Central Oregon Road Trip/Bike Tour

Oregon is open for travel now, so we decided to cross a few state borders and see something new.
Calvin's spring group bike tour got canceled, so he ordered a couple of Oregon bike route maps and off we went.

We decided to drive the route north and then Calvin could bike his way south.  Bend was our launch site. Oregon has a lot of "Scenic Byways" so on day 1 Calvin rode the Cascade Lake Scenic Byway.

While Calvin was riding his way up the slopes of Mt. Bachelor I took a hike to Benham Falls along the Deschutes River.

It starts our as this lovely placid River

 and within a half mile becomes a frothing torrent as it descends through a canyon.

I thought that the falls was part of the scenic highway, but I actually had to find a way around the base of Mt. Bachelor to meet Calvin in time for lunch at Lava Lakes. This area has dozens of little lakes. Forest Service campgrounds were closed, but the private resorts were open so we had access.

After Calvin finished the ride we checked in to our motel in LaPine and then went out exploring the Newberry Volcano.  This massive volcano has a 17 square mile caldera and covers 1,200 square miles.  We drove up to the caldera, which has two lakes divided by a pumice cone.

We stopped for a short walk between Paulina Falls and Paulina Lake.

You can see the rim of the crater above the lake. There is a private resort here so we had an ice cream break. Then we drove around to the other lake, East Lake.

You can see the central pumice cone from the resort on this lake.

 Finally we stopped at the Big Obsidian Flow that happened about 1,300 years ago. Most of the trail was still snow covered, but the obsidian boulders were really amazing.

Day 2 Calvin rode from LaPine to Silver Lake on the Outback Scenic Byway.  This was a little less interesting to people who live in the Great Basin. It was a one-way ride so I planned to meet Calvin at Silver Lake and went adventuring.

There was a pass in the road just beyond Silver Lake called Picture Rock Pass.  It is a poorly marked BLM site of petroglyphs dated from between 7,500 and 12,000 years ago.  The desert varnish has almost completely claimed the pictures.  A post on the internet said to park at the summit and follow the well worn trail to the petroglyphs. When I got to the summit I discovered at least a half dozen well worn trails, but I finally found them. 

On our way back to LaPine we made a quick visit to Fort Rock, which is a tuff ring left from an island in an ice age lake. It is a prominent feature in a sage brush plain.

We still had most of the afternoon free so we drove the part of the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway that I missed on Day 1 

and stopped for an ice cream break at Elk Lake.

Then we went back to the Deschutes River so Calvin could see Benham Falls and walked a little further down the trail.

Day 3 we drove to Butte Falls where Calvin Started his ride to Ashland.

On the way to the ride start, we passed the turn off to Crater Lake, which was still closed, but stopped at road side information area that showed what Mt. Manzama looked like before it exploded and left Crater Lake behind.

This is what the ridgeline looks like today. 

We also got a good look at Mt. Thielsen

While Calvin got started down the road I drove back to the town of Butte Falls and discovered this lovely fall on the Butte River which is probably where the town got it's name.

 This was a bike route that went through some really beautiful back roads.  Snow capped volcanoes dot the landscape everywhere in central Oregon. Mt. Bachelor and the Sisters are prominent near Bend and further south Mt. McLoughlin fills the landscape. At almost every turn in the road a giant vista like this would open up.

We arrived in Ashland and the hotel gave us this great postcard and a parking permit.

We wandered through Lithia Park in the evening.  Ashland is a town that will be hit hard by COVID 19 closures. The Shakespeare season has been cancelled and the College of Southern Oregon is closed. It is still open, but the tourists were not in abundance.

Day 4 we drove up I-5, which is a much prettier drive in Oregon than it is in central California, to just south of Roseburg where Calvin rode the Cow Creek Scenic Loop. 

This is not a bike specific route, but for most of the ride Calvin was the only vehicle on the road. He loved it.

After the ride we tried stopping at the Applegate Trail Museum, but it was closed so we looked at this covered bridge instead.

It was really nice just to get out and enjoy seeing new things again after months of self isolation.

New normal

We seem to be easing into a new normal.  Our social contact is still limited pretty much to outdoor activities with family, but the weather has been beautiful the past few weeks, so life is good.

Rachel invited us to a day outing at Washoe Lake State Park.  There were so many years that Washoe Lake was a dry lake that I didn't realize it has a very nice grassy beachfront.  We parked by a very big old tree which just begged to be climbed.

 ...and jumped out of

There was a very nice little dirt patch that provded some worms for entertainment

 and a nice picnic table in the shade.

The lake is actually still pretty muddy, but it looks better in the pictures.
Calvin rode his bike home, hoping for a strong wind from the south, but no help from the wind that day.

This weekend Calvin, Peter and Sylvan had planned a fathers and sons campout, but the weather look a little nasty so they decided to camp in the backyard.

Our yard looks good right now and the iris are in bloom

As an extra bonus the Bordelons came over with a yummy cake fresh out of the oven and we all enjoyed a little campfire time.

Life is good at our house.

More social distance at Lake Tahoe

There is no better way to create social distance than to head out on a kayak.  The weather was beautiful this week so we took a couple of kayak adventures on Lake Tahoe. Our first was a beautiful calm sunny day on the lake.  Just right for the first paddle of the season.

Just as we were pulling into Sand Harbor the Bordelons arrived a provided a picnic on the beach.

In April the water temperature of the lake is in the 40's, but that didn't stop these water lovers.

Sarah hadn't really planned on a swimming outing, so once there were wet they had to improvise a bit to dry off.

We had so much fun we went kayaking again a couple of days later.  We tried to launch at Sand Harbor, but the parking was full so we started driving around the lake looking for a place to launch the kayak.  Once we crossed to border into Califonia all of the beaches were closed, but we found a place to launch at a Nature Conservancy Beach attached to the Garwoods parking lot.  We paddled about two miles to the beach of a hotel where we had stayed several years ago on our kayak tour of Lake Tahoe. The hotel was closed, but the beach was open so we had some nice uncrowded beach time.

Peter called and said they were also headed up to Lake Tahoe, so we loaded the boat and met them back at Sand Harbor. The parking wasn't full but there was still a pretty good crowd on the beach. 

We stayed until sunset and enjoyed the twilight.

We still managed to get home before it was full dark. In these days when everything is the same it is sometimes hard to notice the changing of the seasons.  The days really are getting longer now.