On Tuesday we traveled to Camp Sherman to bike the Metolius River loops, another Oregon scenic bikeway. We expected this to be a good recovery ride; reasonably flat and short. On the way we stopped at the Tumalo coffee shop again. We noticed this sign at the local elementary school
Now that’s a small school! The ride starts at the very classic Camp Sherman store
We set the Garmin up to do all 3 loops and headed off. First stop was a Fish Hatchery. Wow, those fish are crowded, but what nice scenery they have!
Next stop was the Lower Bridge and yes, it really was a bridge! We chatted with a woman that was waiting for a raft with her kids and husband to come by. Really gorgeous spot. We had notes however that there seemed to be a whole lot of downhill on the way to Lower Bridge!
The climb out of Lower Bridge hit us both hard and we decided to just do straight shot back to the Camp Sherman store and skip the other two loops which were quite short anyway. The garmin of course was loaded for all 3 loops but I assumed we would see a sign for the store. Tom thought he saw the turn at one point but there was no sign for the store so we kept going. Not a good move. We ended up doing a really big climb in the blazing sun with a lovely view of the Cascades! We made it but the stop at the top was very welcome. We knew we were headed in the right direction so we enjoyed the descent down the other side of whatever that was and not long after were very relieved to see a sign for the store. Garmin and ride with GPS on my phone both showed 1900 feet of climbing so we basically climed the same amount over 16 miles as we did over 36 miles on the Twin Bridges Loop. So much for recovery ride!
On the way back we spotted a farm stand in Sisters and loaded up on fruit and veggies. Elizabeth and Hilary were on their way to Bend so we planned to grill and enjoy the farm stand bounty
The rest of the trip was off bike but I’ll include some notes and pictures; good memories!
On Wednesday
we went to the High Desert Museum just outside of Bend. It was fantastic with wildlife exhibits and a small historical ranch settlement
On Thursday we went to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We started at the Lava Lands Visitor Center with a delightful talk given by a ranger. Basically, the Visitor Center is sitting on a volcano that is overdue to blow is what I heard but there are lots of things do there in the meantime! We took the shuttle bus up to Lava Butte where the views are so stunning that they actually look fake. Pictures do not do them justice!
The we took the trail to Benham Falls; about half a mile and very flat. Very pretty walk
My only complaint is that this isn’t really a waterfall, but let’s not nitpick
And now I’ll close with some wonderful pictures that Elizabeth sent me of the birthday event last Saturday
