Abbey's Road

Sunday was pretty much a day of rest. We went to church, did some grocery shopping, and then we hung out by the pool and took it easy. I was too tired to do much of anything else. On Monday, after another cycling class (these guys are trying to whip me into shape) I packed up the RV and Abbey and I headed for Grand Lake, on the other side of Rocky Mtn. NP. I went to visit Jim and Jeri Moat, friends from Austin that I used to do medical missions to Mexico with.

I hadn't seen them in about 7 years so it was great to catch up with them. They have a beautiful house right outside the park on the north side of Grand Lake which they built themselves. With hiking, boating, skiing, and camping all right there, I think I could live in Grand Lake. The only thing is the winters are real long and the snow doesn't melt in your yard until the first week of June. That might be a little too much for me. But it sure is beautiful. They have bears, elk and moose right in their yard. Jeri fell asleep in the hammock one day only to wake up with an elk staring her in the face. Sounds a little like Northern Exposure to me. Maybe I could live there.

Anyways, we took a hike on Tuesday after driving what seemed like forever on a gravel forest service road. I was just glad I didn't have to drive the RV down that road for once. We managed to get caught in a couple of hailstorms, but no thunder (lucky for Abbey) or lightning and they didn't last long. Our lunch spot was overlooking the valley and beyond to the mountains in the park.

It doesn't get much better than that to me. Well, except maybe for the margaritas and nachos we had back in town later on. Grand Lake is a pretty tiny little town and Jim and Jeri seemed to know almost all of the locals. During the winter the population is only about 450.

On Wednesday morning a friend of theirs called up and asked us if we wanted to join them for a boat ride around the lake. We headed over early to Shadow Mountain Lake and got in a decent paddle while checking out the million dollar mansions on the lake. A million bucks just doesn't go as far these days. Their friends showed up with their boat but unfortunately the battery had died. Luckily, they lived close enough that we only lost about 15-20 minutes. Later on we were happy for the delay because on the far end of Grand Lake we saw 3 big bull moose in the water. I had been telling Jim and Jeri that I would probably never see a moose in my life because I often came close but never hit the jackpot. Here were 3 bull moose just hanging out in the water, all with big racks.

It was hard to top that, but we found a nice island in the middle of another lake, Shadow Mountain, and we went ashore and had a picnic lunch, complete with red wine. It was hard to say goodbye, but I had to make it back to Loveland for an appt. with the podiatrist at 4:30PM. It was sunny and beautiful, so the ride back on Trail Ridge Road had nothing but spectacular views and slow cars.

Posted by Ed at 9:30 PM | Permalink

I took some time off from hiking this week to do some other things. I took a couple of biking classes at a local gym with Dan, Bonnie and the kids and ran some errands to catch up on things. They have a puppy, Lydee, who has been keeping Abbey real busy. Abbey hasn't played this much ever, I think. She wears out long before Lydee does. Bonnie and I did take the dogs on a moderate walk one day, but it has been so hot this week that I didn't miss hiking at all. 5 days in a row it was over 100. On Thursday night, Dan & I prepared ourselves for a short backpacking trip through Rocky Mountain National Park. We left at 6AM Friday morning and drove to Bear Lake, one of the most popular trailheads in the park. Since we were hiking through the park, we had to leave the dogs at home. The trail went up pretty steeply the whole way to Flattop Mountain, but it had great views at the top, especially of Longs Peak '? the highest in Colorado. A storm came in real early, even for the Rockies, but we were ahead of it and stayed out of the storms all day. We were above treeline for quite a while, but managed to get down to our campsite by 2:30 in the afternoon. We were both pretty beat so after we set up camp we took a short nap on our 'patio'. We had a great site fairly close to a really nice stream. There's nothing like falling asleep to the sound of a rushing stream in the wilderness. We had a wonderful meal of rehydrated sweet-n-sour pork and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Actually, it was pretty good.

Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep. So I wondered around under a nearly full moon for about an hour. I was just glad I didn't run into any bears or mountain lions. In the morning, we took a hike without our backpacks (much easier) to a nice alpine lake surrounded by steep walls. The hike out was fairly flat with just a gentle downhill slope most of the way. A few miles from the end, we saw these 2 young kids that were pretty weighted down with their packs. One of them had a pot tied onto his pack. We were wondering who they were with when 4 more kids came around the bend looking even worse than the first two. None of them looked happy to be there at all. We waited to see where the adults were, but finally put on our own packs and started down the trail. Just around the first bend we saw the parents/chaperones. They were easy to spot because they were packed the same way. The lady told us they were going to Bear Lake (where we came from the first day!), but they did have 2 days to do it. I don't think those kids could have lasted 2 more days. I sure hope they didn't get caught in a thunderstorm on top of the exposed areas up high. We felt pretty sorry for the kids.

After almost 22 miles of hiking (17+ with a heavy pack), we stumbled into Grand Lake and sacked out in the park until Bonnie showed up with Andrea and the car. Before heading back, we had some good Mexican food and best of all, some nice cold beers. The views along Trail Ridge Road on the ride back were spectacular '? at least the ones I saw when my eyes weren't closed.
At the start (Bear Lake)
Longs Peak
The Trail
Bridge over North Inlet Creek
Snoozing on the "Patio"
Our Camp Couch
Waterfall on North Inlet Creek
Lake Nonokino

Posted by Ed at 1:47 AM | Permalink

A few people have asked me for my pesto recipe so here it is:

2 cups basil (tightly packed)
1/3-1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
3 large garlic cloves
1/4-1/3 cup olive oil (I use closer to 1/3)
1/2-1 cup parmesan (I use closer to 1/2)

In a food processor, puree the garlic and pine nuts. Then add the basil and some of the olive oil. Then add the parmesan cheese and more of the olive oil, until it gets to the consistency you like. I stop when it's a moist paste, but not too oily. Adjust the parmesan amount to your taste, and add salt & pepper to taste. The garlic will come through real strong at first, but it will mellow after a day or two. You can put it in a container, put oil on top of it and it will keep quite a while in the frig. You can also freeze it (without the oil on top).

Enjoy

Posted by Ed at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I left Idaho early Thursday morning and settled in for a long 2 days of driving. Driving through Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho there was a long line of cars going the other way, even at 7:30am. I felt like I was going the wrong way and I was missing something, but happy not to be in the traffic. I never did figure out what all those people were doing going to Ketchum that early in the morning on a weekday. The drive through eastern Idaho and northwestern Utah was pretty boring. I know 2 areas I don't want to live. Instead of taking the interstate through southern Wyoming, another one of those places not to live, I opted for the scenic route and headed to Park City, UT. I only stayed a few hours, long enough to get Abbey out a bit and to find a coffee shop with internet access to check email. It seemed pretty nice, though fairly touristy. I managed to find a state campground on a reservoir a few hours east, just before you get to Colorado. It was kind of a strange campground, but it was cheap and not an RV park, and I was tired of driving. Abbey got riled up by all the rabbits running around the grounds. She wasn't happy that I wouldn't let her chase them.

On Friday, we headed out again and got to drive through Dinosaur, CO, the gateway to Dinosaur National Monument. Sounds like a great place to take kids, but we didn't stop. We made it to Steamboat Springs by noon, another nice ski town. Unfortunately, it was mobbed with people but we still managed to do a short hike to a waterfall. We didn't go too far cause it was real hot. We eventually made it to the Gibbons' house in Loveland around 6 or so.

Dan and I got up early Sat. morning and headed up in the mountains. He chose a trail to the top of Signal Mt. Not a real popular trail, we were about the only ones on it, but it was pretty nice. It was long and steep and we were real tired by the time we finished, but the views from the top and along the way were worth it. It was also nice not to have any crowds. It was the longest hike (almost 12 miles) with the highest elevation gain (3300 ft.) I've done so far. Abbey stayed behind since it was so hot. Since tomorrow is Sunday, I think we'll rest and I'll take Abbey for a walk around the local lake.
Longs Peak - highest peak in Colorado
View of the Mummy Range

Posted by Ed at 4:00 PM | Permalink

I got up a bit late this morning (guess I'm still on Pacific Time) and couldn't decide what hike to do. I really wanted to do one with a little climbing, nice views and some water for Abbey, but they were all a bit long. I finally decided to give Sawtooth Lake a shot even though it was 10 miles roundtrip. At least there was another lake about a mile before that we could always stop at and cut off a couple of miles. It was hot again today, but there was a nice stream a good part of the way so it was bearable. The first lake, Alpine Lake, was really nice.
We stopped to take a break and I would've eaten my lunch except for one minor problem. I realized I left my sandwich back in the refrigerator in the RV. I was pretty bummed, but luckily I had brought along some snacks. After a good rest we hiked up a bunch of switchbacks to what I thought was Sawtooth Lake.

I finished off the rest of the snacks while taking a break there, but then started to wonder why the lake was so small. It was supposed to be much bigger. So we headed on further just a little ways and came to the real Sawtooth Lake. For you sentimental republicans, the mountain in the background is Mt. Reagan.

I named the first lake Faux Sawtooth - kind of like a false summit. The lakes were all beautiful. This was really my kind of hike with the scenery I love '? alpine meadows, alpine lakes and mountain peaks all around. Abbey had a great time going in all 3 lakes and it really helped revitalize her after a tough climb up. It turned out to be 11 miles, the farthest we've hiked by far, so I was a little worried about her leg, but it seems to be fine. In fact, we found a new campsite heading south. It's by a stream in a dispersed camping area and it's real quiet. When we got situated I let her out and she still had a lot of energy. We walked around quite a bit through the woods, across the stream, up a hill and she still didn't seem tired. And her leg seemed fine so I was relieved. Tomorrow we're starting to make our way towards Colorado so we'll have a lot of driving the next two days. I'm meeting up again with Dan Gibbons, who lives in Loveland. We're hoping to get some nice big hikes in. His wife and kids don't like to do the more strenuous stuff so we are both looking forward to it.

Posted by Ed at 12:53 AM | Permalink

I have never been to Idaho before so everything has been a new experience so far. I drove out through eastern Oregon yesterday to make my way to Idaho. Eastern Oregon was a lot of high desert country, but there were actually a few large national forests that were quite green and mountainous. The first part of Idaho I drove into was also high desert, though not quite as bleak as parts of Oregon were. When I stopped at the Welcome Center I was told the correct pronunciation of Boise (the 's' is NOT pronounced like a 'z') and I also got some good camping info. I was supposed to meet up with the sister of Carol Davis, a woman I worked with in Germany. She just recently moved to Boise. We had a slight miscommunication on the day I was going to be there and she had already made plans for that night. Luckily, I found out just as I was checking out an RV park in town. Thank God. I was disappointed I didn't get to meet Judy, but very happy that I narrowly averted the horror of staying in an RV park. I've only had to do it once and it was early in the season and there was only 1 other camper there. And it was in a very picturesque setting in the Gila Wilderness in NM, so I don't really count it. Speaking of picturesque, I'm sure Boise is a very nice city, but once you get north of there, Idaho also starts to look pretty nice. It becomes mountainous fairly quickly and even gets a little greener, though it is still pretty dry. That first night I pulled into a campground that didn't look all that nice, but I was tired and it was cheap so we stayed. There was even a hot spring there, but since the temperature was still pretty warm it didn't look real enticing. I didn't mention that when I got to Boise, it was in the mid-90's. This is actually quite normal for Boise in July. Today while I was parked next to a lake I ran into a couple on horseback (not literally) and they said it is normal for it to hit the low 100's in July and August. The climate here is quite moderate for being so far north. I guess it goes along with the desert thing. It doesn't even snow much in town, just up in the mountains. But they told me to tell everyone that Idaho sucks and the people are jerks. They moved out from Michigan 15 years ago. It still isn't that crowded and they want to keep it that way. So, if you ask me, I have to say that Idaho sucks. I sat in the RV while we were at the lake because the flies were pretty bad, but Abbey was having a ball wading in the water looking for whatever it is she looks for. I think anything that moves. On the way into the lake I saw some more elk. 3 big males ran out of the woods and crossed the dirt road we were on only about 50 ft. in front of us. So far the only big animals I've seen have been elk. No moose yet, but I keep looking.

