Smith Rock

Yesterday we picked up my Mom & Dad and went for a great hike at Smith Rock State Park. It's a beautiful spot less than 30 minutes from our house. The hike was only about 4 miles, but it had a section with a 1,000 foot elevation gain and then a 1,000 foot descent, all in the space of just 1 mile. That's somewhat steep for many hikers. I think it was right at the limit of where Mom & Dad wanted to go, in spite of the vertigo-inducing views from the top of the rock.

Just outside the park we found The Central Oregon Pumpkin Company. A real slice of Americana just before Halloween. Hay rides, food stands, many varities of pumkins, train rides, a maze in a corn field, and, most fun of all, a huge cannon that shot pumkins hundreds of feet into a field.

10/27 update: Dad posted his photos from the hike.

No video this week

The kids spent the weekend playing with friends and sleeping over at their Grandma's and Grandpa's house. Karen and I had the house to ourselves last night, so we went out to dinner and got to watch Cal beat UCLA (Go Bears!), and then came home and watched a DVD.

Today my neighbor Ray and I went on a 3+ hour mountain bike ride. Ray is a very skilled and powerful rider, and, as usual he kicked my butt. He let me borrow one of his moutain bikes (way, way better than mine) and it was the first time I used clip-in shoes on a mountain bike. It was a somewhat technical ride in places and I have to admit I had 6 minor crashes. Nothing serious other than hurt pride. I fell over way too often when I got to a spot where I needed to put a foot down. I have to practice getting my foot unsnapped from the pedal a lot faster. I've never had to be that fast on my road bike.

The ride was a lot of fun, nevertheless. We rode from our house up to a spot near the top of Tumalo Falls. About 10 miles one way with a 1500 foot climb all on single-track trails. It was lightly raining when we left and snowing hard by the time we got to the top. It was really cold coming down, until we dropped down about 500 feet where the rain and snow stopped.

Ski season is coming!

Lava Lands and Benham Falls

Another busy weekend. On Saturday we helped my Mom & Dad unload their moving truck into the house they just rented here in Bend. On Sunday we went for another hike. First stop was Lava Butte, a cinder cone (small volcano) a few miles out of town with great views from the top at 5,000 feet. It's in a national park called Lava Lands. We then went exploring the Deschutes River as it flows through the lava field that Lava Butte emitted 6,100 years ago. It's awfully hard to be bored here.

Cal vs OSU & The Metollius

We had a fun weekend. On Saturday we went and saw Cal play OSU in Corvallis. Cal slaughtered them 47 to 9. We spent the night at cousin Polly's and husband Steve's place in Eugene and the next day drove home with a side trip to the Metollius River.