Bend-er

Fly in a box.

The last weekend in March, we joined a group of crazies for a weekend of fun in Sunriver, which is located about 15 miles south of Bend, Oregon, on the dry side of the Cascade Mountains.

We left Hood River on a sunny, Friday morning and drove three hours to the Crooked River for an afternoon of fly fishing and tailgating.

Carley and Nicole got the cooler rolling promptly. Knowing your priorities is half the battle. The Crooked River is smilin' in the background while the wavy reeds sway in the breeze.


It was a warm, sunny spring day.


We borrowed some fly fishing gear to try our hand at the sport. We mostly just lost flies in the water and even in the trees behind us (Tom). It was a great day to play around riverside.


I read online that there are 3,000 trout per mile on the Crooked River, which is sad if it's true. We didn't get one bite.



Abe ties one on in the foreground (note the PBR). Tom and Chad upriver.

Everybody chillin' out.


Scissor sisters. You say picnic table, we say double-wide lounge chair. rrraaAAARRRrrrrr. We had two kegs in tow and polish horseshoes, so we tailgated in the day-use parking lot for a few hours before driving to Sunriver. The house was big and fun. We had a silly crew.


After a night of depravity, we got our shit together and headed up to Mount Bachelor for some snowplay.



Carley and I were shooshin' around and stopped to have a dude take our picture. To our surprise, a smilin' face slid into the shot–Tommy!


More parking lot tailgating. These bright colors are hurtin' my eyezzza. It was a fun weekend. We headed home on Sunday morning–detox. We'll be back for Bend-er 2008.

Hitting the Spot

We've all had that beer, meal or experience that has "hit the spot." Every once in a while, you may be lucky enough to have a whole weekend of good runs.

Our season-opener mountain bike ride and our first time riding Syncline was the first item to hit the spot this weekend. Our small Mosierite friend, Kate, got a new ride this week, so we met up bright and early on Saturday morning, crossed the Hood River Bridge to WA and headed east towards the trailhead for Syncline. We had a little trouble finding the trail, but we got to explore some cool, primitive roads, a beautiful sun-filled, blue sky and some refreshing views of Mount Hood. Kate inquires, "Ummmmmm. Where are we???"



We got situated and hit the trail. Being back on the bike was so awesome. The sun was shining and I was laughing a lot and saying "weeeeeEEEEEEeeeeee". The gorge, river and Mount Hood views from the Syncline area are awesome.


Our bikes were smilin' and laughin' at our skis. Shadow is all ready to go roll around in the woods for the next six months.


After an initial bomb through the trees, the trail opened up and snaked along the cliff's edge. Hairy. 'Sme!


Group shot.


We stopped for a little breather and lo and behold, down the trail rolls bossman Bryan from Summit Projects. Tell me this isn't a frickin' awesome place to go flyin' through:


We split up for the bottom part of the run. Kate, Bryan and I rode the "Maui Falls" section of trail, while Tom and Matt hit “Little Moab." Tom's McDonald's lunch on the way home and the mid-afternoon nap with the windows wide open and a hug from a small red bear is down as Hit #2.


Last night we had some people over for a few beers on the deck and then we headed out in the Hood. A few scorpion bowls, More Powerful Astronaut at the River City and homemade pancakes at 2:30AM were the highlights.

After a Sunday morning group breakfast at Shari's, which is always entertaining and quite filling, we hit Meadows for some spring skiing conditions.

The drive to the mountain was awesome–#3. Yesterday, we saw Hood from afar as we hopped around on our bikes and today we were going to get all up in that beotch. That's a good-lookin' mountain.

Hit #4–my best, most fun day on the mountain so far. I'm learnin'! The snow was perfect. It was warm and sunny. I went skiin' in the woods for the first time and it's the coolest!

Today the skis were laughin' at the bikes. Some late afternoon sun on the deck added that extra pop to my face freckles. A hot shower and coffee after all this excitement makes 5 big bullseyes this weekend.

