First trip report, I'm not much of a writer so it'll be a short one.
I had an obligation to get to Bend, OR for a family friend's wedding June 30, so we decided to take an extra week and come back the scenic way. I know, life is tough. We slabbed it up I-5 from Ventura to Eugene (yawn), and stayed with my parents Thursday (6/27). The next morning we hit the road, heading out of Eugene along Hwy 126, eventually taking 242 (old McKenzie highway).
It has been years since I've been over the road, and my wife had never seen it, so we had a good time enjoying the sights and checking out the rock tower at the top. There are labeled viewports in the tower through which you can see the surrounding peaks.
Bend was unexpectedly hot, in the mid 90's during the day and not cooling off nearly as much as I'd like at night. I am spoiled by living where it is 70 degrees year round. We had a lot going on related to the wedding, but managed to get out for a short hike to the headwaters of the Metolius river, starting at Camp Sherman. The dogs loved the water, although we kept them on leash for the hike back because the Fly Fishermen were out in force by this time.
My pictures don't do this stretch of river justice, it truly reminded me why I love Oregon so much.
I don't have many pictures of the rest of the weekend, but we were able to explore Bend on foot from our rental house. We also had several wedding related events at the Deschutes Brewery and Tap House, absolutely worth a visit if you're in the area.
My wife's parents (and their yellow lab) joined us for the remainder of the trip. On Tuesday morning we headed out of Bend along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, past Mt Bachelor. We made a stop at Sparks Lake, hiked a nice little loop with some great views of the lake, mountains, and some very cool rock formations.
The destination was Crater Lake, we managed to find an open campsite (Mazama Campground) and got camp set up in time to head back up to the rim for the scenic drive around the lake.
At this elevation there was still some snow on the hillsides, but not as much as I was expecting. A park ranger we spoke with later said they only got ~60% of their typical 44' of snowpack this winter.
The dogs took the opportunity to cool off in the snow a bit.
Back in camp, we settled in to making some dinner and playing cards until it got dark. I've always enjoyed keeping the schedule of the day as nature intended it when I am camping, up with the sunrise and in bed when it gets dark. On the whole I slept better in our tent on this trip than the house in bend, due to night time temperatures.
Wednesday saw us head out from Crater Lake back on 97, heading for Lassen National Park. My father in law is teaching me how to fly fish, so we found a nice shady pull out at Bridge Picnic area, and fished Hat Creek for a while. I spent more time untangling myself from trees and bushes than fishing, but did manage to catch (and release) a small brown trout, my first ever on a fly. No pictures unfortunately.
On our entry to Lassen National Park I asked about a current weather forecast, and was told a low chance of thunderstorms, but it was unlikely we would get rained on. Not 5 minutes later the skies opened up, and we had steady rain all the way to our camp site at Summit Lake Campground. Fortunately the rain let up in time for us to set up camp, but we got rain again that night. It was the first time for my wife to camp in the rain, but our tent kept us nice and snug. I can't say the same for the other campers in the campground, I heard a few tarps being hastily thrown over tents and one group packed up and left at 4am.
Thursday morning we packed up camp, throwing the wet rain flies into the back of my camper shell to dry out on the drive. We had time to get the canoe in the water, but didn't have any luck fishing.
The end goal for the day was a hotel in Truckee, a last minute reservation since I'd forgotten that it would be 4th of July and everything else was booked. On the way we took a detour just past Chester, CA to try to fish Yellow Creek, along Humbug Road. I did not plan enough for this side trip and was trying to work off of a Benchmark Atlas only, which didn't have enough detail to decipher the network of logging roads and forest service trails. I dropped a waypoint on GPS at the spot we elected to turn around, and it turns out we were within 1/2 mile of the Yellow Creek Campground. On our way back to the main road we stopped at a shady spot and fished either Butt or Spring Creek (not 100% sure which) for a few hours, which was unproductive but fun. I think I only spend 1/3 of my time untangling myself this time.
Truckee was a nice break from camping, and the temperatures had started to drop by this time. We were warned against trying to drive to Donner Lake to watch the fireworks, so we had dinner at 50/50 Brewery and called it an early night after walking around the old town area for a while. My wife and I met at UC Davis, and visited the Tahoe/Truckee area pretty often while living there, so it was cool to be back in our old haunts.
Friday morning we drove around the east side of Lake Tahoe, down to Carson City and on down 395. I was relieved to watch the outside temperature dropping as we gained altitude. We were worried about being able to find a camp site at Trumbull due to the holiday weekend, but apparently there was a fair amount of rain the day before and about 1/3 of the sites were unoccupied. We made camp early enough to drive down to Lee Vining for corn dogs and milk shakes at Mono Cone.
