After doing domestics in the morning we spent the afternoon
with Jo and Woody, friends we had made in Utah back in May; and also their cat
Pumpkin. They live on the outskirts of town
in a lovely forested area. Our GPS plotted the shortest route, which included approximately
10 miles of dirt road. Needless to say
we took a different route home!
Bend is on the edge of the National Wilderness Area mountain
range and makes it an ideal place for almost every outdoor activity imaginable
in both summer and winter.
18th September – Tumalo Falls
Unfortunately Woody was busy for the next couple of days, so
we picked up Jo on our way to Tumalo Falls for a day hike. The trailhead started at the 98ft Falls, and
took us approximately 8 miles around a series of waterfalls – which means we walked
uphill a lot!
This area had a bad fire in 1979. As part of the management of the area all the
burnt trees were removed to encourage regrowth.
However several years later the mistake was realised as a large
proportion of the top soil had washed down the mountains clogging up the
river. Even the roots of burnt trees
have a use in retaining top soil. Fire
damage management policy has changed since then.
Before we went back to Jo and Woody’s for a delicious
chicken chilli, Jo took us into town around the Old Mill District; an area by
the river with modern shops, cafes and bars etc. Bend has a lovely appeal to it – perhaps it’s
the many roundabouts we encounter on the roads that made us feel at home! We
never thought that we would hear an American say that they love roundabouts. No
photos of Tumalo Falls as the camera decided to through a wobbly and all photos
were deleted.
19th September – Hosmer Lake
We met Jo and her friends Bill and Phyllis to spend the day kayaking
around Hosmer Lake on the west side of Mount Bachelor. The car park was pretty full but the lake was
shaped in such a way that we didn’t see many other people. We found a nice private spot for lunch in the
sun; accompanied with some wine Bill and Phyllis had brought along. It was an ideal setting with the mountains
around us. The water was beautifully
clear and we could see some nice sized fish – however they weren’t hungry and
ignored Paul’s bait.
On the way home we could see smoke in the distance from a
‘prescribed burn’ that they were doing in the forest several miles away.
20th September – Broken Top Mountain
We joined Jo and Bill for a hike up to a glacier lake. The 6 mile round trip took us up to around 9500ft. We could see the Three Sisters Mountains and
Mount Jefferson about 30 miles away. 
The glacier lake inside an old volcano was stunning. The water was a milky blue green and was
surrounded by rocks of so many colours; red, purple, peach, yellow, rust.
It was amazing.
We found a spot out of the wind to have lunch, at this
elevation the temperature was a lot cooler than yesterday. We passed compacted ice (not sufficient
quantity to call a glacier) on our way down; some of it was only 2” thick and
yet still hard enough to take Paul’s weight.
Yes it is still September but Bend celebrates their Oktoberfest
at this time of year when the weather is still good. We met Jo and Woody in the afternoon and
wandered around Downtown Bend. This was
not a large event but was well supported (perhaps 6000 attended?) and had a
fun, local feel to it.
Activities included “Weiner Dog Races” (ie Sausage
Dog). There were lots of entrants, some
of which may have been of questionable breed, and many of which were dressed in
little outfits to keep them warm against the cold weather. We watched from the multi-story car park as
they had six heats and then the finals.
It was funny to see the dogs let out of the starting blocks and then
stand around looking completely confused.
After that we went into the entertainment arena for some
local micro-brewery beer and cider – very nice too! On stage was the Hammerslagen competition – to
see who can hammer a nail the fastest. This
was a challenge Paul could not resist and after beating 11 other competitors – he won!
Afterwards so many people came up and congratulated him that he felt
like a celebrity. Everyone was so
friendly and we chatted to several people during the evening as we listened to the
Oompha band.
22nd September – Sunday
We had a quiet day doing domestics and shopping. This town has some great outdoor clothing and
accessory factory outlet shops.
23rd September – Smith Rocks State Park
Woody and Jo took us up to Smith Rocks SP, a few miles north
of Bend for a hike around the Rocks.
This spot is very popular with rock climbers and was the first place to
be set up for ‘sport climbing’. Bolts are permanently set in the rocks for all
climbers to use, rather than people using their own temporary ones.
It is a beautiful area.
The rocks were wonderful colours and shapes. We climbed up the top of Misery Ridge and
across from us we saw a couple of “High-liners” on a line stretching between
two mountain peaks. Woody explained the
difference between High-lining (or Slack-lining) as opposed to Tight-rope
walking. Tight-rope is a taut rope or
cable: whereas High/Slack-lining is webbing, wider/flatter, and hence has a
slack tension. Either way it was scary
to watch; especially as one person fell.
We were relieved to see that they were tied on by a safety line and got
back up. The things people do in their
leisure time!
24th September – High Desert Museum
We were going to visit the Volcanic National Park and Lava
Fields but discovered they were shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So we visited the High Desert museum
instead. We saw River Otters, eagles and
a peregrine falcon as well as lizards and snakes etc. There was also a Bobcat
and a Lynx, which had been ‘pets’, and were now being cared for in the museum
as they could not survive in the wild. The
museum was educational about the forests and wildlife, and explained that with
only 14-20 inches of precipitation (that’s “rain” to us) a year the area is
called High Desert. One thing we were
surprised at was the world habitat range that they showed for the Barn Owl, it
did not include the UK!
25th September – Wednesday
The weather has definitely changed. We have been watching thousands of geese fly
south for the past 3 days. (Think they are trying to tell us something). This morning we could see snow on the hills opposite the camp site. Paul went
fishing despite the drizzle. This was a
day to catch up with chores etc.
26th September – Alder Springs
We woke to a frost and had to scrape the ice from the car to
set off into Bend to meet Jo and Woody.
Bill and Phillis joined us for a trip to Alder Springs. As we drove north from Bend we could see snow
on the Three Sisters Mountains and Broken Top, the mountain’s that we had
climbed last week.
The hike took us down into the canyon where two rivers
converge. The water comes from the
Cascade Mountains where the snowmelt travels up to 40 miles underground to emerge here at the Springs. At one point we had
to wade across the river (NB we had a frost this morning!!). At least the sun came out and the day got
warmer. We had lunch at the convergence
of the rivers. 
The six of us had a nice meal in Bend and we joined Jo and
Woody for the Kayaking Film Festival. We
watched three films of different lengths.
One was how the ‘river’ through Los Angeles (which resembled a
storm drain) had been proved navigable and now approved as a River and hence
will attract interest to improve and develop it. Currently LA does not collect any run-off
water from rain as it all goes down the drains!
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