just to be sure with Sno Parks RV camping in the summer.

Deschutes National Forest
Supervisor's Office
Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District
63095 Deschutes Market Road
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 383-5300
SM.FS.BFR_FD@usda.gov

[evdog]

I did a ride out of Swampy Lakes TH last summer. When I got back after dark there were zero vehicles parked there except mine, yet every spot outside the TH was crammed with sprinters and other types of camper. Don't recall signs but figured camping wasn't allowed there, so went elsewhere.

[SchralphMacchio]

These are the rules that apply to winter use, but not summer.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/desch...=fseprd1077764

The Sno Park pass money goes to ODOT to pay for some of the cost of plowing so the pass doesn’t apply in the summer. Any fee area THs would need America the Beautiful or Northwest Forest Pass … I don’t think Swampy is a fee area but could be wrong … Sparks Lake might be? I seem to remember some pretty cool looking turnoffs up at Sparks Lake road.

[El Chupacabra]

I'll call the ranger and see what they say. I thought the "no tents" rule was just for winter - so that people don't put up a tent in the parking lot and get hit by a snowplow.

[altacoup]

There’s plenty of mellow FS roads on the highway up towards Mt bachelor. Tons of dispersed FS camping. Why park on the side of the road?


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[El Chupacabra]

Called the Deschutes ranger office; they said summer overnight in sno-park is OK, but needs a Northwest forest pass or a America The Beautiful parks pass. They also said they view it more as a brief overnight stay sort of spot, not a spread out and set up camp sort of spot.

[Patarero]

^ Wanoga zone is pretty wide open but the braap braap crowd does laps in there, at least in the early summer. The Oregon 24 MTB race is based there annually.