Little Virginia lake, by the resort, was really crowded and we were put off by the $5 fee to launch and retrieve a boat. A short drive up the gravel road to Big Virginia Lake showed more promise, and we paddled around for a while until the wind picked up. I spoke with a fly fisherman who had been out on the lake in a tube and claimed to have caught upward of 30 fish that day, but my father in law and I were skunked. Anyways, its called fishing, not catching and we had a good time. Temperatures were in the 70's during the day and got to the low 50's at night, a very welcome change.
My FIL and I got up before dawn Saturday morning, with the goal of finding some fish in the East Walker River. We took the dirt road (Dunderberg Meadow Road) down to the 395, spotting lots of opportunities for future bivouac camping along the road. A quick drive up 395 and onto 182 at Bridgeport, and we were at the East Walker. We spent the next hour having absolutely no luck finding access to the river, seemed like we tried a dozen turn outs only to find the river either too fast and deep to wade, or no path to get to the river at all. We only had a few hours to fish and eventually gave up, heading back to camp. On the drive back we spotted a group of trucks parked at a turnout and lots of fishing going on in the river, so I guess we just didn't try the correct turn outs.
We packed up camp, said our goodbyes with my wife's parents who planned to stay another few days, and moseyed down 395 to meet up with some friends playing at the OHV area at Glass Creek. It was all toy hauler and 5th wheel campers, definitely not my style, but they were enjoying the dirt bikes and RZR side by side. Heading further south we stopped for lunch at Erik Schat's bakery as always, and finally hit the road for the slog back home.
Drive back was boring as usual once we got past the Alabama Hills, not helped by the high temp of 106 we saw, nor the strong crosswinds encountered through the Palmcaster area. By the time we got home we were glad to be off the road for a while, and back to our typical cool 70 degree temperatures.
All in all it was a great trip. We saw some awesome country, and only wished we had more time to spend each day exploring rather than driving. We will be back to visit some areas again, I'm already planning a fishing only trip for the near future.
Full picture album: https://picasaweb.google.com/103006953150383895502/Bend359TripJuly2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink
I had an obligation to get to Bend, OR for a family friend's wedding June 30, so we decided to take an extra week and come back the scenic way. I know, life is tough. We slabbed it up I-5 from Ventura to Eugene (yawn), and stayed with my parents Thursday (6/27). The next morning we hit the road, heading out of Eugene along Hwy 126, eventually taking 242 (old McKenzie highway).
It has been years since I've been over the road, and my wife had never seen it, so we had a good time enjoying the sights and checking out the rock tower at the top. There are labeled viewports in the tower through which you can see the surrounding peaks.
Bend was unexpectedly hot, in the mid 90's during the day and not cooling off nearly as much as I'd like at night. I am spoiled by living where it is 70 degrees year round. We had a lot going on related to the wedding, but managed to get out for a short hike to the headwaters of the Metolius river, starting at Camp Sherman. The dogs loved the water, although we kept them on leash for the hike back because the Fly Fishermen were out in force by this time.
My pictures don't do this stretch of river justice, it truly reminded me why I love Oregon so much.
I don't have many pictures of the rest of the weekend, but we were able to explore Bend on foot from our rental house. We also had several wedding related events at the Deschutes Brewery and Tap House, absolutely worth a visit if you're in the area.
My wife's parents (and their yellow lab) joined us for the remainder of the trip. On Tuesday morning we headed out of Bend along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, past Mt Bachelor. We made a stop at Sparks Lake, hiked a nice little loop with some great views of the lake, mountains, and some very cool rock formations.
The destination was Crater Lake, we managed to find an open campsite (Mazama Campground) and got camp set up in time to head back up to the rim for the scenic drive around the lake.
At this elevation there was still some snow on the hillsides, but not as much as I was expecting. A park ranger we spoke with later said they only got ~60% of their typical 44' of snowpack this winter.
The dogs took the opportunity to cool off in the snow a bit.
Back in camp, we settled in to making some dinner and playing cards until it got dark. I've always enjoyed keeping the schedule of the day as nature intended it when I am camping, up with the sunrise and in bed when it gets dark. On the whole I slept better in our tent on this trip than the house in bend, due to night time temperatures.
