Yancy's vBlog

Bike ride in to fishing

2007-11-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long time since I posted to this blog. Not because I’ve lost interest, but because it seemed to be getting boring. Every week I/we go off and do some fun thing; how many times do people really want to read about it?

Even with the lack of activity on my part, I know that a lot of people read this blog. I get frequent emails from people commenting on various posts. It seems that the guide books just are not good enough on subjects like climbing South Sister, camping in the Steens wilderness, or even wakeboarding (which I have not done in over two years).

Anyway, every week is the same old thing: fishing trip here, canoe ride there, hiking over yonder, floating down another river, etc. It’s great, but I’ve lost interest in documenting these things.

Until today. This morning I got up in the dark, threw my gear in the truck, and drove about 65 miles to a locked gate at the end of a dirt road. I loaded up my bike and backpack and rode a few miles more. By 9 am I was at the spot in the photo.

My 26-year old mountain bike did just fine with a rod tube lashed to it. The panniers I bought decades ago held up great as well. It was an amazing day of fishing. The temperature never got above 46 degrees, but I was prepared and the fish were willing.

In less than five hours I caught almost two dozen fish. All were wild, half were native. Big, healthy, strong fish living in a pristine environment. To be able to fool these fish with tiny little flies and then release them unharmed is an unbelievable pleasure for me. (I really don’t understand why.)

It’s even better when I can do it in a spot that clearly few people venture into. The bike ride wasn’t especially difficult, but the various climbs/scrambles down from the road to the holes and bushwhacking needed to get there seems to really limit the people. I’m sure that countless fishermen have preceded me in these spots, but I couldn’t see much evidence of them and the only other “footprints” I saw today were from elk.

And I got home in time for dinner. Central Oregon is a great place to live.

Days like today make me wonder how I ever got so lucky. How can some of us have things so good, while so many others suffer? A question that has haunted thinkers for centuries.

(No, of course, I can’t tell you where I was. Get out there and do some exploring yourself.)

Jack & Jenny Visit

2007-05-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

Karen's parents, Jack and Jenny, visited or a few days last week, over the weekend, and for a couple of days this week. We had a good time, I played golf with him one day at Eagle Ridge and we did the tourist thing the rest of the time. One of the big events of the year, the Pole, Pedal, Paddle also occurred last weekend.

The PPP is a multi-sport race where people run up a downhill ski run, ski back down, Nordic ski, ride a road bike down the mountain to Bend, go on a run, paddle a course on the river, and then sprint to the finish. The people who win the race on their own are ex-Olympic or current national caliber skate skiers, so it is extremely competitive. More casual athletes participate as well. Karen was on a team of women over 40 called the "Slowly Buy Surely Divas". She did the Nordic part of the race. This is her later in the day with only part of the costume still on.

The weather was great the whole time Jack & Jenny were here except for one day when it was very cold and rainy / snowy. We went exploring that day at Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Here's a photo of Karen and her folk's in front of Paulina Falls. All in all, a fun visit.

Fishing Last Week

2007-05-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've been fishing a lot lately but have forgotten my camera, or have not been able to get a good shot, or some other mishap (like dead batteries), so no recent posts. Last Tuesday things finally came together. Fellow COF member Ed and I floated an 8.5 mile section of the lower Deschutes and caught some nice fish. This one was the winner, a very nice native Redband trout. Ed landed it after a heck of a battle on very light tippet material. That's his new drift boat in the background. Ed even BBQ'd some elk burgers for lunch. A very fun day.

Computer Heck...

2007-04-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

The past 2 weeks have been a nightmare. Just as I was finishing up my taxes my hard drive failed. My last backup was about 2 months old (silly me), but worst than that the backup drive had a ton of bad sectors and a lot of the data on it was not recoverable. So, after days and days of trying to repair hard drives, recover data, install new drives, rebuild my operating system, reinstall all the software, etc., I'm finally back up and running with only a small amount of data loss.

What a pain!

Now, it's time to start my taxes (again). I did take one afternoon last week to go fishing. Caught a couple of nice brown trout (around 15"). It's going to be a good trout season this spring in Central Oregon.

Secret River

2007-03-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend my neighbor and I went steelhead fishing in Eastern Washington. I'm not going to say where, because this is an "undiscovered" river that could be overwhelmed quickly with fishermen. It's no more than 30 feet wide in most places, and even more narrow in many. A small river that's filled with steelhead right now.

In two days I landed 6 fish and lost that many again. I saw that many get caught by others as well. All the ones I caught were wild but one. That was the small one - 22 inches. The wild fish were between that and 30 inches and great fighters.

The top photo is the biggest fish I landed, a 30" buck. I had one on that I got up right next to me that looked a little bigger, but he turned and broke off (15 lb test) at the last minute. The bottom fish is a typical sized hen, about 24 inches. She started to lay her eggs right when I picked her up (you can see it in the photo). I quickly returned her to the water and could not measure her. So, I'm guessing on the size. She's definitely bigger than the 22" hatchery fish I kept. I feel bad about the egg laying, but she was the only one who did it.

