Cascade Classic Painted Hills Stage

Scene along Hwy 207

Maria and I volunteered for the Cascade Cycling Classic stage race.  I took the day off so we could camp overnight in Mitchell and hang out at the feed stations handing out water to the riders.  I loved hanging out in that landscape all day and being in the middle of the bike race action. 

The finish line!

Memorial Day Weekend - Olympic Peninsula

Second Beach

The annual Bogie Cabin Owners work party was this past Memorial Day weekend.  It was beautiful weather, some morning marine air push yielding to sun and 70s by afternoon.  Good working weather - much wood was split and stacked, the barn was cleared out and organized, and the cabin got a good cleaning.  Eight hours later we were back home in Bend - it is a LONG drive, but an interesting and contrasting part of the Pacific Northwest to visit.

Our Pond

Healthy Sage-Steppe, so nice to see!

The Paintbrush was particularly beautiful

I spent the weekend in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada.  The original plan was for a remote Owyhee Canyonlands adventure, but the weather reports had other ideas.  Too easy to get stuck out there on those roads when there is precip, so we headed to Sheldon where we knew there would be good access and slightly better weather.  It has been a cool, wet spring and the high elevation sage here was in rare form.  Flowers everywhere and amazing plant variety.  Excluding cattle and feral horses/burros has been an amazing thing for this country.  It was magical to explore the canyons and wide open spaces here for a couple of days.

Kenney Place

Big Springs Creek Canyon

Thousand Creek Canyon, always a favorite!

Crazy bedding

Puget Sound Journey

Bellingham Bay Sunset

Maria and I traveled north last weekend to visit William in Bellingham.  Because Maria was already up on Bainbridge Island for most of the week we were able to take the scenic route through Port Townsend, Whidbey Island, and , for good measure, Chuckanut Drive.  It was a spectacularly beautiful weekend and the Puget Sound area was in rare form.  It is easy to forget about the massive urban sprawl of Tacoma-Seattle-Everett when driving the island route and it was lovely.

View from Toby's in Coupeville

Mt Baker from Semiahmoo

Another Bellingham Sunset

Fresh Larch

Shevlin Park

Spent yesterday evening strolling through Shevlin park.  The pines and larch were beautiful in the evening light.  I love this time of year.

Cottonwood Canyon State Park

Old Murtha Ranch scene

It was time for our annual May ONDA Board meeting at Cottonwood Canyon and the weather could not have been better.  The wet spring of 2019 continued to provide more amazing green desert views and the John Day, while it has dropped significantly, was cranking.  Cottonwood Canyon State Park is evolving into a real treasure for the Pacific Northwest; cabins have been added and a shower room!  Beautiful place.

John Day River looking downstream 

Fish Lake Remount Station

Remount Station Historic Structures

I had not seen the Fish Lake Guard Station in years so on a recent quick trip over the pass to Eugene I stopped for a few minutes to look around.  The site deserves more time and I will have to return in the near future, maybe even to rent one of the available structures in the winter.  Hard to believe all of this is so well hidden right next to the busy highway.  Glad I stopped.

Dispatcher's Cabin

Fish Lake

The long way home

Tumalo Falls

The last few miles of gravel road to Tumalo Falls was still closed, but the snow was mostly gone so I took the long way home on my evening ride.  It was great being the only person there - so rare nowadays.