Pausing under a towering old juniper, I watched as birds floated along the slow moving Crooked River. A breeze rippled through the tall grass around me, and I found myself wishing I had the time to spend hours in this peaceful spot, perhaps with a picnic blanket and a good book. Not exactly the rugged athletic experience nearly everyone else in this small park is here for, but Andy and I had found our own little haven. After hearing about Smith Rock State Park from multiple friends, I'd been itching to visit, and staying only an hour away in Sunriver for a family vacation, I finally had the perfect opportunity. I'd had a cold since the day before we left home for a our week-long vacation, so we decided to avoid the popular Misery Ridge trail and instead opted for an easier loop hike along the river. As we watching the crowds across the river snaking up the Misery Ridge trail, for a while we were the only hikers on our stretch of trail.
Read moreLife: Week 26
On vacation in Oregon, Andy and I decided to start the week off with a hike, so we headed an hour north for Smith Rock State Park, which came highly recommended by several of my friends. After a lovely hike through what felt like a tiny piece of Utah transplanted to Oregon (I'll be writing more about it soon!), we stopped in Bend for beer and lunch. Sadly, since I'd left my wallet back at the rental house I had to make do with iced tea, but according to Andy I wasn't missing much. While their food was smoky and delicious, Goodlife turned out to be his least favorite brewery of the trip. On our last day in Sunriver, we decided to make a trip to the nearby High Desert Museum which turned out to be much larger than we'd expected - almost like a hybrid museum and zoo. Their wildlife exhibits were everyone's favorite, and I was especially excited to see an adorable burrowing owl and an stunning golden eagle. Soon it was time to pack up the car and head home, and after a short work week, Andy and I were signed up for a full weekend of trailwork. After our lovely day spent working with Alpine Trails Book Club (read about that here!), we returned for a second day of trail maintenance in considerably wetter weather. As usual, even with the rain we still had a fantastic time!
Read moreLife: Week 25
Woah, I have so much catching up to do around here! I went off on vacation and seriously fell behind, but worry not - someday I'll get caught up! This week, after another quiet week at work, we took off a little early for our family trip to Sunriver. We got an early start Friday morning for the drive south to Central Oregon. After a long day in the car, we made it to Sunriver just in time for dinner and a short walk before bedtime. Over the next several days, we biked, we hiked, we drove in to Bend to spend a day drinking coffee and beer, and we spent many nights staying up late playing my favorite board game - Camel Up - which I'd highly recommend to anyone looking to entertain a group of 3-5 people. With the kids around, there were plenty of books to read and games to play. Our year-and-a-half old nephew turned out to be a great fan of both ping pong and foosball, especially after we swapped the traditional ball for the foosball table with a beach ball. I've never been much of a foosball player, but I have to admit, even I found it amusing with an oversized beach ball bouncing around unpredictably!
Read moreDalles Mountain Ranch
Confession - I almost didn't make it to the April Alpine Trails Book Club outing. Our destination for the month was Columbia Hills State Park for a weekend of camping, hiking, and other adventures. With such a long drive, going for just one day to join the group for our Sunday hike was out of the question, but spring is always a busy time for me at work, and in years past I've ended up working at least one day each weekend from late April through late May. Thankfully, I not only managed to avoid working through the weekend, but was able to take Friday - all without falling to far behind! Three whole days spent away from my computer, soaking up the glorious sunshine in the company of an inspiring group of women was just what I needed to restore me. Our weekend was filled with all sorts of adventures, but my favorite was definitely our Sunday hike through the wildflowers studded hills at Dalles Mountain Ranch.
Read moreLife: Week 34
So many good things this week! To start the week, we tried a new restaurant in Redmond that had delicious cocktails and a burger with a slab of pork belly on top (!!!) that was absolutely fabulous. On Wednesday afternoon, we headed to the Olympic Peninsula for a long weekend of hiking with Andy's family. We made it to the coast just in time for dinner and one of several spectacular sunsets. We spent our days hiking as much of the remote Olympic coastline as we could. Along the trails, we gorged ourselves on wild huckleberries and wild blueberries. The tides were never particularly low, but we did manage to find some small tide pools on Rialto Beach, along with lots of interesting metal debris we eventually decided came from an ancient shipwreck. For the most part, the weather was hot a sunny, which seemed completely out of character for the coast. During our long days hiking on the beach, the foot pain I've been noticing on many of the longer hikes I've done this summer became much worse, which was frustrating although it did lead to many huckleberry breaks while I sat for a while to give my feet a break! I'll definitely want to get that figured out before it becomes a serious issue that prevents me from hiking entire! Even with those issues, the whole weekend was one of the best vacations we've had in a while!
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