Winter Escape from the Blahs to Bend

Late afternoon sun on the rim of the Deschutes River Canyon - right in town

As has become our tradition, we headed up to Bend for an early December weekend away from the moist Willamette Valley. The smell of juniper and sage is, for me, very therapeutic. A day spent skiing at Bachelor and a couple of evenings running around the lively, happy Bend downtown is a good antidote to the feelings of glumness that a Eugene winter can bring on. It is hard not to feel good in such a place, the hard thing is not wanting to move there after each visit. Many people can't resist - it's up to nearly 80,000 people now. Still, hard to claim that the growth has "ruined" it, Bend was pretty glum feeling town (just like Eugene?) back in the 1980's.

A ghostly Broken Top Mtn viewed from the Bachelor ski area

South of Eugene

It's that time of year again. We went Christmas tree hunting in the South Hills of Eugene on a friend's property. Found a nice grand fir and took out a couple of other young firs while we were at it. If humans can't maintain the oak grasslands by periodically burning them, the least we can do is take out a few conifers manually now and again.
Big storm rolling through Eugene today. Wind gusts of 50+ mph. Nice day to be inside decorating a Christmas tree.

Looking down the Spencer Creek valley