I included the shot of the waterfall (in spite of the poor quality) because while we were standing there fishing, the steelhead where jumping it. It was great to watch. One steelhead after another jumping half way up and literally swimming up the falls the rest of the way. Amazing. That's Pat, my neighbor, in the shot.

A fun couple of days.

Bluebird Day

2007-03-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

I've taken up a new sport: skate skiing. It's a form of cross country skiing, but you skate, like with ice skates. Karen has been doing it for a year and has convinced me to join her. It's never going to be as fun as Alpine, but it is a good way to mix things up. Especially on days where there's not a lot of new snow for the off-piste stuff we like. Here's a shot of Karen this morning stopped on the track with the mountains in the background. Another so-so cell phone camera shot.

Bend Brag

2007-02-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those "Bend Brag" days; actually this weekend is going to be a Bend Brag weekend. (For the uninitiated, the Bend Brag is talking how how many cool things you did in a single day.)

Last night (Fri) we hit our favorite local wine shop, tasted a few offerings, and picked up a decent Montrachet. Today we hit Mt. Bachelor early for morning downhill runs under perfect blue skies. The holiday weekend crowds drove us out around noon so we came home to a warm day. Karen went for a run, I grabbed a quickie 14.3 mile road bike ride. (The photo below is from my ride. It's from a cell phone camera, but even this poor quality photo shows how great the scenery is.)

Tonight we plan to drink that bottle of wine with some friends over crab quiche. Tomorrow the plan is to skate ski in the morning. I'll do some afternoon fly fishing. Not sure what Karen's plans are.

Sometimes I can't believe how incredibly lucky I am to live here, other times I can't believe how stupid I was to take so long to get here...

Fishing on the Metolius

2006-12-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

(This is the second attempt at this post. The first one was with a video clip, but there seems to be a technical problem between the new version of Blogger and Catalla's video service. There may be another somewhat duplicative post appearing later if things get worked out.)

Yesterday I played hooky and went fishing. I couldn't find anyone to tag along, so went alone. It was another perfect day in Central Oregon. Sunny, but cold. Air temp when I started was 20 degrees.

I've learned that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. Fortunately, I now have good clothes and was plenty warm. Equally fortunately, the cold weather keeps most people away, so I had the river pretty much to myself - unless you count the eagles, otters, and other critters that makes a hike around here always fun.

The only real issue was ice forming in my rod guides and occasionally freezing up my reel. Easily rectified, but it will mess up a cast - and always it seems to happen at the most inopportune time. The real issue was water temp of about 40 degrees - according to my thermometer - which made the fishing slow.

I was able to land the biggest whitefish I have ever seen, at least 17 inches and thick, but could not get a fish to rise to a dry fly all day. These are the kind of difficulties I really enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

As is our tradition, we went skiing/boarding today after we opened up a few presents in the morning. Gift giving is light around here as we all get early Chirstmas presents in October and November: snow gear upgrades. I also got myself this new camera phone. Not the best quality photos, especially outside in heavy snow conditions, but you get the general idea. A friend we ran across on the slopes snapped the photo for us.

It was a perfect day on the mountain. About a foot of fresh new snow to start, new snow filling up our tracks as fast as we could make them, empty runs, and new powder skis. This is why we moved to Bend. Starting tomorrow the holiday crowds will arrive from out of town and we'll take a short break. The best skiing will start in a couple more weeks anyway, then all the rocks will be covered up on the backside and we'll get fresh tracks all day long.

Hope your day was as fun as ours.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Card

2006-12-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

I've sort of fallen off on postings here lately, but resolve to get back on it. We've been as busy as ever. Ski & board season is well under way. Syndey is on the freestyle skiing team. She's also swimming, playing flute in the band, and getting ready for basketball season. Miles is on the local competition snowboard team and wrestling on his high school team. Ethan is working and focused on moving out of the house after graduation this spring.

Karen and I are enjoying life, keeping an excellent balance between work and play. I've been steelhead fishing a lot this fall and winter and we're both spending time every weekend (and some weekdays) on the mountain.

All-in-all, we are very fortunate human beings.

East Lake

2006-10-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday the Central Oregon Flyfishers club had an outing to East Lake and I went along. East Lake is one of two lakes inside the Newberry Caldera - what's left of a huge volcano that erupted in a particularly violent fashion a long time ago.

The lake shore was filled with dead Kokanee salmon. They had finished their spawning and life cycles. The birds were having a feast.

East Lake is at about 6,500 feet and it was about 28 degrees went we lauched the boat at about 9 am. That's frost on the ground in the first photo.

The water temperature was cold as well, about 48 degrees. That's below the range that trout stay active in, so we moved around until we found a spot where an underwater hot spring warmed the water enough to get the fish moving.

The second photo is of fellow club member and passenger Bob with a nice brown trout he caught. The last photo is me with my brown. We got a couple of rainbows as well. All in all a good way to spend a cold but clear fall day.

Hike up Broken Top 2

2006-09-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a fairly low quality video from my camera very near the top. It was pretty windy there and the audio is poor, but the scenery is worth a look.

