Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Wednesday, July 5, 2023 @ 2:41 p.m.
Portland-Based Travel Org Will Bring 300 Bicyclists To Crescent City and Get A CHP Escort Up 199
BRNW Best of the West 2023 from BRNW on Vimeo.
###
BRNW logo
Exactly 300 bicyclists and their 44-member support team will descend on Crescent City next week, camping at Beachfront Park, eating at restaurants and exploring the area for two nights.
Most will get a California Highway Patrol escort through the dicier areas of U.S. 199 on their way into Oregon.
“We’re going to have some traffic control to get our riders through one section between roughly Crescent City and Hiouchi, and then we’ll be taking some other measures to be careful from Patrick Creek up to Collier Tunnel,” Bicycle Rides Northwest Executive Director Jim Moore told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Wednesday. “We’ll have an electronic sign and the CHP will have a presence. We’re going to ask drivers not to pass riders, but the riders will use every pull out there is (for) any cars that get caught behind them. Also there are five stretches of passing lane.”
Crescent City will serve as a layover stop on a seven-day loop starting and ending in Winston, Oregon -- south of Roseburg -- on July 8 and July 15. BRNW’s “Best of the West” tour includes Bandon, Gold Beach, Lake Selmac and Wolf Creek. Bicycle Rides Northwest will be in Crescent City next Tuesday through Thursday.
Bicycle Rides Northwest has offered tours through Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Montana for about 35 years. A Portland-based nonprofit organization that’s governed by a Board of Directors, the average BRNW rider is in their mid 60s, Moore said. Cyclists log an average 60-65 miles per day on BNRW tours.
For their “Best of the West” tour, the first day, at about 72 miles, will be the group’s longest day on the road. Moore speculated that cyclists will do about 44 miles during their layover day in Crescent City. It will be the first time a BRNW tour has included Del Norte County, he said.
“A few years ago we polled our riders and found out there was a little bit of route fatigue,” Moore said, adding that about 200 of the 300 cyclists on the tour are repeat riders. “Trying to find new routes is a big thing for our riders, and that’s why we’re coming to Crescent City.”
Bicycle Rides Northwest will take 300 cyclists on a loop starting in Winston, Oregon and including Crescent City. | Map courtesy of BRNW
From Brookings, the BRNW tour will cross the California state line on July 11 and make a left onto Ocean View Drive and will travel through Smith River via Fred Haight Drive. They’ll then bike into Crescent City via Lake Earl Drive, Washington Boulevard and Pebble Beach Drive.
The next day, cyclists will be able to explore Howland Hill and South Fork roads to Steven Bridge. They’ll also be able to sign up for a plethora of activities in town, Moore said.
Cindy Vosburg, executive director of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce, first heard from Moore via Grant Werschkull, co-director of the Smith River Alliance, about two years ago.
Navigating the red tape of bringing such a large group of cyclists to town and finding activities for them to do took a handful of Zoom meetings, collaboration with the City of Crescent City, Redwood National and State Parks and “everybody that was a type of attraction,” Vosburg said.
The hope is to get the cyclists to return to Del Norte with their families, Vosburg told the Outpost.
“For the Chamber to get a group like this to visit here is wonderful,” she said. “We see it as a big push for local businesses. On their down day they’ll be eating lunch throughout the community and they’ll be experiencing some of our attractions.”
The Chamber and the city are also helping to provide evening entertainment for the bicyclists. This includes presentations from RNSP Deputy Director Erin Gates and Emily Reed, of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation.
City representatives will also open the Val Polyanin art exhibit and will screen the NBC Sports feature on Kamome and Del Norte’s sister city relationship with Rikuzentakata, Japan, City Manager Eric Wier said.
“This is the first time that I’m aware that something like this has happened in my time with the city, which is basically two decades,” Wier said. “But it is something we see as a future opportunity for us.”
According to Wier, BRNW received a special event permit from the city to camp at Beachfront Park for two nights. This permit cost about $1,200 for two nights and went before the Crescent City Council for approval a few months ago. That will pay for an extra police officer to “make sure everything goes smooth for their experience” as well as public works to do trash cleanup at the park, Wier said.
When she first began working with Bicycle Rides Northwest, Vosburg said one of the first people she called was Tamera Leighton of the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission, who helped coordinate with CHP and Caltrans.
Vosburg said it was the CHP that took the lead on ensuring those cyclists could safely negotiate U.S. 199’s windy stretches through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and the Narrows north of Patrick Creek Lodge.
About 250 riders will make the trek up U.S. 199 from Crescent City to Collier Tunnel, Moore said. Some will take a shuttle to the tunnel. There’ll be a mandatory stop in Jed Smith, allowing for riders to get off the road and let cars go by. The BRNW will put out the portable toilets and provide some water before the cyclists regroup and get on their way.
“What most people don’t think about, if you were to ride the road by yourself or with two people or three, it could be dicey because a car could come around the corner and not know you’re there,” Moore said. “But when you have 250 riders and a vehicle with flashing lights and an electronic sign, there’s no chance they don’t know you’re there. There’s safety in numbers.”
Vosburg pointed out that it’s not every day Crescent City hosts a large group of travelers at once. The last time was during an Outdoor Writers Association of California conference years ago when she was on the Visitors Bureau Board of Directors. Del Norte hosted roughly 55 people for that event, she said.
“That was a whole different beast. We had about 55 people we brought to town and we coordinated three days of excursions,” Vosburg said. “This group isn’t asking us to do that. They’re paying their way and that’s wonderful.”
CLICK TO MANAGE