Oregon in October

Bend, Oregon

Bend, Oregon has been on my list of places to visit and or potential live for the last year, year and half. Making the trip for our anniversary had high expectations to live up to. Especially since my loving husband has told everyone, literally everyone...(annoyingly so) that it was high on my lists and that I wanted to live there without ever visiting. Yep... throwing you under the bus Ted. Now, it is true that I thought it could be a potential home for us, but with that hype it started to loose some of its appeal before we even entered the city limits. But, I am happy to report that Bend is cool mountain town that is centered around outdoor activities and beer. A dryer mountain climate than I expected, but plenty of restaurants, breweries, mountain bike trails, snow parks, golf courses, and hiking for a weekend get-away.

Ted had an opportunity to travel to Hood River for work (another fan favorite) which allowed us to tack on Thursday night in Hood River to our trip. Hood River is about an hour east of Portland along the Columbia River. This little strip east of Portland is known as the Columbia River Gorge which is a National Scenic Area and is definitely worth the drive out if you find yourself in Portland. Most people are probably familiar with Multnomah Falls, but the whole drive is scattered with gorge views and varying heights of waterfalls and gorge canyon like hikes. You may recall that we visited this area back in 2014 and hiked a creek back to a waterfall where the water surpassed our shoulders and a quick swim was required... Anyway... plenty to do in the area. Back to Hood River. If your familiar with Wisconsin, Hood River has a Cedarburg/Door County vibe to it, but in my opinion much better views.

Heading to Bend the next day we headed south on HWY 97 which took us though the fruit district (lots of apples, grapes, cherries, hops, and lavender) up the side of Mount Hood which has an elevation of 11,249'. As we progressed down the south side of the mountain the climate became much more aired which was quite surprising. Knowing that Bend was a mountain ski town, I had just assumed the hills would be covered with acres and acres of pine trees and look very much like Colorado ski towns. Who knew that Eastern Oregon was similar to Idaho, just a little more green...

Per the recommendation of our new neighbor Alex, we decided to take a detour and pass through Sisters, Oregon (now this is Door County....) to hike Black Butte trail.

Unfortunately we had a little fire haze to our view, but the views were pretty amazing. Alex gets an A+ rating on his hike recommendation.

After a quick check in at the hotel and shower, off to hit the town and see what Bend, Oregon had to offer. I'd say it didn't disappoint. After sampling breweries and dinner on Friday night, we found a live concert and listened to this jam band for a good portion of the night.

Saturday brought a hike called No Name Lake and Bend Glacier via Broken Top. This was suppose to be a 5.5 mile roundtrip hike. On our ascent to the trail head a Subaru had stopped on the road a head of us. With no room to pass, we had no choice to stop and see what was going on. Well... Several boulder sized potholes scattered the road a head of us. Now with two trucks behind us, we and the Subaru found a spot to pull off to allow these trucks to attempt the road. The Subaru probably didn't have enough clearance to pass, we were questionable, but after seeing the two trucks pass, I wasn't about to encourage an unnecessary mechanic bill. We decided, along with the Subaru that we would walk the road to the trail head. The elevation gain wasn't bad, but the additional 4.5 miles one way kind a sucked. And what really frustrated us (more so Ted), was when we were continually getting passed by cars similar to ours that decided to venture the minefield. But all in all the 13 mile hike was great one and one I'd recommend if your in the area, just be prepared to add a few more miles or rent a jeep or truck!

Portland, Oregon

When Ted was asked to present at an agricultural management class from OSU, and his football game was conveniently in Portland the next day it was a perfect excuse to tag along. In fact, I am at a Break side brewery right now waiting for his game to commence.

Portland reminds me of a much, much cooler Dubuque Iowa. Yep.. I said it. Like most major US cities, Portland is on a river, and getting to and from downtown has a lot of bridges and bluffs - reminds me of Dubuque, but not so much Iowa.

If anyone is interested we have our camping destinations and preferred weekends chosen for camping in 2022. Give us a holler if you want to camp with us and we can get a group site.

• June 3rd weekend - Wallowa Lake State Park - Oregon

• Last weekend of June/early July - Deception Pass State Park - Washington

• August - Crescent Lake - Washington

• TBD - Oregon Coast and or Crater Lake - Oregon