Oregon Lore, Tour and More

End of July 2103

Exiting Idaho and continuing my adventure west I made a long haul in the van to reach Bend, Oregon. The next attraction, the Newberry Lava Cave was already closed for the evening, unless you are a local nocturnal bat, so I set up camp in the Deschutes National Forest for the evening.

View of Central Oregon from "Lava Butte"

At the visitor center entrance I noticed my impeccable timing as they were offering vehicle passes for a rapidly approaching opportunity to drive up to "Lava Butte". So I snatched one up and shortly made the winding circular drive up to the top for an excellent expansive 360 degree view of Central Oregon including clear views of Mt. Hood and the Three Sisters Mountains, all still sporting snow tops even in late July.

About a mile down the road, actually under the road, is where you'll find the Lava Cave. It's so much cooler now than it was in the past! You see, it was formally a lava tube and coincidentally quite a bit hotter, but it has since settled down to a cool, if not nippy constant 42 degrees, so don't forget your sweater! It's about a mile long and large enough to house a subway system.  It's also pitch black, but don't worry because they offer gas lanterns for rental. However, you might worry a bit about the mini drug test you'll have to take before entering the cave. You see, apparently the bats back east (it started in NY. Sin City?!) have fallen prey to a bit of a cocaine addiction which they are referring to as "White Nose Syndrome". As a result the bats are up partying all winter and burning crucial calories when they should otherwise be quietly resting in winter hibernation.  This drug fad is rampant and has claimed over 7 million bat lives this year alone. The epidemic wave is slowly making its way west across the United States so the Narcs, I mean Rangers, will question you to ascertain whether or not you have been caving recently and thus may be suspect for being a drug mule! You have been warned! Although I may be confusing a weird bat virus for cocaine addiction?

Lava Cave, formally Lava Tube

Central Oregon seems to be home to many great mountain bike rides and since I was right there I decided to explore one of them. From the Bentham Falls Trailhead I took the 15 mile ride along the Deschutes River past Lava Island and Meadow Camp. I would consider the "Falls" to actually be "rapids", but it is none the less a fun and mostly flat ride which allows you to put the hammer down. You should probably slow down though and take in the pretty views of the river as well as the striking lava fields. Of course, the great thing about rides along rivers is being able to wash off the dirt and sweat afterwards. Though, just once I wish I could find the hot water tap to warm things up a little!

With some light left in the day I moseyed further south and ducked in to have a look at what is currently Paulina and East Lakes, but they were formerly the site of another big volcano Caldera. Another dusty, winding white knuckle drive led to the peak where I sat on the rim of an extinct volcano and had a look around. A frozen in time obsidian lava flow to the right, both blue freshwater lakes front and center, a 360 view wherever I turned and a few towering pinnacles sprinkled on top for good measure. As the sun began to set on the wild geologic history lesson before me I knew it was time to descend and find a nice stand of trees to call home for the evening.  

Lake Paulina a few years post eruption.

The next stop on the tour was Crater Lake. This was one tour date that I had been looking forward to for a while. I'm starting to feel like I've been whisked away on a Grateful Dead tour as I realize that I've began a tour along the ring of fire, following a "Thankfully Dead" volcanic tour. 

Crater Lake lays inside a caldera formed some 7,700 years ago when a major eruption collapsed the 12,000 foot peak. It may have been the biggest North American Eruption in the last 600,000 years, but a couple of things are for sure. At a depth of 1,943 feet it is the deepest lake in North America. It also has no outlets such as rivers or streams and is fed entirely by rain and snow. Additionally it's also considered the gold standard for purity by which all other lakes are judged! 

The lake is also world renown for the intense blue, almost surreal color its deep and pure waters exude. So I was fairly excited to have a look for myself. Luckily I was able to spend the night because on arrival, much to my dismay, the lake was barely visible due to a blanket of smoke created by nearby wild fires. I feel for all the visitors who came and left that day unable to honestly say, "I saw Crater Lake".  

In the morning the winds had shifted temporarily and cleared the air enough to make out a little more than just vague outlines,  but the situation was still very much smoggy, foggy and just downright smoky. A serious disappointment and I would have considered waiting the fires out, but upon hearing that they were only 10% contained I decided that waiting another week or two was out of the question. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get the photographs I was hoping for, but I got enough that, through the magic of photoshop and my considerable digital darkroom skills (not!), I am able to share my "artistic" rendition of what I envision one would see if peering on to Crater Lake on a clear day. My hope is not that it quenches your desire to see it, but that it may inspire you to someday make the trip and see it for yourself, sans smoke!

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Idaho- End of days

End of July 2013

I spent another day in Sun Valley just soaking it all in and then going for a grueling bike ride on the Red Warrior trail.  The ride back bombing down the mountain was great, but the ride up left me with just enough energy to once again refresh myself in the hot spring and then sit my butt down along the bank of  Warm Springs Creek for the evening. Appeased and enthralled by nothing more than listening to the creek's incessantly melodious babbling while watching the tiniest of fish maintain itself against the current while zipping left and right to capture its food. My big concern for the evening is wondering where will the little fish go once its belly is full? For the moment I prefer to not think about the fact that there may also be bigger fish in the stream. 

Pettit Lake at night.

Afraid that if I didn't leave the area today I might never leave, I packed up and drove up to Stanley, Idaho and dropped in on the Stanley Adventure Company to meet a new friend of friends who said to stop in and say hello. I find my options for the evening are restricted because of a forest fire in the area, but luckily the picturesque Pettit Lake area is open. So I set up camp there and hope that today's 70% containment status of the fire means they will open back up the Fisher Creek Loop in the morning. It's supposedly Idaho's best mountain bike trail and it would be a crying shame if I didn't get to partake of its offering. 

Kayakers avoiding the lake sharks!

After I managed to repair a solar system snafu in the morning I strolled down for some leisurely reading by the lakeside which, by the way, has a view to die for. Other than the view the only distraction was one boy who swam out to a point with his older brother, but was scared to death to swim back alone, clinging to a large floating log like it was his protector and savior. Someone had mentioned the word shark and after that you could hear him shout, "It's the dark water freaking me out!". Of course there were no sharks in the lake, nor anything else remotely dangerous or scary in the dark water which was actually quite clear. They were all in his head. It's funny how we can become fearful and paralyzed by nothing more than illusions created by our minds. Silly boy, silly minds.

After a while I decided that the Rangers had had enough time to open up the trail if it was going to happen today and decided to head that way to check. The wood fairies were smiling upon me because they had indeed opened the Fisher Creek Loop. It was surely a somewhat epic 17.5 mile ride, but there were two shortcomings. 

1) To complete the loop you have to do some road riding which is a "no-no" for any truly "epic" mountain bike ride.

2) I crashed! After the long climb a connector trail starts the downhill and it's very fast, sandy, has lots of switchbacks and is a very narrow singletrack right on the edge of the seriously steep and deep precipice! Seriously sketchy!! So much so that at the moment in question I was overcompensating and favoring the inside when I caught the singletrack's wall and bit it pretty hard and fast. I suffered some scrapes and a nice gash on my arm while nearly kissing a tree stump intimately, but all in all it could have been a lot worse. With the exception of that and one downed tree on the Williams Creek trail which could easily ruin someone's week, month or life the rest of the ride was real sweet!  (I'll only take off an additional quarter point deduction  because the stream at the end of the ride where I cleaned up was horrifyingly frigid ;) But now I'm just nitpicking!

Stanley Lake, Idaho

I knew the fire was out the next morning because I was woken up by a parade of fire trucks and personnel filing into Pettit Lake's parking lot to enjoy some much deserved R&R and partake of some of area's features they had been working so hard to protect. It was a little too crowded for me so I decided to make some space and move on to Stanley Lake not far up the road. The scene there was so eerily similar that I did a double take and then momentarily had to consider whether or not I had somehow circled back around on Pettit Lake! 

Life ain't bad when you can trade one beautiful lakeside view for another the next day. As a bonus there was another great ride to be had only a few hundred yards away.  The Elk Mountain trail was a great 11.5 mile ride and I felt great too, even after my previous crash. It's a little rocky at beginning, but still good and has a few downed trees, but nothing treacherous. All in all, a really enjoyable intermediate type ride on which to exit Idaho and enter Oregon where I may not travel on "The" Oregon Trail, but you can be sure I'll find myself riding some "Oregon trails"!

 

I'll look for you on the downhill.....

Peregrine- I spy with my little eyes....

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Potatoes with Relish!?

Mid July 2013

I don't like relish and I would certainly never put relish on a potato, but I did find myself relishing the spud State of Idaho. As I arrive in Sun Valley I can't help but notice that there is a palpable good vibe emanating from this place. It brought the idea to mind that perhaps I should add this place to my list of possible homestead sites. Then I realized my bank account is probably a zero or two shy of being able to pull that off. Oh well, I can still enjoy the visit and I will, thank you very much! Making my way through the Sawtooth National Forest, I stumbled across an unexpected surprise. Frenchman's Bend Hot Springs and it provided just the right remedy for knocking off the residue of a dusty ride. 

My Warm Springs Creek neighbor.

After soaking up some of Gaia's good ole' natural mineral waters it wasn't long before I found a campsite. The combination of what I brought and everything that it provided created a nearly utopian like scene of simplicity with all the finer things in life that I could possibly ask for at this time. A comfy chair, a cold beverage, a good book, the warm sun illuminating the beautiful mountainous forest scenery and a cool babbling brook all added up to heaven on earth. The lively stream before me was made up of a seemingly innumerable amount of infinitely sized, shaped and colored stones all congregating in the bed of the stream as if the mountain waters themselves gave birth to them. Even the faint smell of wildfire smoke in the air lent itself to the completeness of the scene by representing the culmination of the life cycle. Birth, life lived and death. From dust back to dust. Along with all the glory which occurs throughout that process. 

I know I shouldn't talk about stress. After all, what does a guy who is on sabbatical and gallivanting around the country have to be stressed about. Well, maybe stress isn't the right word, but throughout these travels there are, shall we say, certain expectations to be met, even if the "expecter" is only myself. Inevitably every destination along the way has some sort of goal in mind which if not met will leave a feeling of failure or at least incompleteness. It may be seemingly small and arbitrarily insignificant to someone outside looking in, but none the less, it can gnaw at you. Maybe it's something someone recommended you "have" to see, or an expectation you've set for yourself, or simply a thought such as, "I'm going to this place and by-golly I'm gonna learn something new and take something concrete away from it".   Admittedly on a trip such as mine these stresses are self imposed, but that doesn't make them any less real. 

So it is times like this one, entering the Sawtooth National Forest in Sun Valley, Idaho which are extra special for me. Prior to entering that state of Idaho, I had received not much more than the somewhat common vegetable sex-education talk conveying that this is where potatoes come from. A couple of people had vaguely mentioned to me that experiencing Idaho's offerings  would be rewarding, but other than that, I had no itinerary, no expectations and no real plans. As it turns out, this was one of those times which allows one to forget all about plans, goals and obligations while instead allowing one to wax philosophical. To experience life as rarely experienced. To "experience" pure and simple  and perhaps receive a glimpse into what life is really all about, or at least, what it could be.  

 

As the sun set and the coolness of the evening settled upon the forest valley there was nothing to do! Nowhere to go. No worries to work out. Nothing to expect, nothing to be disappointed in. There was no question, "To be or not to be?" All there was, was "To Be"! And it was refreshing. The Warm Springs Creek I was overlooking would flow and continue to flow, the wind would gently and invisibly cause the grass to sway. The dead trees would continue standing as if in salute to their former glorious lives and the living fauna  would carry on living in their honor. And nothing was expected of me, but to stand witness. What a wonderful honor. No past, no future. Only an inexplicable present there to be unwrapped and appreciated with presence, concentration  and awe of  a child ripping into a Xmas present. A gift, eternally given once, but never again. To be fully enjoyed now, but never again in the same capacity. At this moment there is no tomorrow.  Yesterday is but an amnesia like forgotten daydream. My only thoughts float towards an eternal question: This creek I see before me....."Is it the same that I spied just a moment ago? Is it different?" The answers like the unceasing flow of its waters flood in: "No, it is not the same. Yet it is." Congruently and conversely,  "Yes it is different and yet the same!" My mind spins in infinite eddies not unlike the movement of the creek I sit before as the sun sets and darkness descends. A darkness which try as it might can not overshadow the light which has shown today. A light which will continue to shine, night and day, if only we open our eyes to see. 

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