Hike Up Broken Top

2006-09-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today was another day in paradise type day - warm and crystal clear. So, Karen and I ditched the kids and hiked to near the top of Broken Top mountain. To get to the top you need to do real rock climbing which was not on our agenda today. We got close to 9,000 feet in any event and the views and scenery were stunning as usual for the crest of the Cascades.

The first photo is the standard postcard view of Broken Top - and for good reason. The next photo is around the other side of the mountain and up pretty close to the top. The very rapidly melting glaciers there have created this lake. It is an amazing shade of blue-green.

Fall Strawberry 2006

2006-09-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day Weekend we made our 6th annual pilgrimage to the Strawberry Music Festival (www.strawberrymusic.com). Another very fun trip filled with music and friends. I was having too much fun to bother to get the video camera out until the last day, but here's a good morning-til-night summary. Check out last year's video for more shots of the festival atmosphere. Strawberry is always a highlight of our year.

Steelhead Fishing

2006-08-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

I spent the past 3 days steelhead fishing on the Deschutes River about 20 miles up from where it dumps into the Columbia River. This is a roadless area that you have to boat into. We camped by the side of the river and fished from before sun up to dark. I had never been on this section of the river. Went with a few guys who have been doing this trip for many years. Pretty fun.

Deschutes Float

2006-07-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's been really hot here the past week, so yesterday we (Yancy, Karen, Sydney) went for a 3+ hour float down the Deschutes from above Sunriver to Benham Falls. Sydney's friend Jade, her sister Jenna, and their dad Rob came along. It was pretty relaxing until a late afternoon thunderstorm developed and we had to paddle hard for an hour to get to the take out spot.

Day 2 at Fish Lake

2006-07-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

We went for a really fun mountain bike ride. We started out riding up on top of the ridge over the lake. It was plenty warm, and the snow was quickly melting just above us. We were able to ride about half way down into this valley. At the bottom is Fish Creek which dumps into the Donner and Blitzen about 15 miles downstream. About as picturesque as one could ask for.

Steens 7.8.06

2006-07-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

We're just back from a week of camping in eastern Oregon and visiting friends, Scott and Lolita Pine, in McCall, Idaho. We camped next to the Donner und Blitzen river in the Steens Mountains, then much higher up at Fish Lake. That was a very nice spot.

On the way home we went a more northern route and camped next to Magone Lake in the Malheur Mountains, just outside of John Day. A very nice spot as well, but with way too many people. Myabe it's just a little too accessable to Portland. I don't think we'll go back there.

Twin Pillars

2006-07-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

Getting to the Twin Pillars was a bit of a pain. The trail is pretty much gone after years of lack of maintenance and we ended up bushwacking it. Plus, it was only a marginally interesting rock formation. So there was some frustration with this part of the hike but Sydney passed the test and we know that we can do some real backpacking with her this summer. Not bad for a 10 year old.

Mill Creek Wilderness 7.1.06

2006-07-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

The boys are in Costa Rica visiting Mom & Dad, and we're taking advantage of the opportunity. Last weekend Karen, Sydney and I went back packing in the Mill Creek Wilderness in the Ochoco Mountains. Sydney has been camping since she was a baby and has done plenty of day hikes into wilderness areas, but this was her first backpacking trip. It was just an overnighter, but she had to carry her gear and food. We all had a good time.

The walk in was just 3 miles, which gave us lots of time to set up camp and fool around in the creek for much the afternoon. The next day we took a long loop out - 9 miles and over 3000 feet in elevation gain and then descent via a geological formation called the Twin Pillars. That day was tiring. Sydney was a trooper.

The Mill Creek Wilderness is a nice spot. Just over an hour east from our house, but remote. Mill Creek is small, but holds a ton of small brook trout and I caught more than my fair share. We saw a couple of deer and caught just a glimpse of an elk as it ran away.

Next week we're off to eastern Oregon and Idaho camping in our tent trailer.

The Spot We Camped In

2006-07-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

We spent the night along the stream bed behind Karen and Sydney in this photo.

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

I seem to be in a rut - but a pretty nice one. I've fished 8 of the past 21 days, and today was another great opportunity. The fishing in Central Oregon is just spectacular right now. The rivers and lakes are in great shape with all the snow melt, and the recent hot weather has been creating some wonderful insect hatches. The salmon fly hatch in particular has been a great new experience for me. These are really big (I've seen them up to 2 inches long) flying orange bugs that get the big fish to come up to the surface. I've never caught so many brown trout on dry flies before. It's been a blast.

Today Karen and I decided to try a somewhat remote spot where a large creek - Squaw Creek - hits the Deschutes. It's a long drive down a dirt forest service road followed by a 3 mile hike down into the canyon. But, what a beautiful hike. High desert canyon with sage and juniper all around with an oasis of water and green cutting through it. This picture shows Squaw Creek in the background before it hits the Deschutes.

Miles Landing His Fish

2006-06-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

I really need to get some editing software for these QuickTime moives from my still camera, but you get the idea.

