Bend 3: We're smokin'

Saturday 9/16

Sadly, we woke to a moderately smoky sky. We decided to go for a hike anyway, and began with a short hike on the “other” side of Shevlin Park, which turns out to be part of the Bend watershed, which I am going to digress and talk about a little. Bend is high desert, meaning they don’t get a lot of rain and the air is very dry. From the very beginning, they’ve needed to irrigate, which they did by digging ditches or creating wooden aqueducts for the water to flow through. The ditches lose a lot of water to evaporation, and the wooden aqueducts get slimy and also decay over time. So they decided to put the channels underground in pipes, a project which is still ongoing. The pipes need to have access roads, and what is cool is that many of the access roads have also been opened to the public as trails for hiking, biking, and running. The trail we hiked on the other side of Shevlin (I call it the other side because usually we park in the parking lot across the road and hike the other way up the river) has a loop section, where part of the trail is along the river and the other part is on the access road. It was a very nice hike. We saw more of the mystery drips that we saw on the hike to Riley Ranch, and may have figured out that they come from dog drool. But we’re still not sure. We took no pictures.

Sage Flats from Archie Briggs Trail

The Shevlin Park hike was about 3 miles, and since it was mostly flat we felt like we had some hike left in us. So we decided to do the Archie Briggs Canyon hike that leaves from Sawyer park. We’ve done the hike before, and it turned out that the drive from Shevlin to Sawyer crosses the trail several times. Another coincidence is that the hike is almost entirely along the irrigation access road. It’s more in the sun that I remembered, and also has a steeper climb than I remembered, but it was still a good hike. Since we’re goal oriented and didn’t want to do the whole loop we had to find a turnaround spot, and there’s a place where the trail makes a sharp left to run along the canyon that was perfect for turning around. After we turned around we noticed a large and beautiful meadow on the other side of the canyon (did I mention that the trail runs along the Deschutes, which has created a deep canyon in this section? Well, now you know). We got out our map apps and discovered that the meadow is the Sage Flats section of Riley Ranch, and in fact we could see an overlook that we’d stood on. This made our brains do that thing where they rotate an internal map, one of my favorite sensations.

Archie Briggs trail from Sage Flats

By the time we got back to the truck we’d hiked about 7 miles total and we were hungry. Fortunately we’d planned an excellent lunch at Worthy Brewing, and were not disappointed in the food or the beer. We were very content after lunch, and as it was smoky it was a perfect afternoon to head back to the trailer, turn on the portable air filter, and do some serious relaxing all afternoon. When we were young people doing tent camping we would look scornfully at the folks in the campsites who never seemed to come out of their trailers. “What is the point of being here if you never sit outside?” we would ask each other, feeling superior. Well, now we know.

We had dinner in the trailer and took a short evening hike at Riley Ranch, which was looking lovely. We went to the overlook we’d seen earlier and overlooked. We were a little pressed for time since the park closes at sunset, and also my legs were really tired, so we didn’t get all the way back to the sun position overlook.

We were glad to get back to our recliners for the evening.

Smoky Sunset at Riley Ranch

Sunday

Smokier. No point in staying, so we did a quick clean on the trailer, drove home and did the quick turnaround, returned the trailer, and were happily eating lunch at Grand Central in Hillsboro (BLT’s!) by 2.

Bend 2: Surf and Turf

Friday 9/15

Overlooking

Another good night of sleeping. Our original plan was to go kayaking at 10, when the rental place opens, but we both realized it would still be too cold then – the nights are in the upper 40s/low 50s even though it’s 80-90 during the day. So instead we decided to drive the 5 minutes to the other end of Riley Ranch and explore a little. It’s a great place for hiking; there are 3 main loops (Juniper, Sage Flat, Canyon) that are stacked on top of each other kind of like a snowman, with each successive loop getting a little larger. We walked around all three loops (ok, not quite – Juniper and Sage Flat are more like one elongated circle with a line through it, and unlike Johnny Cash we didn’t walk the line). It’s a great “intro to high desert” hike, with the river and the meadow and the juniper trees. They have a lot of overlooks/viewpoints, and we learned a lot. 

Sage Flats with Rabbitbrush

At the Ben Newkirk Overlook we learned which mountains we could see, and at the Sage flats overlook we learned the names of many of the common plants (Dave was especially excited to learn Rabbitbrush, and pointed it out A LOT for the next two days). Most interesting at Sage Flats were three arrows, pointing to the position of sunrise at the winter solstice, the equinoxes, and the summer solstice. The solstices are 22 degrees on either side of the equinox, and we spent the rest of the walk with me trying to understand how the sun can appear to travel different distances over the same length of time at the equator. This involved drawing quite a few circles with lines on the path, and we wonder if anyone who saw them figured out what they were. A final feature on the sagebrush loop was some overlooks out over the river. We admired the huge houses across the way.

We got done around 11, and decided to go do kayaks before lunch, because lunch was probably going to include beer and that’s not a great combo with kayaking. So we zipped into town and the rental people zipped through the rental process and we were on the river at 11:23. We’d noticed that the river seemed higher than we remember, and once we pushed off we realized the current was stronger than we remembered too. We worked our way upstream, and as usual I spent the first 20 minutes really not enjoying myself. As always, it got better, but it was still a slog to get all the way past the four bridges to the turnaround at the rapids. I did an obligatory turn into the rapids, and Dave did two of them. Then it was time for the payoff, the float downstream, which makes it all worthwhile. We ended up doing a little more paddling than we might have since it was lunchtime.

We got out of the kayaks with no issues (always a concern!) and went across the street and up the stairs to Monkless, a brewery specializing in Belgian beers. We had a sampler and they were fine but pretty hard to tell apart, especially since we’d stuck to the lower alcohol ones. My pulled pork sliders were good, but Dave’s bratwurst and poutine sandwich was much more interesting. We enjoyed ourselves, especially since we were starving, but we don’t need to go back for the beer or the food. The bathrooms, however, were excellent – how often do you hear plainchant in a restroom?

