Had a great time with the grandparents (yes, those are my parents), who visited Bend after a 2-year (?) abscense (is that spelled right - looks weerd). First order of business was to break out the presents for the kids - grandparents are good for that :) The kids picked up a few toys, as well as some kicking new outfits. The next day we cruised around some of the Cascade Lakes. Here we are exploring the popular Elk Lake area. Some decent family portrait shots - hats do tend to obliterate faces at certain angles... Osprey Point - but no ospreys, only about a thousand black ducks - species unkown Back home for the world Candyland championship... Modeling the new jammies Saturday we made it to the High Desert Museum. A decent bluegrass band provide ambience, and kids were invited to jam in An excellent shot of people enjoying their repasts. BTW what looks like my gimp right hand actually belongs to Rowan... Well the gp's left early on Sunday, but the fun continued. We caught (and released) a bunch of 'fall peepers' at the Slough off of Deschutes River While we waited for the rain to abate, we created this 'shattered bullrush' face sculpture.
Great camping area, with huge sites and easy water access. And the lake is very shallow, good for kids who haven't figured out how to swim yet, like mine. Oh right, I guess someone needs to teach them... Well I'll be paying somebody else to do that, starting in a week or so. The 'I forgot my bathing suit so I'm swimming in my underwear' dance ! Meeting new friends - the place was packed with families and kids. We hiked up to Deer Lake. 5 miles round trip - Rowan was reaching his limit near the end !
Location : Lake Chelan, WA Objective : drink beer (quality microbrew of course), bike, waterski, wakeboard, drink beer, hike, swim, drink beer
All is calm as we setup camp at Deer Point Thursday night.
Friday, we do 'Pot Peak Revisited', 10 years after the original epic. But this time we cheat and get dropped off at the start of the Devil's Backbone trail - avoiding the gruelling 5000 vf climb.
Talus bullshit The 10-mile descent was juicy Where's Biker ?
So Pot Peak 10 years after - was it worth it ? Well, kind of... it was such an epic the first time, what with the massive climb, the cops incident, the impending darkness...those were all the things that made it unique and unrepeatable. This time we got shuttled past the climb, like we were observers documenting the Story of Ten Years Ago. It was interesting to see how memories had distorted the reality - I'd forgotten how much hike-a-biking was involved in the long traverse to the downhill. The Talus field was a particularly poignant negative memory - I remember humping my bike over huge boulders on a thousand-foot climb like there was no other option. But in fact the trail did switchback up the slope, though most of it unrideable. I must have delirously decided to mash straight up, while this year I docilely pushed my bike along the bouldery but easily walkable path. And the downhill was cool, though somewhat loose. In the first descent, the darkening skies lent urgency to our journey, aware that losing light would be a fatal blow.
The wind has stirred up upon our return
The Bench
The Hike
And now, I will let the Words of Tony summarize the weekend :
Frans, are you jealous yet? Here are some more things you missed out on:
· Hang out on the bench for 48 hours to hide from the wind that drills into your head like a freight train and drives you absolutely crazy, causing you to fist yourself. The bench was the only place on our “private resort” that was protected from the wind.
· MRSA girl that infected the entire lake and made us scared to swim in the 5 foot waves from the “you stay on the bench and enjoy your solitude mother fucker” wind
· Mark’s stink ass farts on our rattle snake hike. Even the snakes were hiding under rocks from the stench…..
· 4 mile hike a bike that I had cramps like I was on the rag and could not walk. I thought a cougar was following me and I got a flat tire and everyone was way ahead and the cougar was closing in.
· Pee from your ass (Andrew will provide the pee)
· Grand finale …… when I finally made it home I was 24 hours plus late for my brother-in-laws birthday party which I had no way to call about to say I was stranded playing Russian roulette with MRSA, a freight train and a gas chamber. I’m pretty sure Mary has never tried crank. This day made me wonder if she snorted a huge line…..
Had another great Beach House vacation with the kids on the Oregon coast. The front porch had room for like 50 people. But it worked fine for just 2 or 3 Lots of cool rocks to explore View of the house from the beach The hot tub was an unexpected big hit. 'Hot Tub Party' was an essential nightly occurence. We had one rainy/foggy day Lots of different beaches to try within easy driving distance. This one (Elephant Point?) was our favorite : lots of tidal pools, rocks, birds, starfish, caves... Carmyn finally gets to fly her kite View from the master bedroom upstairs, which was a veritable palace (compared to the inadequate accommodations in which I currently reside). And the sleeping environment was further enhanced by the sound of ocean waves and see breezes - man I haven't slept that well in years.