The scenery ain't bad though. I made it to the Sawtooth Wilderness and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area today. It was in the upper 80's but we managed to find a hike that was near water (for Abbey, that is) and was fairly flat so we wouldn't die. Then we found a nice campground near a lake so I went for a swim to cool off afterwards. Well, maybe 'swim' is exaggerating a bit. After standing in the very cold water for several minutes, I finally dove under and nearly lost my breath. I didn't last long in the water but it sure cooled me off.
Sawtooth Mountains
Redfish Lake

Posted by Ed at 10:05 PM | Permalink

Well, Oregon has finally lived up to its reputation. Today was the 3rd day in a row of clouds and rain. However, I am now sitting in Hood River and the sun is shining so I can't complain too much. In the morning I did laundry since it wasn't too nice and then headed back west a bit to a place called Multnomah Falls. Despite the bad weather, everyone else was there as well. It is a pretty high waterfall and you can hike up to the top. I was surprised at how many people made it up to the top 'cause it was pretty steep and tiring. I guess not all Americans are fat and lazy, just a large percentage. Once we got beyond the overlook and headed further up, the people thinned out (in number) considerably. We made a loop around to another set of waterfalls and headed back down. Abbey was practically running down the hill and my legs were dying by the time we got back down. The whole time it felt like we were in a tropical rain forest. It was misting most of the time and everything was covered with moss. It was still pretty cloudy all along the gorge, but it made it look kind of eery so it wasn't a total loss - just no good gorge pictures. Now in Hood River the sun finally came out and we went down to check out the windsurfers and kite boarders. For those of you who don't know, the Columbia River Gorge is a windsurfing mecca. The kite boarders seem a bit crazy to me. You look up in the sky and see all these kites flying around and then you see down on the water these people attached to these kites riding on windsurfing boards. I was just waiting for 2 of the kites to get tangled up. I can't see how they don't with so many of them out there. I don't think that's a sport I'll try. Maybe windsurfing.
Mutlnomah Falls
Top of Multnomah Falls
Some Other Falls but I don't remember which one
Have you had enough falls yet?

Posted by Ed at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Friday, I drove back up towards Portland. It was a cloudy, rainy day so I took the opportunity to run some errands before heading farther north towards Mt. St. Helens. Unfortunately, when you're on the road in a new area, it takes longer to do everything since you don't know where anything is. So I wasn't too productive, but the day wasn't too nice so it didn't matter much. Of course, as my brother suggested I could've asked people where things were and that just might have made it easier. The other thing I found out is that the Portland area has horrible traffic. I wasn't even near the downtown. I don't think it's a place I'd want to live. Since it was a rainy weekend, I had no problem finding a decent campground not too far from Mt. St. Helens National Monument. And what a deal - $12 with free water fillup and a dump station. Just my kind of place.

It was still cloudy and a little rainy in the morning, but I headed up towards Mt. St. Helens anyways. I was told, by my brother again, that it would be worth it. It is pretty incredible when you see the devastation caused by the volcano eruption even several miles away. It's a little harder to imagine now though, because life is starting to come back in many areas around the mountain. Not in the closest areas, but further away lakes are coming back to life and so are the forests. The eruption did not include a lava flow, only a pyrocastic (sp?) flow. Don't ask me what that means though. The other interesting stories were about some lunatics who actually caught the collapse of the crater and the eruption on film and lived to tell about it. 1 photographer was with some friends at a lookout only something like 17 miles away. The blast from the eruption traveled at 300mph so it didn't take long to catch up to them, but they somehow survived. There was also some other nut who owned a lodge on Spirit Lake only a few miles from the mountain. He said he was going to stay no matter what and he wanted to die there. Well, he got his wish and his lodge was in a spot which is now in the middle of the lake. The pictures didn't come out all that great because of the clouds. I couldn't see inside the crater and only caught glimpses of the mountain through the clouds. In case you're wondering, in the pictures of Spirit Lake, the light spot on the one end isn't snow or ice. It's a huge logjam that has been in the lake since the day of the eruption, 25 years ago. It's a lot of the dead trees that were on the hillsides that got washed back down into the lake. At one of the viewpoints I let Abbey out and was watching her when I heard some noises. I looked down the hill and saw 3 big elk trotting off.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, I drove the backroads through Washington towards the Columbia River and crossed it at Cascade Locks. Abbey had been stuck in the RV most of the day, so after I found a campground we took a short hike. There are trails that run a good part of the Columbia River Gorge. Unfortunately, they are paved and can be quite crowded and there is a lot of noise from the highway. She needed to get out and the one near our campsite wasn't crowded at all so it was still a decent walk. The other unfortunate thing is that our campground was situated between I-84 and railroad tracks. They even have a warning sign that freight trains run all night and they are required by law to blow their whistle at the crossing which seemed like it was right outside my bedroom window. I can attest to the truthfulness of the sign. Needless to say, I didn't get a very good night's sleep, though the hot shower with unlimited water in the morning made up for a little bit of it.
Spirit Lake
Elk
Storm Clouds