Wednesday saw us head out from Crater Lake back on 97, heading for Lassen National Park. My father in law is teaching me how to fly fish, so we found a nice shady pull out at Bridge Picnic area, and fished Hat Creek for a while. I spent more time untangling myself from trees and bushes than fishing, but did manage to catch (and release) a small brown trout, my first ever on a fly. No pictures unfortunately.
On our entry to Lassen National Park I asked about a current weather forecast, and was told a low chance of thunderstorms, but it was unlikely we would get rained on. Not 5 minutes later the skies opened up, and we had steady rain all the way to our camp site at Summit Lake Campground. Fortunately the rain let up in time for us to set up camp, but we got rain again that night. It was the first time for my wife to camp in the rain, but our tent kept us nice and snug. I can't say the same for the other campers in the campground, I heard a few tarps being hastily thrown over tents and one group packed up and left at 4am.
Thursday morning we packed up camp, throwing the wet rain flies into the back of my camper shell to dry out on the drive. We had time to get the canoe in the water, but didn't have any luck fishing.
The end goal for the day was a hotel in Truckee, a last minute reservation since I'd forgotten that it would be 4th of July and everything else was booked. On the way we took a detour just past Chester, CA to try to fish Yellow Creek, along Humbug Road. I did not plan enough for this side trip and was trying to work off of a Benchmark Atlas only, which didn't have enough detail to decipher the network of logging roads and forest service trails. I dropped a waypoint on GPS at the spot we elected to turn around, and it turns out we were within 1/2 mile of the Yellow Creek Campground. On our way back to the main road we stopped at a shady spot and fished either Butt or Spring Creek (not 100% sure which) for a few hours, which was unproductive but fun. I think I only spend 1/3 of my time untangling myself this time.
Truckee was a nice break from camping, and the temperatures had started to drop by this time. We were warned against trying to drive to Donner Lake to watch the fireworks, so we had dinner at 50/50 Brewery and called it an early night after walking around the old town area for a while. My wife and I met at UC Davis, and visited the Tahoe/Truckee area pretty often while living there, so it was cool to be back in our old haunts.
Friday morning we drove around the east side of Lake Tahoe, down to Carson City and on down 395. I was relieved to watch the outside temperature dropping as we gained altitude. We were worried about being able to find a camp site at Trumbull due to the holiday weekend, but apparently there was a fair amount of rain the day before and about 1/3 of the sites were unoccupied. We made camp early enough to drive down to Lee Vining for corn dogs and milk shakes at Mono Cone.
Little Virginia lake, by the resort, was really crowded and we were put off by the $5 fee to launch and retrieve a boat. A short drive up the gravel road to Big Virginia Lake showed more promise, and we paddled around for a while until the wind picked up. I spoke with a fly fisherman who had been out on the lake in a tube and claimed to have caught upward of 30 fish that day, but my father in law and I were skunked. Anyways, its called fishing, not catching and we had a good time. Temperatures were in the 70's during the day and got to the low 50's at night, a very welcome change.
My FIL and I got up before dawn Saturday morning, with the goal of finding some fish in the East Walker River. We took the dirt road (Dunderberg Meadow Road) down to the 395, spotting lots of opportunities for future bivouac camping along the road. A quick drive up 395 and onto 182 at Bridgeport, and we were at the East Walker. We spent the next hour having absolutely no luck finding access to the river, seemed like we tried a dozen turn outs only to find the river either too fast and deep to wade, or no path to get to the river at all. We only had a few hours to fish and eventually gave up, heading back to camp. On the drive back we spotted a group of trucks parked at a turnout and lots of fishing going on in the river, so I guess we just didn't try the correct turn outs.
We packed up camp, said our goodbyes with my wife's parents who planned to stay another few days, and moseyed down 395 to meet up with some friends playing at the OHV area at Glass Creek. It was all toy hauler and 5th wheel campers, definitely not my style, but they were enjoying the dirt bikes and RZR side by side. Heading further south we stopped for lunch at Erik Schat's bakery as always, and finally hit the road for the slog back home.
Drive back was boring as usual once we got past the Alabama Hills, not helped by the high temp of 106 we saw, nor the strong crosswinds encountered through the Palmcaster area. By the time we got home we were glad to be off the road for a while, and back to our typical cool 70 degree temperatures.
All in all it was a great trip. We saw some awesome country, and only wished we had more time to spend each day exploring rather than driving. We will be back to visit some areas again, I'm already planning a fishing only trip for the near future.
Full picture album: https://picasaweb.google.com/103006953150383895502/Bend359TripJuly2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink
