Trip to Oregon 2004

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Heather and I took a most fantastic trip to Oregon near the end of June 2004. We relaxed and kicked our own asses at the same time. The best pictures are organized by day. Scroll to the end for a detailed text account of the trip.

Tuesday

The view that awaited us at the camp site that we found.

Wednesday

We bought some floaty toys (about 1.99 each) and hung out by Sparks Lake. We read books, looked at Mt. Bachelor, and floated a little.

Me with the floaty toy Heather picked out for me.

In the evening we went for a walk in the meadow by our camp sit. From the left to right the volcanoes are: the South Sister, Broken Top, Mt. Bachelor.

On the way back we spotted some deer. Running Deer with Broken Top I title this composition.

Thursday

The South Sister shortly before we would climb it. The top there is at 10,000 feet. Our camp site was at 5,500 feet.

Most of the hike was on snow. It would have been handy to have had snowshoes, walking sticks, and an ice pick. We were tough enough to do it with only shoes.

Sometimes the snow was steep. (this was not the steepest portion)

Still a good 1500 feet to go.

A cinder cone and supposedly the highest lake in Oregon. This photo was taken at the same spot as the previous one. This is looking right from the previous angle.

Here we are on the ridge seen in two photos back. That meadow and lake seen down there is where we camped. If you look really hard you can maybe see our tent, or the deer that were running around down there the night before.

The mandatory 'summit self portrait'

The top of the mountain was actually a large plateau. We were too dead tired and running out of time, so we didn't walk to the other side. So here is the view from the East side.

Friday

Heather, I, and Mt. Bachelor at one of the lakes we stopped at.

Crater Lake.

Notice the brilliant blue color. Crater Lake is the 7th deepest lake in the world.

Crater Lake again and Mt. Thielsen.

Saturday

The wine tasting crew.

Sunday

While Brian and Claire drove a car to where we would end, Heather and I blew up the rafts. (no, we didn't explode them, we simply filled them with air)

Thanks Brian and Claire for hosting Heather and I last weekend, it was better than goodness.

I didn't take any photos during rapids, I didn't want to ruin my camera. Here is a calm spot, I could take the camera out of the dry bag during the calm interludes.

Self portrait.

From Hearsay:

My girlfriend and I had a most excellent time in Oregon. No doubt.

 I’ll do a brief recap of the past week, if you want to see the pictures from the last week click here. There are a lot of pictures, sorry to those of you on dialup for the summer.

 <b>Monday</b>

 It was my dad’s birthday and Heather convinced my dad and Lukas and I to meet her at Salty’s in Seattle for a birthday dinner. We had the best table at the restaurant with an awesome view of Seattle. A birthday seal visited us during dinner.

 <b>Tuesday</b>

 The plan was to figure out our destination during the journey. We didn’t do it soon enough, so our drive wasn’t the most efficient, but that was ok. We looked at the map and picked out a lake near Bend in the mountains. It turned out to be a most stellar pick. We arrived just as the sun was setting. The campground had no amenities, so no one was there, and to boot it was free. The site we got looked across a huge meadow with a view of two towering volcanoes. The South Sister and Broken Top. (Mt Bachelor was behind us, but we couldn’t see it from our site.) As far as I can remember it was the most spectacular camp site we have ever had.

 <b>Wednesday</b>

 Heather and I usually run around too much on vacations, so we decided to take a day and make sure to take it easy. We started the day by going to Bend and buying some last minute supplies, such as a table cloth, canola candle, and bug spray. The mosquitoes at our site were abundant. The rest of the day we hung out by the lake reading books and magazines. I read Fight Club. I highly recommend it, it is very different type of prose.

 After going for a walk in the meadow, we spent the evening around the campfire. Made some popcorn, stared at the fire, looked for the first star of the night, and watched the South Sister fade into the darkness.

 <b>Thursday</b>

 We had rested enough, so we decided to go for a hike. It took us over 11 hours, but we hiked that large mountain that we had been staring at from our campsite, the South Sister. Most the entire hike was on snow and we gained over 4500’ feet in elevation. The final height was just at 10,000 feet. The highest I have ever hiked by almost 3000 feet. The hike was an ass kicker, but very much worth it. It was incredible. Afterwards we bathed in the lake, grilled some hot dogs, and then slept harder than rocks.

 <b>Friday</b>

 We drove the rest of the Cascade Lakes Highway, stopping every once in a while to look at an alpine lake. On the map I found a dirt road that went up a 2000 foot mountain. I figured it would have awesome views so we drove up it. We got 500 feet from the summit and there was a gate. We were bummed, it would have been rad.

 Heather then took a nap while I drove on to Crater Lake. It was super amazing, but there wasn’t much to it besides taking a picture. There is a road around the lake and so there are tons of people everywhere, all the commotion kind of ruined the serenity for me. I wouldn’t suggest driving to Oregon to see Crater Lake, but if you are in the area stop by for an hour or two.

 We continued on to Grants Pass where we went to Brian’s house. Brian is a future housemate of next year and he and his girlfriend, Claire (a future apartmentmate of Heather), are living at his parents house and working at a boys and girls club this summer. That night Brian had some friends over, we enjoyed some beverages, and sat around and talked.

 <b>Saturday</b>

 In the morning Brian showed us around downtown Grants Pass. We went to the grower’s market, got sodas at a soda fountain for 25 cents, and went to the goodwill.

 In the afternoon Brian drove us and his aunt and cousin a little further south and we went wine tasting. We sipped many sips of free wine at three different wineries. Heather and I bought a bottle, Gewürztraminer. It is tasty, I tasted it. All that wine tasting took us all day, I think it was the most exhausting thing we did on the entire trip.

That night we hung out and watched Eurotrip, one of the most completely unrealistic movies I have ever seen in my life.

 <b>Sunday</b>

 The Rouge River runs through Grants Pass. The summer after high school (his mascot was a caveman) Brian was a rafting guide on the river. So the four of us went rafting Sunday. It was an enormous amount of fun, thanks for taking us Brian.

 That night we enjoyed some coronas around a fire outside.

 <b>Monday</b>

 We left Grants Pass at 6am and got back to Bremerton at 2 where it was Nico’s 16^th birthday. Heather, Nico, and I got the boat ready and put it in the water for some boat action. We pulled onto the beach at home ‘to pick up Lukas’ only to find a group of Nico’s friends yelling “surprise, happy birthday.” Nico was surprised. I took them all for rides in the inner tube and then we ate burgers and cake.

 Later that evening all three Webbs came over. The Webbs just returned from Europe the week before. It was good to hang out with the only readers of my webpage again.

 <b>Tuesday</b>

 Today at work I did typedy typedy on the computer, but I am posting bills, or something, instead. It is more complicated than what I have been doing. You would think after a day in front of the computer the last thing I would want to do is come home and type 3 pages about what I did the last week, but alas, I did.

MAX