Posted by Ed at 11:01 PM | Permalink

After checking out the path around the lake that we camped next to, Abbey and I drove up to Santiam Pass. It's not all that high, but the trailhead for the trail I wanted to hike was there. The trail to Berley Lakes was described in a book I had bought and the trailhead I chose was recommended over the more crowded Pacific Crest Trail start of the hike. I soon found out why it wasn't so crowded. The sign had disappeared and there were a lot of fallen trees blocking the trail in the beginning. Undaunted by these minor annoyances we stuck with my original plan and it turned out pretty good. The trail wound through a previously burned forest so it was cool looking in a weird sort of way.
Most of the trees were charred except for small islands of trees here and there, but there were tons of wildflowers, especially something called Bear Grass. It seemed like everywhere I went I would see more Bear Grass then the previous place.

Anyway, the day was gorgeous compared to the previous day '? hardly any clouds at all '? which meant that it was hotter too. We finally made it to Lower Berley Lake which made Abbey real happy.

There was supposed to be a 'rough trail' to the other end of the lake. Well, it may have been rough a few years ago when the book was written, but now it was nearly non-existent in several spots. Abbey had an easy time since she could just walk in the water when she wanted, and when she decided to follow me for some stupid reason it was a lot easier for her to duck under the brush. After a bit of bushwhacking (mostly me getting the whacking), we made it to the other end of the lake and were treated to a great view of Three Fingered Jack. I never did find out why the mountain was named that, but I'm sure there's a good story behind it.

In any case, it was a nice spot to sit and have lunch. Abbey was having so much fun in the water that she almost forgot I was there. At one point she came out of some bushes and ran down the shore and I could tell she all of a sudden figured out that I wasn't there. I was hoping she wouldn't notice me up the hill a bit so I could eat my lunch in peace, but no such luck. She must have smelled the food.

There was another hike I wanted to do, but since the first one was 7 miles I didn't want to push my luck with Abbey's leg. So I did it by myself and went pretty quickly since it was also getting late and I still had to find a campground. (After that sentence you can tell I was an engineering major.) In this area it seems like it isn't a problem to find a spot during the week. After a long drive up a steep gravel road I finally found the trail head and took off alone despite Abbey's pleading. The hike was to the top of Triangulation Peak. It wasn't all that high (lucky for me), but it had great views of some nearby bigger mountains '? Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington and even Mt. Hood in the distance. I love to climb to the tops of mountains when the views are spectacular like in this case. It was worth it and Abbey forgot all about my transgression after I fed her. That's the great thing about dogs.
Mt. Jefferson
More wildflowers in the burnt forest

Posted by Ed at 10:57 PM | Permalink

I didn't exactly get an early start this morning, but since it was raining I decided not to do any more hikes around Mt. Hood and headed south back down towards the Bend area. But this time I went more up in the mountains to the Willamette National Forest. This area was primarily shaped by volcanic activity over the years. There are lava flows everywhere. It's pretty wild seeing piles and piles of dark volcanic rock and islands of trees that somehow escaped the lava's path.

