Monday, May 5th
In the morning we took a walk in the forest.
In the afternoon, M took off on another drive, heading east over the Cascades and checking in to a cheap hotel in Bend. Why Bend? Was it because he had registered for a Barrel House Tour at the Deschutes Brewery? Or because he had heard about a nice 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo that someone over there was practically giving away? Or was he needing to stop in at Kara’s to replenish his supply of Maplewood smoked bacon infused olive oil and bourbon barrel aged balsamic vinegar, handcrafted by Olivelle, a mother and daughter team based in Bozeman, Montana? No, nothing as exciting as that. He just wanted a place to sleep for the night so he would be fresh in the morning to go driving around in the southern unit of the Ochoco National Forest.
Tuesday, May 6th
The plan was to go some miles east of Bend on US Hwy 20 and then turn north and go over the Maury Mountains down to Oregon Hwy 380. Can one cross these low mountains without having to deal with bumper to bumper traffic? Oh yeah. Ideally, one might do it without being troubled by any traffic at all. M gave it a try. The first critical step of this project was to stop at Whole Foods and get a premade sandwich. That done he set out.
Twenty-five miles later, leaving pavement behind, he turned north onto the Crooked River highway. Less than a mile later, he turned east onto Merril Road. After ten minutes or so, he realized that Merril Road was a big mistake. So much for his carefully made plan. He returned to Crooked River Road and then–after yet another false start–finally turned east onto Bear Creek Road, which turned out to be the sensible thing to do. After a number of miles he then turned north onto Tackman Road, which led him up out of ranch country and into the National Forest. There, he turned west onto Forest Road 16, and then south onto Forest Road 17. This took him down to Antelope Flat Reservoir, a very pretty spot where he could stop and eat his sandwich. Then he drove back up 17, following it all the way over the crest of the mountains and down the other side, reaching Oregon 380 at Pine Creek. There were plenty of other roads that he would have liked to explore–notably the very interesting looking Forest Road 1750–but it was already 1:30. He was three and a half hours from home and it was his night to cook. So it was back onto pavement, Pine Creek to Prineville to Redmond to Sisters to Corvallis.
Friday, May 9th
We went up to Vancouver, WA today and stayed the night in preparation for some Mother’s Day festivities scheduled for Saturday.
Saturday, May 10th
When asked what she wanted for Mother’s Day, E had requested a hike somewhere she had never been and the Andees had made plans accordingly. We met them at their place in the morning and the five us–four people and Haley the dog–set out for the Wahclella Falls Trailhead, forty-three miles up the Columbia River Gorge. The trail turned out to be just what we needed–challenging in places but never too much for our level of ability. The trail goes up a lovely narrow canyon. There was a major fire in the area about nine years ago, after which the trail was impassible. Back when he worked for the Forest Service, one of our A’s had a hand in rebuilding it. This experience also taught him how to find a connection to an extra parking lot when things were tight.
About halfway up to the big waterfall, we passed a smaller one plunging down a rock face just a few feet from the trail.
Here is Wahclella Falls, where the trail ends.
After the hike we went back to the Andees’ and had a lunch of quiche, salad and cupcakes. To top it all off, E got even more nice things to take away.
