Bend Oregon

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With our two nights in Sisters ending, we are heading just a bit further south to Bend. We are hoping for better air quality but I guess we won't hold our breath. The plan is to stay at the Elks Lodge. They only have 9 spots but two of them are not large enough for our rig. When we pull in at first we think we are in luck. One of the spots seems to be open. However once we get closer, it turns out the spot is taken but by a shorter rig so we didn't see it at first. We pull over into an area to the side of the lodge that appears to be where the overflow rigs park but don't completely setup. When we go in to register, we find they are having a lunch special that sounds pretty good so we sit down for lunch. One of the guys in charge tells us we can park in a different portion of the lot closer to the street. The advantage is that it's more level and completely paved instead of the dusty area we had picked. The disadvantage is that it's closer to what turned out to be a pretty busy road. We pay for 6 nights of boondocking but hope that something opens up before we leave. It turns out to be quite a busy place. Before night falls, there are four additional rigs boondocking there. 

Sunset at Bend Elks Lodge with Smoky Skies

While we were eating breakfast the next morning, we see one of the larger motorhomes pulling out of the lodge. Chris runs over to confirm there is an opening and quickly gets the Jeep moved into the spot to hold it. It doesn't seem like anyone else had even realized the spot had become available. We pack up the rig to drive it about 400 feet to the other side of the building. It's not like everything needs to be done but it still takes a bit of time before we are squeezed back into the site with 50 amp and water. When we go in around lunch time to pay for the new site for 5 nights we discover they are having fish and chips for lunch so we stick around for that. We have found that all the Elks Lodges seem to have friendly people. Be it, locals that might give us the inside scoop for things to check out while we are in the area, or fellow travelers that share some tidbits from their travels. 

We used to be much more avid bicycle riders in our younger years. Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, we had purchased 5 bicycles and a tandem. We had done two different long bicycle trips - one around Lake Ontario and another in Nova Scotia.  In 1991, we had even taken 7 weeks to bicycle from Los Angeles to Nags Head North Carolina. So when we decided to sell everything to become fulltimers, we ended up getting rid of many of our trusty steeds and only kept our two mountain bikes. These bikes have seen lots of trails and I have maintained them very well but since they are approaching 30 years of age, we decided that it might make sense to come into the 21st century and get new bikes with nicer features. If we are going to buy new bikes, it only makes sense to do so while we are in Oregon since there is no sales tax.

Chris and Her New Friend in Downtown Bend

We head into the Old Mill District in Bend which turns out to be just a huge bunch of shops. One of them is REI so we take some time to check out the bikes and at least try to get a feel for what is available at different price points. Chris keeps reminding me that our current bikes or any new bikes are going to spend their lifetime in the outdoors. They don't get to live in the family room like our other bikes had. So even though I might really like a $4000 full suspension bike, it might drive me crazy to see it suffer from all sorts of bad weather we might experience as we wander the country. Like normal for two engineers, we don't make any impulse purchases. In fact we didn't even test ride any. Right now we are (I am) in a fact finding mode.

The mill district was really crowded and we discovered why. Just across a pedestrian bridge is a large craft fair. The vendors seemed to be selling pretty nice things, not your normal fair fare. Turns out it is a juried show where all the vendors have to apply and be selected to participate. Of course, we really don't need or have room for many of the items I found interesting. 

View from Pedestrian Bridge at Mill District

We noticed dozens of people floating down the river in tubes or rafts. It turns out that tubing on the Deschutes River is a very popular activity. We subsequently discover that the town has put in a bit of a whitewater park at one portion of the river. People have the option to go over a handful of small rapids or walk their tube the couple hundred feet past them if they aren't feeling adventurous. Next to the rapids section is a place where they have a drop off that has formed a standing wave. There are ten or more people with their surfboards waiting for their turn to hang ten. Some of the surfers are obviously quite skilled and could likely continue for long periods of time, but they eventually give way to the next one in line. There were a few that would barely get into the water before the surfboard goes flying one way and the surfer the other. As they wash downstream they swim over to the shore to come back up and stand in line for another attempt. Looks like fun but not something we would try!

Surfing the Deschutes River

Wipeout as Board Goes Flying

Tubers Having Fun

Big Group Holding On

As we continue to have some smoky days, we find we are getting outdoors less. It's kind of a bummer since this area seems to have lots of interesting things to check out. On one of our slow days, we head over to Pine Nursery Park.  It's a nice little park with the standard playground and ball fields and trails. We do some geocaching as we walk around the park. We discover there is a disc golf course, but we never find the chance to make it back for a round. There were several rugby games going on while we were there. One was a men's game and the other was a women's game. We don't know much if anything about the rules of rugby and after watching the women play for ten minutes, I don't think I figured it out any better. 

We finally get some better air quality - not great, but better than we have been experiencing. We head west of town to the Mount Bachelor area. We know not to attempt any serious elevation hiking with the slightly smoky conditions but we head to The Todd Creek trailhead. There are three trucks with horse trailers in the parking area but we never come across them or anybody else for that matter. The trail we have picked to hike has several geocaches along it and is part of the Metolius Windigo Horse trail. It's a 100 mile trail that runs primarily north/south on this side of the mountains. Since this is an arid area, the horse trail is unlike many we have attempted to hike. Usually we find horse trails to be muddy messes. This had some really dusty sections but was generally a fine hiking trail. We ended up doing a total of 7 miles which was plenty long enough given the conditions.  

Parking Area at Todd Creek Trailhead

A Glimpse of Snow on Mountain

Creek with Lots of Wildflowers

Bright Red Berries 

At Scenic View Heading Back to Bend

The next day our air quality was reasonable again so we went to an area just west of town along Skyliners Drive. There are lots of trails out this way. Much of it is used for mountain biking but we opt to just hoof it. There were a series of caches where you needed to find one cache in order to be told where the next one was. It is kind of like a multicache but you get credit for each of the intermediate caches you find. The series hadn't been found in nearly a year so it was a good challenge. We find ourselves hitting the southern tip of Shevlin Park which might be a good destination on a return trip. Not having good trail maps definitely hindered our ability to navigate from one to the next. Towards the end of the day, we found ourselves high up on a ridge overlooking a stream below, but it took us what seemed like forever to navigate a trail that did eventually wind its way down to the water. This turned out to be a 6 mile hike but with all the trails and geocaches, we could have easily come back several days without seeing it all. 

View Near Shevlin Park

On our last full day in town, we visited another couple of bike shops. I have started to narrow down what I am looking for but we are still trying to figure out what Chris wants/needs for her next bike. We also stop at Pilot Butte State Park. It is basically the remnants of an old volcano that is pretty much in downtown Bend. On a clear day the views are probably spectacular. On this smoky day - not so much. Designating it a state park seems a bit overkill to us. It is basically a spiral drive up to the top with parking and information signs.

The Wildfire Smoke Ruins the Views from Pilot Butte

Since our next destination is more remote and we will be there for a week, Chris decides to go grocery shopping while the getting's good. It was a rather hot afternoon, so we had the shades pulled and the air conditioner running. About 90 minutes later when Chris returned, I come out to help unload the car and discover that the winds had shifted dramatically. It smelled like we were parked right next to a raging campfire. Worse than that, there was actually ash in the air. I guess the silver lining is that no embers were falling from the sky! Of course our next destination is heading towards Crater Lake National Park, where some of these wildfires are presently burning. We likely would have cancelled this stop if it wasn't over the Labor Day weekend. I guess we should just keep our fingers crossed that we don't end up surrounded by wildfires.