Lucky dog that I am, I got to experience a whole bouquet of exactly what I wanted and/or needed this weekend. Damn aware that I'm damn lucky. :) :) :)

A Great Long Weekend at Crystal Mountain

The long weekend. How come some long weekends feel like a really great break and others end up leaving you feel high and dry? Fortunately, the long weekend that Tom and I spent at Crystal Mountain in Washington was a perfect balance of adventure and relaxation.

About 2 months ago, I reserved a little A-frame called the "Crystal Carriage House" for the weekend of Tom's 32nd birthday and planned a weekend of snowshoeing, skiing and relaxation. The house is located in the one-horse, one-bar, one-home-made-hat-shop town of Greenwater, WA. We had seclusion, herds of elk roaming through our little neighborhood and a 15-minute ride to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort.

The Crystal Mountain ski resort is inside Mount Rainier National Park, in its most northeastern section. Aside from being in a National Park, the spectacular setting for the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort is also inside the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. Crystal Mountain, WA is only 76 miles away from Seattle, making this a popular site for skiers from the Puget Sound and surrounding areas. It took us about four hours to reach the house from Hood River, so we arrived around 1pm on Saturday afternoon.


On arrival, we headed straight for the Ski Area. The lifts were only open for a few more hours, so we decided to do a little self-propelled lifting to ski some fresh powder. With our skis strapped to our backpacks, we slapped on our ski boots and snowshoes and started to climb. Ski boots are definitely not choice hiking boots, but after a few minutes, you are too busy saying "wow" to worry about your feet.

The first part of the hill was steep and the powdery snow was hip-deep for me. Tom was getting a serious cardio workout because he sank all the way into the snow, even with the tails on our snowshoes. I scurried right up the hill atop the snow like a little snow bunny. Sometimes being small DOES have benefits. ;)


Tom's dad got him a great birthday gift–a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx! We used the GPS to mark our tracks on this little hike & ski and Tom used the unit to aid his exploration of the backcountry terrain at Crystal.


After we got to a place that looked good to click in, we traded our snowshoes for our skis and I had my first experience skiing in deep powder. I've been jumping in feet first a lot lately. "Keep your tips up." "Squeeze an imaginary grapefruit between your knees." "Sit back and squat". "AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T FALL!" There's a lot to keep together when you're new to skiing and the conditions keep changing. Alright, here goes nothin'. WeeeEEEEEeeeee! Wait. How do I turn? And down she goes. :) FUN!

We got back to the car and lots more fresh snow. The big flakes were not gonna quit for a while. Off to the house in the woods and some champagne (of beers)! Hot dogs and beans and girl scout cookies for dinner. Anything hot would have done the trick. We watched a really cool movie about Mount Rainier and had many beer bottles and cans to recycle the following morning. ;)



Tom the snowshoe ninja.


On Sunday, we hit the mountain for our first day of real skiing. It snowed ALL DAY. The lift rides were incredible. What a beautiful place. Check some 360 degree views:
1. The Summit 2. Powder Bowl 3. The Main Lodge & Base

I spent most of my time on the green runs. I am mostly blue at Mount Hood Meadows, where we usually ski, but I am GREEN GREEN GREEN at Crystal Mountain. Fine with me though!
Our first run was a blue one, and I had a REAL hard time with the combination of moguls, soft snow, hard snow and steeps. I kind of lost my way on the blue trail and ended up hugging lots of trees on a long black diamond. After that catastrophe, I decided to share the greens with the pint-sized and other adult beginners. Tom spent most of his time up high. I'm jealous that I can't go up there yet, but going up means coming down. Hopefully I'll be able to do that stuff in a few seasons.


A fun day out followed by some maxin' and relaxin'. Dinner at a local coffee shop/restaurant in Greenwater. I got a new party hat at Wapiti Woolies. Beers and tea in front of the fire, good music and lots of smiles. :)


Monday morning, we got an early start and were excited to ski sans the weekend crowds. I was hoping for a clear day, so we'd be able to catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier, but it was cloudy. Everyone told me that "Mount Rainier is so close to Crystal, you can reach out and touch it". No such luck on this trip! A good excuse to go back this summer and next ski season.



Small heads + lots of headgear = silly.


I heart national parks! I'll be back to crawl around here very soon! A GREAT long weekend at Crystal Mountain.