Miles' Fish

2006-06-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here's Miles' first fish on a fly. Another decent brook trout from Hosmer. That's Mt. Bachelor in the background. We saw what we think is a weasel in the trees behind Miles. A canoeist going by thought it might be a marten.

Fishing with Miles on Hosmer Lake

2006-06-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Another day of fishing yesterday, this time up on Hosmer Lake - about 45 minutes from home. This blog has many many photos and videos of Karen, Sydney and I canoeing on Hosmer, but this is the first time I've fished it. Miles and I had a great day.

Hosmer has been snow and ice free for just a couple of weeks, so it was still early season up there. The water plants have not come back much yet, but the surroundings were spectacular as always.

Great views of all the Cascade peaks still very much covered in snow. We also saw bald eagles, an osprey take a nice trout from the lake, and what looked like a weasel along the shore. And, I caught this very healthy brook trout. Miles is not the best photograher, but you get the idea. This fish was big, thick, and a real figther. Strong take on a wounded minnow nymph and a fight through the reeds. A really fun fish that will fight again another day.

Fall River 2006

2006-06-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

With the rotten weather on this trip, I did not get a lot of video footage captured. But, here are a few interesting shots of Elise expressing her opinion about blogs, a snake visiting Jeff and Kelly, and Sydney with a bird. Not my best video, but I guess they can't all be winners. A very fun trip nonetheless.

Removing The Hook

2006-05-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

Most Interesting Catch

2006-05-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

I got the award for most interesting catch, this woodpecker. It swooped down to catch my fly as I was false casting and got hooked in the leg. I dragged it through the water as I reeled in and it got soaking wet. We dried it off with a towel and it flew away about 10 minuted later.

Fall River 2006

2006-05-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

We went on our annual Memorial Day weekend fly fishing trip to the Fall River in northern California. College pals Art (Tony) Hartinger, Matt Cline, and I have been doing this for around 20 years; Matt and Tony a couple more years before I joined them. We've brought some/all of our daughters for the past 3 years. They always have a good time hanging out together. This year my partner from Merrill Lynch, Jeff Harding and his daughter Kelly came along as well.

A good time was had by all, even though the weather was really bad and the fishing probably the worst we've had on these trips. Elise Hartinger definitely had the catch of the trip, a measured 20-incher. By far the biggest catch of the trip that saw very few fish get landed at all. That's Elise's proud dad Tony in the back; the photo was taken by their favorite guide, Carl.

That Afternoon...

2006-05-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

I've been using my camera to take video. It's very convenient, but my editing software does not work with the QuickTime output. So, these videos are not edited. I may have to look into some new software, or get back into the habit of taking my camcorder along.

Mother's Day 2006 Morning

2006-05-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

It's was a "Bend Brag" day. The Bend Brag is something like: "This morning we went skate sking for a while, then hit a few downhill runs. After a quick lunch had 30 miles on the road bike, and now I'm going in for a massage before heading to the brewery for a pint." You actually hear this sort of things here all the time, and sometimes from us...

It being Mother's Day, we made Karen breakfast and then hit the slopes for what will probably be the last ski day of the season. It was a beautiful day on the mountain, but the snow got soft around noon. So, we headed back to town for an outdoor lunch in the sun with a bottle of champagne.

Then we hopped on our casual bikes and headed down to the river for a game of frisbee on the grass. Home for a barbeque and a nice bottle of wine. This is what makes living in Central Oregon such a great experience.

Happy Mother's Day!

Cinco de Mayo Fishing

2006-05-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a still shot from the same trip.

Cinco de Mayo Fishing

2006-05-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Cinco de Mayo is not he focus here in Central Oregon that it is in much of California, but I thought I'd celebrate by going fly fishing. I made it to this spot on the middle Deschutes within 1 hour of leaving my desk at work. First use of my new pontoon boat, I think it will get plenty of use going forward.

This video was captured using my Nikon Coolpix 5600 camera. The quality is a little low, but it's awfully compact and easy to take along.

Summer Lake & Fort Rock 4.9.06

2006-04-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad stayed with us last week - traveling from their relatively new home in Costa Rica. On Sunday we did a bit of a driving tour of eastern Oregon. There's not a lot out there - unless you count antelope, eagles, and the like. Here's a some video of a couple of our stops. Nice day overall.

Ethan Snowboarding 3.4.06

2006-03-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

Ethan was in a snowboard slopestyle competition yesterday - his first. You get 2 rides down the course and are supposed to do the best tricks you can. He is pretty good compared to most people, but there was never any chance of him being a top rider at this competition. Riders from all over the northwest came, and some were pretty spectacular. In fact, the guy who just won the junior world championship in Finland lives here in town and was in the competition. He was truly awesome.

Anyway, Ethan did good and had a good time. Miles was supposed to be in the competition as well but he injured himself in the warm-ups and could not compete.

Hike Along the Deschutes

2006-02-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's been cold lately, -3 this morning and a high in the 20s, but Karen and I wanted to get out. This section of the Deschutes is just a few minutes out of town, but it feels much more remote.

Yesterday we went skiing. It was 1 degree with a -25 wind chill. Brain freeze!

