3rd Annual Summer Kick Off
We toodled around Central Oregon for a few days at the official open of the summer season. Thank you, Jaxson, for extending summer into April.
After work on Thursday, we loaded ourselves in Jaxson with a couple Whole Bowls, and made it to our camp spot on the Deschutes River before nightfall. We rolled up as the sun was setting and sat around a fire while the stars came out, listening to the river, and to occassional trains whirring by and feeling happy that the days are finally warm and long enough for scampering around.
Jaxson by moonlight
In the morning, we slept in much later than the fisher people around us, and after breakfast, headed out on a ride which follows the Deschutes for a stretch, and then starts a 3 mile winding climb out of the canyon to the plateau above.
Shanako got long covid three years ago. Every time we have done this bike ride before, they have waited in Maupin, and I have taken this hill on my own. Last year, the sky turned grey and it started hailing while I climbed the ridge. But this year, Shanako and I made the climb together, slow and steady. As we reached the top and the road started to even out, they pumped their arms triumphantly, feeling joy to have reached this place in their healing. We thanked a goddess or two and their lungs for getting us here. I wanted to take a picture of the arm pumping, but I was on my bike and didn’t have a free hand, so you’ll just have to trust me that it was beautiful thing to see and feel.
Taking a break to eat smushed sandwiches.
After a lunch break, we biked through meadows and farms on the plateau before descending back into the valley and eventually climbing towards White River Falls State Park, where we ate the last of our smushed sandwiches and filled up on water, and saw this…
triumphant
Then we descended back down to the Deschutes, where we met up with Jaxson and cooked salmon for dinner, then laid in bed watching back episodes of Alone, dreaming of more adventures, while 30 or so river guides partied at the adjacent sites, marking the kickoff of their summer season.
On Day Two, we drove to Round Butte State Park, and biked a 30 mile loop outside of Madras, Oregon. The scenery was shrub trees, canyon, and farm land with views of the Central Cascades throughout. It was our first time doing this ride, and we can’t wait to come back next year. I forgot to take barely any photos, in typical fashion. Except this one…
looking down the canyon, Jefferson and Hood on the horizon.
We were tuckered after our ride, and drove a bit further south to a despersed camping spot on BLM land 15 or so minutes outside Smith Rock. We pulled in with time to make dinner, catch the sunset, and listen to coyotes howling before falling asleep.
The next morning, we drove to Smith Rock which was oddly teeming with people. I put on my running vest and headed down, past the climbers making their way up the main rockfaces. As with everything everywhere, after a mile or so, the crowds thinned out, and I tried to keep up my pace and forgot to consider the elevation, and so ended up climbing the summit trail in the noon heat, but it was worth it for the views from the top.
view from summit trail with the squiggle of misery ridge visible in the distance, and the Three Sisters on the horizon.
Once back to Jaxson, we grabbed iced mochas at the climbing coffee shop and turned north and east, heading home, with that warm, tired, satisfied feeling you get at the end of good trip.