Deschutes River Trail

A few weeks ago Tom had a group of buddies come to town—the good 'ol philly crew—Pete, Clarkie, Drew, Serb, Davi-T and Henry. WoooOOOoooowwwww! It was great to see some familiar faces on the left coast!

One day while the rest of the boys were off white water rafting the White Salmon River in WA, Carley and I got to play with Drew for the day, since he isn't big on water sports. Rather not hang out in a river all day, eh? How 'bout next to one?

So, after we slept in on a Saturday morning, I decided to pack up our crew and drive about 50 miles east of Hood River to explore a bit of the Oregon desert. The Deschutes River State Recreation Area is located at the confluence of the Deschutes and Columbia rivers on the east end of the Columbia River Gorge. The trail meanders upstream along the Deschutes for about three miles before gaining some elevation and returning on a trail that parallels back along a terrace above the river.


We parked in the nearly empty lot and trudged across the long field of grass that leads to the trail. The first critters we came upon were these two humping dung beetles. The bottom one was struggling to walk while the humper was going to town and enjoying the ride.


By June, the heat builds in this area of Oregon, turning the vegetation a golden brown. Lucky for us, our advenure took place at the tail end of spring, which paints the walls of the canyon green for a few months each year, before the heat bakes the green out.


We took a few mintues to enjoy the river after walking along the trail for about 1.5 miles. We needed a break from all the excitement. Said excitement of that section of the trail included Drew inhaling a bug and chocking on it heartily, at least 15 rattlesnake sightings and about 6 giant lizard encounters—all while leading the troop through 5-foot-tall grass with ticks in it. But the wild flowers were beautiful!


We had a great time rollin' around on this day that felt exactly like summer. When we left Hood River it was pretty windy, chilly and overcast. We found the sun at the Deschutes and I felt SMART. ;)


Around a bend on the trail we came upon a bathtub. Drew cracked me up when he said, "yo, that's weird. if youda asked me what I expected to see when I came around that corner, the LAAASSSSTTTT thing I woulda guessed would be a damn bathtub." Row that thang!



Around the trail's halfway mark, you come to a natural arch. Carley sits on top while the river peeks through the bottom. As the wind blew the tall grasses on the hillside across the way, it brought the landscape to life.


Here's Drew soaking up some views and sun.


The gorgeous dry-land sagebrush stroll featured knarled bunches of Himalayan blackberry, sagebrush and bunchgrass. Wildflowers were popping everywhere.

Cutestuff One & Cutestuff Two. We're small.


I haven't been there, but this view is exactly my mental image of a lush part of Africa—Lion King-style.

After our hike, we decided to do something fun that I'd never done before—a wine tasting. This was a perfect treat after a 7-miler, since Drew is a wine conoisseur. Wine never tasted so good. On our way to the Maryhill Winery, we saw signs for the "Stonehenge of Washington". Why not?

Built by Sam Hill as a tribute to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives, Maryhill's Stonehenge is the first monument in our nation to honor the dead of World War I. The structure is a full-scale replica of England's famous neolithic Stonehenge. A Quaker pacifist, Hill was mistakenly informed that the original Stonehenge had been used as a sacrificial site, and thus constructed the replica to remind us that "humanity is still being sacrificed to the god of war.'' The location now also includes monuments to the soldiers of Klickitat County who died in World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam.


Geometric-shaped shadows make me take lots of photographs for some reason.


Carely, Drew and Slab-o-See-Ment.


We had a bit of a commotion as soon as we arrived at the winery, since we had some unwelcome guests crash our party—a handful of ticks. Yep. GODDAMMITIHATETICKS. At one point there was one hopping around on the floor of the tasting room. The other guests and staff were NOT amused. Strike one against the Oregon desert and Deschutes River. Damn ticks.

Although we all had a serious case of the creepy-crawlies—at one point I had to hit the ladies room to check my crotch just in case—we enjoyed a tasting of both the regular tasting room wines and the reserve list. We probably tasted 12 wines, some of them more than once. ;) I think we ended up leaving there with 7 or 8 bottles. Our last few sips were enjoyed on the patio that overlooks the orchards, the Columbia River and good 'ol Mount Hood.


How great is that? Our friend.


The last hubbub of the trip came from a long line of cows mooOOOOOOooing their way across the road and up the hill. They were doing some serious power-mooing. We stopped and rolled down our windows—what better way to end a great day spent outside in great company than with a nice little buzz, a nice little breeze and a sunset bovine serenade. O yeah.