It was still pretty cloudy but the rain had stopped. We went through a town called Sisters that looked nice, though a bit touristy, and it sure was packed with people. Luckily most of those people never make it passed the shops to go up into the mountains. Abbey and I stopped at a trailhead near a lake to try and take a short hike. Abbey was real anxious to get out of the RV after the ride. I left the door open for less than a minute and there must have been a dozen mosquitoes that came in. I should've decided to blow off that hike right then, but I ignored the warning and headed off down the path. 5 minutes later I gave up and we headed back to get away from the damn things. The next trail we stopped at had no mosquitoes and it was a short hike to a couple of waterfalls '? Lower and Upper Proxy Falls. When I was in Glacier NP last summer and it rained everyday, one thing I learned was that no matter how cloudy it is you can usually see waterfalls and the pictures don't come out too bad either.

So after that short hike we went for another that passed a couple of much bigger waterfalls '? Sahalie and Koosah Falls. It was a loop trail so we got to see each of them twice.


We found another nice campground this time on a lake. For dinner I attempted my first pizza in the RV. In San Jose I had picked up a few ready-made pizza doughs from Trader Joe's. I made one of my favorites '? eggplant with goat cheese, roasted red peppers and garlic. I also tried putting some dried basil on for something different and it worked out OK. I baked it in the oven and it actually turned out pretty good despite the fact that I didn't have any flour or rolling pin to roll out the dough with. I'm not much on making my own dough especially when you can buy one real cheap that is already made. Same with pie crusts. Here's the recipe for the pizza if anyone is interested. Almost forgot to mention that the pizza went great with some Moose Drool Brown Ale from Montana.

Pizza with Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Garlic

1 pre-made pizza dough (many grocery stores carry them now)
1 small eggplant (can use baby eggplant)
1 clove garlic (minced)
8 oz. shredded mozzarella (more if using larger pan)
3-4 oz. goat cheese
Toasted pine nuts
Roasted red peppers (drained and sliced)
Dried basil

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface. Oil a 12 to 16 inch pizza pan, or put a little corn meal on a pizza stone. Most pre-made crusts fit on a 16' pan, but it depends on how thin you like the crust. The Trader Joe's dough actually worked pretty well on a 12' pan, though it was a little thicker than I usually make it. Put the rolled out dough on the pizza pan. Cover with mozzarella. Peel and thinly slice eggplant. Place eggplant on top of the mozzarella, and then slice goat cheese and put on top of eggplant slices. Add pine nuts, roasted red peppers, garlic, basil (if desired), and black pepper (if desired). Turn oven on to 500 degrees and put pizza in right away. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the crust is crisp and everything is golden brown. Another way is to preheat the oven to 450 and put the pizza in once it reaches the temp.

More to come. I have a lot of pics but no words yet for 7/07.
Wildflowers near Lava Flow
Road through Lava Field

Posted by Ed at 6:08 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, after I dropped DeeAnne off, I took Abbey to a park to get her out of the RV for a while. Their was a band that started playing after we had been there a little while, so I was going to get my laptop and sit down for a while. It sounds pretty sad I know, but I had some blogging to catch up on. Anyways, while I was on my way back to the RV to get my laptop some kids lit off a bunch of fireworks which scared the crap out of Abbey. Needless to say, we didn't stay at that park. So I found a Barnes & Noble and finished up my blogging work. Then we drove to Mt. Hood and found a nice campground with a creek running through it just in time before it got dark.

Today, after sleeping in and stopping at the ranger station, we headed up the flanks of Mt. Hood. I somehow managed to squeeze the RV in at the trailhead and we started off on what turned out to be a really nice hike on the Timberline trail around Mt. Hood. When we reached a trail junction there were a couple of old timers in their 70's who could easily tell that I had never been there before. If I can still hike when I'm their age I'll be ecstatic. When I told them I grew up in Delaware one of the guys proceeded to tell me that the only memory he has of Delaware was landing at Rehoboth Beach when he was in the Coast Guard and being overwhelmed with all the bikini-clad young women on the beach. At least he saw Delaware at its best.