Sydney's Ski Race 1.21.06

2006-02-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

Here's Sydney's second race. Not sure why it has the blue tint.

Sydney's Ski Race

2006-02-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here's Sydney in her first slalom ski race on Jan. 8. It was snowing pretty hard and the course was slow. This was also captured using my digital camera (see below) rather than camcorder, so the quality is a little lower.

Technical Problems Resolved

2006-02-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

For over a month now I have not been able to make any postings as Sean has been making some updates to his vBlog Central service. But, things seem to be back to normal now. So here's a posting I initially tried to make on January 1:

It's a tradition for some members of the Central Oregon Flyfishers to fish on New Year's Day - rain or shine - so I decided to tag along this year. With all the rain and snow we've had lately, I knew rivers would be high and the fishing would not be good, but getting out cleared my head after having too much fun on New Year's Eve.

This video was made with my new Nikon CoolPix 5600 camera. The video capability on this camera has turned out to be surprisingly good. It's not as nice as a camcorder, but acceptable for this sort of application.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

2005-12-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

Wishing you the best!

Thanksgiving Day Hike

2005-11-28T09:26:00.002-08:00

Last Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we all went on an easy 5 mile hike to Tumalo Falls. Sometimes during the year you can drive on a dirt road up to the falls, but the road is closed during the winter. It was cold but pleasant out.

Tumalo Creek

2005-11-28T09:26:00.001-08:00

Here's the creek below the falls. Small native redband trout are in this creek. Ten miles downstream this creek flows near our house.

At the Falls

2005-11-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

And here we are at the falls.

Canoeing 10.30.2005

2005-11-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Karen, Sydney and I went on what will probably be the last canoe trip of the season up in the Cascade Lakes. Ice was forming on the water and soon the roads will be closed. It was a beautiful late fall day.

South Sister Hike

2005-08-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Miles and I went on a hike with a number of people from the Acrovision Tae Kwon Do studio up to the top of South Sister. It was a serious hike: 12 miles round trip with a 5,000 foot elevation gain to the summit. It took us about 5 hours to get to the top and 3 hours to get down. (I think we could have made the summit in 4 hours, but we spent a lot of time stopping and chatting with people on the way up.) We spent 3.5 hours on the summit. It was spectacular.

I violated one of my video rules on this one. So far, I've always been able to edit the footage down to something under 3 minutes. This one is 6.5 minutes. Pretty long for web videos, but I had a hard time getting it this short.

Peak Poomse

2005-08-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the Acrovision TKD club doing poomse on the glacier on top of the South Sister. Peak Poomse at 10,300 feet.

TKD Demo 7.23.05

2005-07-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Ethan and Miles did some board and brick breaking as part of a demonstration put on by their Tae Kwon Do studio. It was held at an outdoor children's fair. It was the first time they had tried to break bricks. Miles broke one and Ethan broke two. Master Dan Graff, their teacher, broke four bricks using his knuckles.

Cascade Cycling Classic

2005-07-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

Bend is home to the Cascade Cycling Classic, the oldest multi-stage bike race in the US, and one of the most prestigous. We spent some time over the weekend watching three of the six stages. Two of those stages were criteriums - short courses where the riders keep whizzing by. It was pretty fun to be able to keep track of individual riders and their progress during the race.

Snow Creek

2005-06-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today Miles, Syndey, and I went exploring up in the Cascades off the Cascades Lakes Highway.

Father's Day 2005 Hike

2005-06-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Today Karen, Sydney, and I went on an exploring trip east of town, out on the high plateau. Down a bunch of dirt roads, through canyons, just looking around. Spent some time on the shore of Prineville Resevoir. A relaxing day.

Fall River Fly Fishing

2005-05-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days Sydney and I went on my annual Memorial Day fly fishing trip with old friends Matt Cline and Tony Hartinger (see the January Holiday Bowl video for more of Matt and Tony). Matt Cline brought daughters Margaret and Madeline and Tony Hartinger brought daughter Elise.

We've been doing this for the past 18 years or so. I've only missed two trips: once when Karen was giving birth to Ethan and last year becuase I was recovering from my motorcycle accident and could not use my arms very well.

This trip was a little different as we each brought at least one daughter. Matt and Tony had brought their daughters last year. In any event, it was another great trip.

Polly's 35th 4.30.05

2005-05-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

It was a busy weekend for us. First, Tae Kwon Do testing on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning we drove down to my Uncle John's and Aunt Penny's place just outside of Lookingglass Oregon, about 3.5 hours from here. Their daughter Polly, my cousin, was having a party for her 35th birthday. Parties at "The Hill" are big affairs, and this one was a lot of fun. I don't like to function on only a very few hours sleep, but this late night affair followed by an early morning was well worth it.

TKD Testing 4.29.05

2005-05-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

After 8 months of consistent training, last friday the kids had their first belt testing at their new Tae Kwon Do studio. It's been a tough transition as there are some big differences between schools, but everyone did fine. Ethan and Miles are now high red belts (next brown then black). Sydney is now a high blue belt (next step is red). Both the boys would be have been testing for their black belts if we had stayed in Santa Cruz. I think the change in training and requirements will be good for them in the long run.

