Snowshoeing in paradise

On Monday morning, we went snowshoeing with Wanderlust Tours at the base of Mount Bachelor. We figured since we didn't know how to snowshoe (or even how to put them on correctly), going with professionals would be best.

Plus, they take you off trail and into the woods — which is hard work since the snow isn't packed down, but super nice because it's free of snowmobiles, cross country skiers and other snowshoers. Perfect silence (save for our click-clacking snowshoes).

Our guide, Chase, is on the left, talking with one of the guys in our group. I think he was teaching us that we could eat certain lichens if you get lost in the woods. They actually didn't taste bad, they just felt like eating hair!

Here's Chase being annoyed by the kid. But I think he was showing us what a Ponderosa pine looked like.

We got near the end of our excursion and it opened up to this view of the Three Sisters mountains. It actually took our breath away, it was that beautiful (but we also didn't have much air up there at 6,400 feet, so perhaps that was part of it).

Looking back on our now-packed trail:

The shadows of the trees shaded us a bit, but here's a heavily doctored photo of me and John, taken graciously by Chase. Yep, we were sweaty and hot in that getup, even after we lost the winter coats and gloves.

There's a company that runs dogsled tours at Mount Bachelor, too. We could hear them barking, ready to go for a run, right before we started. It's expensive, I think, but how cool would that be? The other family in our group did it a couple days before and said it was incredible.

Just a cool photo. Chase was teaching us that the Three Sisters are actually called Faith, Hope and Charity (but what a mouthful that is!), and that Mount Bachelor used to be called Brother Jonathan in reference to their names. Then it was changed to Bachelor Butte (butte is a popular name out here around these volcanic areas, and is probably more accurate), but Chase said nobody wants to ski and snowboard on a butte. So they changed the name to Mount Bachelor, mostly for commercial purposes!

There's a pair of restaurants in town, English-type pubs, that go by the name Brother Jon's in reference to Mount Bachelor's old name. Anyway, there's your history lesson for the day.

After the trip, we ate some Vietnamese food and passed out for about 40 minutes, we were that worn out by snowshoeing. We took the hottest showers ever to soothe our sore muscles (snowshoeing does wonders for your thighs) before we ate at 10 Barrel Brewing Company for dinner. I think it's my new favorite place — their burger and mac and cheese were incredible, plus they had an awesome vanilla porter on nitro tap that hit the spot right before dessert, which was lemon custard for John and peanut butter mousse (but it was really more of a cheesecake consistency) for me.

Just another day in paradise.

Discovering Bend

Our vacation to Bend was so incredible that I literally didn't want to leave. That happens often with vacations, but this time, I actually wanted to move there. And still do. If we could find work, we'd be packing tomorrow.

Our hotel was right along the Deschutes River, and we ate breakfast (and had a fantastic dinner at their steakhouse the first night) right by the river. It was beautiful.

A short jaunt from our hotel:

And a shot of the bridge at our hotel and the hotel on the right — told you it was right on the river.

To wake up our low-lander lungs, we hit Pilot Butte for a hike on Sunday. It's very popular because of its great, short hike (there were a lot of locals just exercising), and well, the view at the top.

This shot exists basically because we were masking the need to take a break. Nothing like a hike to expose the fact that you don't live above sea level. These are some mountains in Eastern Oregon, and some residential areas of Bend (Pilot Butte is a cinder cone that's right in the middle of town).

Further up, we spotted Mount Hood up by Portland. Quite a few hours away, and it still dominates the skyline. What a mountain.

And the true reason for Pilot Butte — the incredible view of the closer Cascade Mountains. On the left is Mount Bachelor (which we'll be visiting later), the middle mountains are the Three Sisters, and the one on the right that looks like multiple mountains is Broken Top.

A better view of the Three Sisters and Broken Top:

And Mount Bachelor:

This guy is the reason Pilot Butte was saved for a state park, and it's a really nice one. Bricked platform at the top, bathrooms and handicapped people can even drive up there. Click on this one so you can read it though — it's pretty funny, which is why there's a photo to begin with.

Looking east again — no idea what the mountains are out there because there are just so many and they kind of look the same from such a distance:

Pilot Butte also has great benches (or I guess one giant bench in a circle) to sit and take in the view, so that's exactly what we did. Breathing in the mountain air on a day like that was invigorating — I had missed that.

Up close of Broken Top — pretty spectacular, isn't it?

And here's a compass that listed all the mountains (and buttes, which can kind of be more like large hills) that were visible in a 360-degree view:

Needless to say, I wanted to buy a house at the base of Pilot Butte and never leave. I could walk this every day and never get tired of that view. But there's plenty more exploring to come!

Redding, Calif.

We began our vacation with an extremely wet (but beautiful) drive through the Siskiyou mountains down into California. No pics of the drive, but we did stop at Castle Crags State Park before we hit Redding, our final destination.

Behind those clouds is a snowy Mt. Shasta. We drove past it, but couldn't quite see all of it. Sorry, no pics of that either, but it's an impressive mountain.

Here's Castle Crags, which are granite. Apparently you can hike/rock climb to the top. We opted out of that one.

The following day, we hit Whiskeytown Lake National Recreation Area, which was just west of Redding. It's an old mining town (now the name makes sense, huh?), and has some old, broken down brick buildings left. There's always tons of hiking, horse riding and water sports happening around the lake, but most hiking trails were very quiet and secluded.

Here's a shot of the lake, which was peppered with sailboats, and Shasta Bally mountain, which has a bit of snow at the tippy top.

We started with a nearly four-mile hike along the old Shasta Mine Trail. It was beautiful and difficult, with tons of sun, interesting flora and views.

Former mines are fenced in and adorned with these signs. I found them humorous.

These trees were everywhere, and I fell in love with them. Their bark was dark and smooth.

After that hike, we stopped and ate lunch (PB and honey sandwiches, trail mix and fruit snacks. Oh, and TONS of water). Then we drove to the other side of the lake along a ridiculous, unpaved road to get to some waterfalls.

Here's Crystal Creek Falls, which was a short jaunt (we needed a rest). We sat on some rocks right at the base of the falls, with the clear, turquoise water flowing around us. The sun was warm and inviting; thank goodness we wore sunscreen.

Then we made a bad decision. We decided to go to Whiskeytown Falls a little down the road, and the map's hike didn't look too long. No biggie, right? Well we got there, and the hike was nearly two miles. No biggie again. Then we started walking.

We quickly realized that it was nearly two miles almost completely uphill. And we were already tired. And hot. And probably dehydrated a little. But we kept going to see if the hike got easier. It didn't.

Then we reached a point where it would be ridiculous to come this far and not see the falls, so we soldiered on, taking tons of breaks. Then we heard rushing water, and...

We made it! Luckily the water was icy and a breezy mist coming off the falls cooled us off, which energized us for the walk back. But man, we didn't hardly move the rest of the night.

After the hike, we trolled around for food, finding this little Mexican joint that had killer salsa and gave us a large amount of leftovers for our lunch the following day (when we were driving to San Francisco).

That was Redding! It was a beautiful town surrounded by mountains, and our hotel gave us a voucher for breakfast, instead of offering a continental. WHAT A GOOD IDEA. We ate at Lumberjacks, ordering from the pre-determined menu for hotel-stayers. Breakfast and coffee were awesome both mornings, fueling us for the day.

Coming next, our visit to San Francisco!