A diamond and a Crater

Driving through the Oregon Mountains also means driving past dozens of lakes.  All of which have crystal clear waters and quite large mosquitoes. We camped a night at Diamond Lake in Southern Oregon and failed to bring bug spray.  Luckily though it was cold enough that we wore enough clothes to not get eaten alive. We also did not bring firewood but found some at another open campsite.  At first I doubted Jonathan's ability to make a fire but he proved me wrong!

The next day we drove to Crater Lake.  The tale behind Crater Lake begins about 7,700 years ago when a mountain called Mt Mazama towering around 12,000 ft erupted and in its place left a deep caldera.  No streams run into the lake but over the years snow melt and rain water filled the caldera forming the lake.
The rim around the lake itself is at about 7000 ft meaning that there is a short season to visit the lake when the roads are passable from the snow. Mid June to mid September are the ideal times to go.

Wizard Island

Yes Jonathan is standing on snow wearing sandals.

look how blue and clear the water is!

We were able to hike almost to the top of one of the look out points: Garfield Peak. Things were going well until we came upon a ridge of snow to cross.

Notice how it slopes down so that if you miss the footing you slide down a cliff into some big rocks. I dug by hands into the snow bank as I crossed. It was so scary Jonathan couldn't even watch me cross he was too scared for me!

Once we crossed the ridge though we did get to see some good views of the lake but to get to the very top we would have to hike a very step very snowing mountain. Which we decided against.

Here is another couple that braved it.

Instead we went back to the visitor look out and had lunch.

On the way back home we stopped at yet another Oregon hot springs. This time we didn't have to dare to drive up and across a gravel mountain road.

We were warned and it was true.

The tubs were formed out of natural rock and overlooked the river.

Such clear water!

I'll end on this you can decide for yourself if he has a suit on or not....

Chasing Beers and sunsets

So the last couple of weeks have involved brewery hopping around Bend and Portland.  We took our bikes to Bend which is in what is considered the high desert. It is dry and dusty area but within view of the Cascade Mountain Range which we got to see from around the city. The weekend was actually nice weather for once, sunny and warm! Bend has 11 breweries and you can get a stamp at each on you go to on the ale trial map. Once you get all 11 stamps you get a prize.  Now it is not recommended to go to all 11 in one day, you can stretch it out over as much time as you need. We did manage to go to 5.

   

The total millage we went according to our bike odometer was 8.7 miles.  Since at each brewery we had small tasters like these:

We didn't think we were drinking that much, but after 5 breweries we totaled out our beer in ounces to be about 64 but maybe more...needless to say we were tired. This is me after the tour with bike grease up my thigh...not sure how that happened.

One of the breweries boasted of amazing sunsets overlooking the Cascade mountain range. We just had to see it.

We were hoping to make it to one more brewery after the sunset but we just couldn't do it so we called it a night.

Later in the week we went after another sunset at Mary's Peak.  We had hiked from near the base of the mountain which was around 9 miles. When we got to the top we realized you can actually drive up and just hike a half mile to the peak so that's what we did the on our 2nd visit. It was pretty windy up to the top and Jonathan drove pretty fast because we were scared we would miss it. Although I was car sick for the rest of the night the view was pretty worth it.

The second weekend of brewery hopping was in Portland.  We met our traveler therapy friends for a night on the town. This time we were on foot so we did take a couple taxi rides between stops! We stopped at 5 breweries.

in the back of the Taxi

jonathan is in the front of the taxi

Look we can pay with a card in the backseat of the taxi!

we forgot to take a picture of the signs at Cascade brewery and the Green Dragon.

 The other exciting thing that happened in Portland is the Naked bike ride.  Apparently there are no nudity laws in Portland so you can be naked whenever you want. We got a lot of high fives but did not participate.

our route