Metolius River Hike

2005-04-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

After I couldn't get anyone excited about a day of snow skiing this morning I dragged Karen and Sydney out on a hike along the Metolius River. The Metolius is about 40 minutes from our house and is considered to be one of the top fly fishing rivers in Oregon. It was a beautiful walk.

Along the way we saw one guy who really seemed to know what he was doing - you can just tell when you watch some people (plus he had some big fish on). On the walk back we ran into him on the trail and I struck up a conversation. This guy really knew a lot about fly fishing and answered a bunch of questions about some local waters that I had not been able to get good answers to elsewhere. Turns out "this guy" was John Judy, well-known local flyfishing guide/writer. Great fisherman with a great personality, not a bad combo. Anyone want to split a guide for a day? The bull trout in the Metolius get up to 36" long and fight like steelhead...

Playing in the Parking Lot

2005-03-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we took Mile's friend Ian and went skiing/snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor. It was a great day with lots of new snow. At the end of the day the kids built a little jump off the side of the parking lot.

Trail to Chimney Rock

2005-03-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today the kids were off with friends so Karen and I did a little exploring. We drove out to the old western town of Prineville ("The Oldest Town in Central Oregon") for lunch. The Crooked River goes right through town and after lunch we drove along it towards Prineville Resevoir.

Initially the river flows through a wide canyon filled with farms. The terrain changes quickly into a narrow canyon and the river becomes a great year-round fly fishing water. We saw many fishermen, along with an eagle, a pair of great blue herons, and many trout eagerly rising to the surface in pursuit of a hatch. Made me wish I had my fly rod with me.

Along the way we took a nice hike from the bottom of the canyon to the rim and a place called Chimney Rock. Here's a view from along the trail. Small birds sang for us most of the way and the wild flowers were stating to bloom. A nice day all around.

Chimney Rock

2005-03-26T16:44:00.000-08:00

That's Chimney Rock in the background and you can see a small section of the Crooked River on the lower right.

My kind of commute

2005-03-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

Today, during the "rush hour" drive home, a couple of Canadian geese decided to take a slow walk across what passes for a busy street here in Bend. They were smart enough to cross at a corner. Traffic came to a stop to let them continue their leisurely stroll.

It must have added a whole minute to my 3.3 mile commute that has 3 stop signs and no stop lights. Fortunately, I was not overcome with road rage.

Tae Kwon Do & Snowboarding

2005-03-21T00:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the kids competed in the High Desert Tae Kwon Do championships. They were jointly held with the Oregon State gymnastics championships at the local county fairgrounds. Ethan won bronze medals in forms and sparring, Sydney won silver and bronze in forms and sparring, Miles earned bronze in forms.

Ethan's sparring match was pretty exciting. He was tied for points with the eventual gold medalist until he was briefly knocked out by a head shot with only 10 seconds left in the match. He was able to continue but could not land any more scores. He lost the match and the gold medal by 2 points. He was pretty groggy after that and lost the silver medal match pretty badly, but ended up with the bronze.

Today we went snowboarding, and it was pretty clear that Ethan was not fully recovered. There's a shot of him with a nasty crash off a pretty big jump.

Lutris Pool Party

2005-02-26T03:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted a video to my blog. I've been going through my stacks and stacks of old SVHS and Hi-8 videos, converting them to digital, editing them, and then burning to DVD. It's been a very laborious process, but now I have most of the old tapes on DVD, which makes viewing a lot easier. Plus, I've found many old clips that are just great. Like this one.

We tried to have a Lutris company beach party but they wouldn't let us drink on the beach (even after I called to make sure it was OK on that beach), so we packed up and moved to our house. This is one of my favorite memories of my time at Lutris. This is just a small clip from a really great afternoon/early evening. I must have watched it a couple dozen times in the editing process and I laughed out loud each time.

2004 Holiday Bowl

2005-01-02T02:11:00.000-08:00

I flew down to see Cal play against Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 30th. I got to hang out with old college pals Matt Cline, winemaker at Trinitas Cellars, and Tony Hartinger, principal at Meyers Nave, and had a really good time in spite of the huge loss.

Cal was no match for the Red Raiders who won 45-31. I hated to be proven correct in my prediction that Cal would lose, but even a long-term Cal fan such as myself had to see that Cal had been over-rated in the second half of the season. Coach Tedford had become too predicatble and QB Aaron Rodgers has proven to be good, but not great. Nonetheless, a 10-2 year is a real accomplishment and we all look forward to a revitalized Cal football program going forward.

Snowman

2004-12-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing ever since Christmas. The skiing and boarding have been great. Our friends the Bagleys have been staying with us since the day after Christmas. We hit the slopes the last two days. Miles, Syndney and I stayed home today, but the rest of the crew went out again. We homebodies built a snowman instead.

Holiday Card

2004-12-15T17:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the Holiday Card we are sending out to people. Happy Holidays! (And pray for snow!)