The hike was in the trees for a good part of the time, but there still were some amazing views of Mt. Hood. The lady at the ranger station said that I should do this hike because there aren't many days where the sun shines and the snow isn't too deep to hike. I guess I was pretty lucky because the day was gorgeous and so were all of the wildflowers. I was in heaven. Unfortunately, Abbey wasn't. I think she was still on edge because of the fireworks she heard the previous day. We were both pretty exhausted when we got back and we found a nice spot to boondock next to a stream on the way back to town. I had picked up some wild salmon the night before at the grocery store so I grilled it topped with some of my pesto. And to round things out, I just happened to have some wine that needed finishing off. Not a bad way to end the day.
Mt. Hood
Wildflowers
Another view
Abbey in Avalanche Lilies

Posted by Ed at 5:52 PM | Permalink

In the morning we headed out of Crater Lake NP and up to Bend, OR. I've wanted to go here for some time and DeeAnne has good family friends there '? Phil and Iris. At first glance we weren't that impressed with the town, but as we drove around it more later it started to grow on us. Unfortunately, the town itself has grown exponentially lately, and, according to DeeAnne's friends, the downtown is no longer the same. It seems to be much more touristy now. In any case, there is so much to do here for outdoor adventure lovers. We went up north of Bend to a place called Smith Rock State Park. It wasn't a huge place, and it was a bit crowded, but we had a nice hike along a river and then up the side of this huge rock formation named Monkey Face. Luckily we were mostly in the shade for the climb up and there was a great view from the top. It was also very popular with rock climbers so it was fun to watch some of them scale the cliffs. It made me want to do some more climbing, but DeeAnne wasn't quite so enthusiastic about it.

We had a nice steak dinner at DeeAnne's friends' and 'camped' in the street in front of their house. Not exactly a wilderness experience, but the ice cream for dessert and the hot showers in a bathroom bigger than a closet, not to mention the enjoyable company, made up for the less-than-wild setting.

The next morning, after a big breakfast, we went to visit the daughter of Phil and Iris, Susan. She and her husband have a cabin on national forest land on Odell Lake about 75 miles south of Bend. It was a beautiful, quiet lake and they had a real nice, rustic cabin tucked in the trees. The drive into the cabin was pretty tight and I probably scraped the top up a bit, but it was worth it. This time, even though we were parked in their 'yard' it was definitely a wilderness setting. Susan's 14 yr. old daughter had 4 other friends staying for the weekend, and I found out the next morning that it was better that we slept in the RV. As typical for girls, they were up half the night talking.

On the 4th we headed up to Portland to drop DeeAnne off at the airport. I'm heading towards Mt. Hood tonight and then probably back down south a bit to spend a few more days in the Bend area, but higher up in the mountains this time.
Smith Rock State Park
Can you find Snoopy?

Posted by Ed at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The next morning we headed out for Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. We went through Klamath Falls on the way, but that was a bit of a disappointment '? not much exciting happens around there. The drive up to Crater Lake was beautiful, though, and the lake itself was spectacular. We decided to camp in the park at one of the nicer NP campgrounds I've been to with the added bonus of a free dump station '? always a plus. There's a 33-mile loop around the top of the lake with dozens of pullouts, all with great views of the lake. Being a national park where dogs aren't allowed on the trails, we stuck to driving around the lake and making a lot of stops. Luckily for Abbey there was still a lot of snow so at least she got to enjoy herself a little. The lake itself is an unbelievable blue color. The pictures just don't do it justice. The average depth of the lake is over 1100 ft. with the deepest part being over 1900 ft. As the name suggests, it was formed in the crater left behind by an old volcano. I would highly recommend the place to anyone traveling in this area. The views of the lake are incredible.

Thanks to Mimi and Steve, who were headed out on vacation and needed to unload some food before it went bad, we enjoyed some bruschetta that night made with Trader Joe's Sun-dried Tomato Pesto and goat cheese on toasted baguette slices. Just because I'm living in an RV doesn't mean I'm going to rough it. There's not really a recipe for it. I just sliced up the baguette, toasted the slices in the oven and then spread the goat cheese followed by the sun-dried tomato pesto. You could add toasted pine nuts on top, but I didn't feel like toasting the pine nuts. I was too hungry.
Crater Lake
Another view
Phantom Ship
Wizard Island

Posted by Ed at 9:20 PM | Permalink