Abert Rim

Abert Lake and Abert Rim

This past weekend, a friend and I spent two nights up on Abert Rim.  We'd been talking about this trip for a couple of years.  Perched on top of this 40 mile long fault scarp, there is an isolated ponderosa pine forest called Colvin Timbers that sounded intriguing to us.  We climbed up the rim via Poison Creek, which turned out to provide fairly easy access to the top.  It was on top that we discovered Abert Rim to be much more interesting than we had imagined.  Colvin Timbers was OK, but not the highlight of the trip.  Petroglyphs are all over the place up here and there are hunting blinds and other articles strewn about.  The wildlife was abundant and we spent a night at Colvin Lake, which turned out to be quite an oasis (if only they keep the damn cows away from it). We even woke up to snow on Saturday morning, which made for an interesting and difficult hike out.  Great spot.

Colvin Lake

A new home for us

Maria and I have been thinking about getting a vacation place over on the east side of the Cascades for years and years.  Well, as prices crashed over there and mortgage rates dropped the time seemed right.  We'd always envisioned a cabin at the edge of a pine forest in the mountains, but what we found was "Murphy"; an almost brand new three-bedroom two and a half bath home inside the city limits of Bend.  We like Bend.  In many ways, for me, Bend is an antidote for the things that drive me nuts about Eugene.  It is also a great place to bike, ski, hike, enjoy the sun, see the snow, smell the sage, and experience what a small city downtown should be.  It is also a little over two hours away.  So now I finally have the home away from home that I've been dreaming of, except that it looks nothing like what my dreams looked like.  And I'm very excited about spending lots of time there.  Welcome to the family, Murphy!!