Ryan and I canceled our Beaver Creek trip last minute due to my hamstring issue - which saved us quite a bit of dough and put more time off in Ryan's bank. Instead we ventured south 6.5 hours to Smith Rock - just outside of Bend, Oregon. Ryan drove Maggie (our 1990 VW hippy bus) the entire way. For entertainment we turned on the always strange hick talk radio through Biggs, OR to be pleasantly rewarded with a debate on cock fighting. Should men be allowed to fight their cocks legally? It was funny. (On another trip we were listening to the same station and some guy called in to say, "we should bomb Mecca.") And oddly enough we heard a Colorado Mountain Pass report stating that Vail pass was super slow moving and battling a severe snow storm. Dang. Oh well.
The weather on Saturday was super nice - it was great soaking up the rays and Vitamin D. Ryan and Orien were climbing buddies for the day and Katy and I got to hang out. She has a gimped leg so we hobbled around together and got some much needed exercise. The following day we planned on hiking around the odd volcanic formation and do some water painting. We took Makiah and Hobbes, Orien's pup. Hobbes is crazy.
Sunday the weather was chilly - with a strong prevalent wind blowing the entire day and making temps chilly. You could see Hood and the surrounding mountains were blanketed in snow clouds and nasty weather - and slowly but surely it worked its way toward us. By 4pm it was too cold to hang out so I headed back to the van and the fellas were only 10 minutes behind me. We hit snow in Cle Elum and luckily the temps were hovering right around 33/34. If we had waited another hour we would've gotten stuck.
It was a great trip and really nice to get out of the city for a weekend. My hammie's starting to feel better - and I'm starting to be able to do a little more than before. It's healing - but will take more time. I had a strange voicemail this morning from Gary, Ryan's dad. Apparently there's some missing mountaineers on Mt. Hood and he thought he heard we were in the area. My heart goes out to those people - I hope they're found soon!
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