View from my office window

2004-12-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

We've finally had our first really good snow storm. Mt. Bachelor has been open, but the skiing/boarding has been pretty weak. Thankfully, it's been snowing hard for the past couple of days and is supposed to continue to do so for a while.

This is part of the view from my office window - this is what I see when I'm sitting at my desk and looking just to the left of my computer monitor. That's the Deschutes River and a city park on the other side. From this window I frequently see ducks, geese, river otters, hawks, along with the occansional ospry and bald eagle. Yesterday a bald eagle flew right under my window as it was flying up the river.

When the clouds are gone I get to have a nice view of Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters mountains just around the corner. No complaints here.

Shahalie & Koosaw Falls

2004-11-27T01:33:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went over to my cousin Jon's and his wife Becky's house just outside of Eugene. They had at least 30 people there. We all had a good time, but Miles and Sydney had such a good time that they decided to stay for a couple more nights. Mom and Dad will bring them home. Karen, Ethan, and I spent Thanksgiving night at cousin Polly's and husband Steve's house and they took us on a tour of the University of Oregon campus in the morning. On our drive home in the afternoon we stopped for a quick walk on the side of the McKenzie river where we saw the Shahalie and Koosaw Falls. Yup, more footage of beautiful waterfalls...

Badlands

2004-11-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a month since my last post. I've been busy with work lately and I took a few long bike rides on the weekends instead of going on family outings (2 weekends ago my neighbor and I rode up to Mt Bachelor). But, last weekend we did get out to the Badlands wilderness area just east of town. Mom and Dad, the boys, and Sydney's friend Rachelle came along. Fun day.

Smith Rock

2004-10-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2004-10-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

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

2004-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

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

2004-10-04T05:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Hosmer Lake

2004-09-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Sydney's 9th birthday and we went canoeing on Hosmer Lake (she got a horseback ride with a friend yesterday). Hosmer is about 45 minutes from our house, and is absolutely beautiful. It's also filled with trophy-sized trout and Kokanee Salmon lurking just below the surface in full view through gin-clear water. (The video has a shot of a school of Brook Trout - they were about 10 feet down and I'd guess the biggest ones were approaching 24 inches.) It's enough to make a fly fisherman cry.

Strawberry Music Festival

2004-09-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday through Monday we attended the Strawberry Music Festival in Yosemite National Park. Strawberry is a 20+ year old music festival that occurs twice a year over the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays. This was our third year, and we had as much fun as ever. (One of the kid’s requirements for moving to Bend was a pledge that we continue going to Strawberry.)

It’s a wonderful family event with diverse musical groups spread over 3 stages, great camping and kid-oriented activities, numerous jam sessions going on in a bunch of campsites, and many friends in attendance. The 12-hour drive was more than worth it.

Creating this video was my biggest editing job so far: 4+ days of video taken down to 3 minutes. It took me a while to get this one put together. I clearly have a lot to learn about editing, but you may get a flavor for what Strawberry is like. (BTW, you better get on the ticket list soon – they always sell out months in advance.)

Ethan fly fishing

2004-08-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

Ethan and I went on our first real fly fishing outing this morning. We've done a lot of hiking and exploring looking for spots over the past couple of weeks. Today we got our lines wet. Not a whole lot of success, but it was beautiful out. Oh yeah, this spot is less than 30 minutes from our house. We were able to get nearly 5 hours of fishing in and still make it home for lunch. This afternoon we plan on riding our bikes downtown and hearing a free outdoor bluegrass concert.

This one is a little dark, but you may be able to make Ethan out. That's Mt. Bachelor in the background.

Yesterday we went wakeboarding at Prineville Reservoir. We've now been wakeboarding at 3 different lakes within an hour of our house and a 4th that is a little over an hour away. Pretty nice. Prineville was a great spot, I think it may become our prime destination.

Tumalo Creek hike

2004-08-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today we went on a hike by Tumalo Creek. Tumalo Falls is about 10 miles from our house and marks a trailhead into a network of trails that go up into wilderness areas in the Cascades. We only went a few miles, but it was pretty spectacular if you like waterfalls. This same creek ends up flowing only a mile from our house before it dumps into the Deschutes River.

Bend music scene

2004-08-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

One of my few apprehensions about moving to Bend was leaving the Santa Cruz music scene. Santa Cruz has great live music and Karen and I would go out a lot there. Well, my fears have been misplaced thus far. I already wrote about seeing Dave Alvin. Last night we saw a double bill with two groups we really like: Shawn Colvin (folk) and The Cowboy Junkies (alt folk-rock). Tonight we got to see Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum (bluegrass) for only $5!

Both shows were outside under the stars. It briefly drizzled on us tonight, but the clouds soon parted and we were treated to a wonderful double rainbow and got to watch the ducks and geese fly by. Later saw the moon rise, all while listening to a wonderful group of musicians.

To top it off, David Grissman is playing in town in two weeks and the Sisters Folk Festival is right after that! Not bad at all. I've been told that the music scene slows down a lot in the winter, but it seems that the summer more than makes up for it.

Motorcycle accident news video

2004-08-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

I posted the local TV news report of my motorcycle accident. Go to the motorcycle wreck link.