The kayak rental place and Monkless are just a short walk from the Old Mill District, so we walked over to the REI and did a little shopping. Our big purchase was a very cool “stargazer” camp chair for Dave that reclines for looking at the sky – I am too short to fit in it comfortably but it’s perfect for him. I got some good socks and a towel and some eyeglass strings too.

Then we headed over to a Big 5 and almost bought a chair for me there, until I realized how huge and heavy it was. Next stop was Fred Meyer and in the sporting goods section was a close-to-perfect chair for me, just sitting there. We looked all over to find its box or even a space where it might have been on a shelf but were unsuccessful. Dave took it to customer service and they scanned the barcode and it was in their system, so we bought it. On the way back to the campsite we could see a plume of smoke to the west, blowing to the North. The Pete’s lake fire had gotten bigger, but the smoke was not supposed to come towards us.

We got back to the campsite with our new chairs and tried them out. They were very good, but it was hot outside so eventually we moved inside and turned on the air conditioning. We had a short relaxing and shower time (don’t run the hair dryer and the air conditioning at the same time) and went to Zydeco for dinner. My dinner was perfect – an elderflower, bubbly and grapefruit cocktail; a warm chicory salad with grapes, and clams and mussels in a delicious broth. Dave’s food and wine were good but not as good as mine. And fortunately we’d paid before we saw the carrot cake, so we weren’t stuffed when we left. Downtown was hopping as we walked back to the car, but we’d had excellent parking karma for dinner both nights we were in town.

We tried out our chairs with a fire in the firepit, tea, and reading, and they worked perfectly. Here is a bonus shot of Dave on the path to the canyon overlook at Riley Ranch. 

Bend 1: Arrival and First Day

Wednesday 9/13

Normally we’d be on the road earlier and maybe have lunch at 3 Creeks Brewing in Sisters (so far I have never gone there, but Dave and Josh and Jen have), but Dave had his first Renaissance recorder class until 11:00, so we made sandwiches (PBJ for me, salami & cheese for him) and ate them on the road. I brought some small apples I’d gotten at the farmers’ market and they turned out to be perfect. The drive was uneventful, aside from stopping for gas at an aukuard gas station in Aumsville which we won’t do again.

We got to Tumalo at about 3:30 and slid into site B18; it’s on the corner so it’s especially easy to back into. We got set up and took a walk around the campground, then did some hanging out (and showering in my case) until it was time to go to 900 Wall. We ordered too much food and while it was very good I remember it as being more spectacular. One thing that remains spectacular is their cocktail made with habanero vodka and passion fruit – last time it was almost undrinkably spicy; this time it was just very very very spicy and very delicious.

We got back to the campsite and settled in for more relaxing (relaxing being one of our major goals this trip). I had realized about 15 minutes from home that I left my kindle, but it didn’t seem worth turning back for it since I can read my kindle books on my phone. I thought about 1) having Jen ship it overnight or 2) getting a new one and having Amazon ship it overnight, except this is the second time I’ve looked into that and they can never get it to you in less than 3 days, which is dumb. Also we weren’t sure where we’d have it shipped to. So I just read on my phone, which was mostly fine except that for some reason reading on my phone (even with blue light blocker) doesn’t make me sleepy the way reading on my kindle does, so I stayed up later than I wanted to.

Thursday

Dave has figured out how to hang a towel over the trailer door, which makes it stay dark very long in the morning, so we tend to sleep in until after 7. We got up and decided to see if the trail from the Tumalo SP day use area connects to Riley Ranch nature preserve and we’re back to tell you that yes, yes it does. It’s about two miles from the parking lot at Tumalo to the start of the ranch lands, and we walked a little ways into Riley Ranch and up to the canyon overlook. No dogs are allowed in the nature preserve which is very nice – I was surprised how much it made things more relaxing. The whole walk ended up being about 5 miles, and since most of it is relatively flat it was a nice easy hike. We did see some weird damp spots on the trail that we couldn’t figure out – individual drips spaced pretty close together, and occasionally a larger damp patch, maybe the size of my hand. They are a mystery.

Once we got back it was time to return to the Cellar, an English-style pub in a basement in downtown Bend. Last time we were there we loved all their cask conditioned beers. Sadly, since then they’ve closed their Redmond facility and had to start brewing somewhere else, so they only had 3 of their own beers and 4 imported eEnglish beers. No need to fret, though – they were just as delicious. And best of all the pies (served with crisps, gravy, and your choice of mushy peas or English baked beans) were just as good as we remembered. We brought 4 frozen ones home with us. We did a little window shopping through downtown – like Cannon Beach, so many home décor shops.

Then it was time for more relaxing, and showers, before heading out for dinner. Our destination tonight was Trattoria Sbandati, a small restaurant which turned out to be in a strip mall, next to a circle K gas station. So maybe a slight mark down for ambiance, although they had a nice outdoor patio and the inside was nice enough. The food gets an E for exceeds expectations, and they had a very good wine by the glass list for Dave. We had a thin sliced zuccinin and arugula salad to start that was delicious, and I had a fish in broth with spiced olives that was about perfect. Dave’s pasta was yummy too. On the way home we saw a cool sunset and pulled over to watch it. It's possible that what look like clouds are actually smoke from the Pete's Lake fire. Stay tuned.

We had our own fire back at the campground, and saw an amazingly long pass of the international space station. We discovered that one ice cube in the tea in the insulated mug makes it just cool enough for drinking. This was the first time I used one of the Cannon Beach Property Management mugs that we got at Sea Forever last Thanksgiving.