Dan Shryock brings Oregon cycling book to La Grande, Baker City

Dan Shryock will bring Cycling Across Oregon: Stories, Surprises & Revelations Along the State’s Scenic Bikeways to La Grande on Friday, June 5, with a 5 to 6 p.m. presentation in Cook Memorial Library’s Community Room at 2006 Fourth St. A Baker City stop is listed for 7:30 p.m. the same night. For Union County readers, the event lands close to home because Shryock’s book turns the Grande Tour Scenic Bikeway and other Eastern Oregon rides into a story about local roads, small-town main streets and the travel dollars that follow cyclists through the region.

Shryock’s project began in 2021, when he set out to ride Oregon’s scenic bikeways and write about what he found. One memory has stayed with him: a July 7, 2021 ride near Fossil, when the temperature reached 99 degrees and the road felt like it was boiling under his bike tires. He went on to ride 17 scenic bikeways, including 16 in a single year, while the Cascade Rivers Scenic Bikeway remained closed until summer 2023. Travel Oregon says Oregon now has 18 scenic bikeways, part of a signed system that ranges from family-friendly half-day rides to remote multi-day trips.

The route most likely to resonate in Union County is the Grande Tour Scenic Bikeway, a 134-mile figure-eight ride that begins at Riverside Park in La Grande, passes through Union and North Powder, reaches Baker City and loops back. Cycle Oregon says the route follows some of the same ground traveled by pioneers on the Oregon Trail. Travel Oregon describes Baker City as the halfway point, where cyclists can rest, dine and stay overnight, a reminder that scenic bikeways can also feed business on local streets, not just scenery from the saddle.

Shryock also highlights other Eastern Oregon rides that show how much of the state sits beyond the interstate. The Painted Hills Scenic Bikeway runs 161 miles, is rated extreme and includes Fossil, Antelope, Shaniko, Ashwood and Kent while linking to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The Old West Scenic Bikeway covers 174 miles, starts at Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site in John Day and passes through Prairie City, Long Creek, Monument, Dayville and Mt. Vernon before returning to John Day.

Shryock’s larger point is hard to miss: Eastern Oregon is not just a place to pass through, but a landscape of distance, history and discovery that many longtime residents may still be rediscovering. In La Grande and Baker City, that message will arrive with a practical side too, as two book events put Union County and its neighboring communities directly on Oregon’s cycling map.