Wakeboarding at Billy Chinook

2004-08-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a day of boating on Lake Billy Chinook. It was a little busy, but the canyon walls, waterfalls, views of Mt. Jefferson, and watching the Osprey take trout (along with a little wakeboarding) made for a fun day. Follow the wakeboarding link on the right to see a video of Ethan.

Green clouds

2004-08-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Living at 3600 feet in the Cascades is going to be interesting for a long time, I think. Yesterday it was over 90 degrees during the day and we went for a float down the Deschutes through town. People were picnicing at parks along the way and swimming in the river. In the late afternoon a thunder and lightening storm developed, which treated us to a spectacular light display. It lasted an hour or so. It remained warm and dry and we gathered in the street with the neighbors to watch. As the sun went down we saw a simply breathtaking sunset with more colors in the sky than I can remember ever seeing, including deep green clouds set on a light turquoise sky. We raised a glass of wine to that.

Final (?) house exterior video

2004-08-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Follow the "New House" link on the right.

It's been a busy 24 hours

2004-08-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to see Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men at a little hole in the wall called The Domino Room. Not exactly the kind of place we're used to seeing live music in, but it was OK and Dave rocked! He played flat-out for 2 hours, non-stop. It was awesome - and it only cost $10! We came home around midnight and sat in our backyard to watch the meteor shower - another thing you can't do in Santa Cruz. We're at 3600 feet, with no city lights around, and you can see the Milky Way perfectly while sitting on our patio. And it was warm out!

Today we got up and took our Oregon drivers tests. Karen and I both passed on our first try. I guess we really are transplants now. Oregon drivers licenses, Oregon plates on our cars, trailers, and boat. All the Tahoe ski resort stickers are still on the space box on the truck, though.

After getting our new drivers licenses, we did a little light-duty 4-wheelin' up in the mountains on a fire road and came to this great view of Mt. Bachelor. Some of our favorite "backside" ski/snowboard runs are in the background.

On the way down we stopped at Todd Lake and played in the water with our inflatable kayak which we had brought along. That's Broken Top Mountain in the background. We struck up a conversation with a guy on the side of the lake. Turns out he is an inventor who comes there to think. He invented the indicator on the side of household batteries that shows remaining battery strength, among other things. He was working on a way to indicate hours an electric device/appliance has been in operation. Pretty neat. We always meet interesting people whenever we go out here.

All-in-all a good 24 hours.

Looking into the water

2004-08-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

You can't see the bottom like this on many lakes in California.

New wake surfing video

2004-08-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

Check the link on the right to see Ethan wakesurfing.

Deja Vu

2004-08-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

We seem to have this experience a lot. (See "Mud Puppies" below.)

Lunch on Crescent Lake

2004-08-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

We went on our first boating trip in Oregon yesterday. It will take getting used to. The locals sent us to Crescent Lake, "a big, warm lake", which turned out to be small and a little cold by California standards. But, the water was really clear and clean (at least 20 foot visibility) and the views were great.

In Bend and back online

2004-08-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the move is complete and I'm finally back online (grrr...I called for the DSL installation over a month ago!). The past 2 weeks have been busy and somewhat stressful (will the moving truck really show up?), but it's been worth it. Bend is a pretty special place, certainly a step up from Santa Cruz in a number of ways. I'll get some new videos and photos up tomorrow.

More house photos

2004-07-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

These ones were taken by Amy on July 17. Go to the New House link. I'm driving up to Bend tomorrow to drop off my boat and will take some videos.

More house photos

2004-07-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

More new photos of the house taken yesterday by Amy. Go to New House for more.

More house photos

2004-07-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

More house photos from Amy. These ones were taken July 7. Go to the New House link.

Jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

2004-07-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

On July 1 we went with Karen's parents (Jack and Ginny) to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you've been there you know it's a spectacular place with many fascinating exhibits. Some of my favorities are the jellies. My DV camera was clearly not up to the task as it did not come close to capturing the beauty of these creatures.

Mud Puppies

2004-07-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

We went camping and boating again last week. I think the kids had as much fun playing in the mud as getting pulled behind the boat.

Update to Motorcycle Wreck

2004-07-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Added a photo of the car that ran into me.

More house photos

2004-07-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Amy sent some more photos yesterday. Check out the link to New House. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday. I'll get a short video posted later today. The jellies were amazing.

New house photos

2004-07-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Amy Halligan our real estate agent from Re/Max sent us some photos taken yesterday of the house. Go to the New House link.

Update to Motorcycle Wreck

2004-06-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

Added photos of the wrecked bike.

Blog restructuring complete

2004-06-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well I figured out how to hack over a glaring feature hole in Blogger. Moveable Type and other blog tools have category features that allow you to group posts. For some inexplicable reason, Blogger does not. To overcome this I have had to create a bunch of separate blogs and link them together. This sort of works, but does not allow you to see the latest postings on any of the associated blogs. You'll have to set up an RSS feed for that. Silly, and ultimately not scalable for the folks at Google, but that's the way it is. So, click on one of the links to the right to see what the lastest is. There have been many additions in the past few days.