The Lazy H Climbing Club: Oregon

This is gonna be a long post so you amy want to go to the bathroom before you start reading.

We headed out to Oregon in early August primarily for a wedding that evolved into a family reunion and non-stop "maximize fun"-type adventures. At this point Logan is an experienced traveler. I think he's flown more times at this point in his life than I had when I graduated from college. But there was one moment on the flight that is worth noting. Logan was asleep in Kate's arms, basically laying flat with his butt on Kate's lap and kate supporting his head with her left arm. He had a cookie in his right hand, that he had started eating before he fell asleep, but was now apparently saving for later. He had been asleep for atleast ten minutes, when he suddenly sat up, with his eyes still closed, apparently still asleep, and started eating his cookie. He took a bite, chewed a few times, then slumped back in Kate's arms, never opening his eyes or appearing in any other way to be awake. The perfect mid-flight entertainment.

Like last year, Kate & Kendall took Logan up to Port Townsend to visit their Uncle Kent and his lovely daughters Brett & Alec for the first weekend. Kate will have to post the details on that portion of the trip. I headed to Central Oregon for a long weekend of camping with my parents and the families of two of my brothers, Dan & Mike.

We were headed to a co-op vacation "resort" known as Sundance Meadows, but which we always referred to as "The Ranch". My Parents were founding members of the co-op, and The Ranch was the backdrop for countless childhood adventures. There was the time Mike shot me in the face with a BB gun; the time red (biting) ants crawled up the inside of my pants and executed a coordinated attack; my second place ribbon in Barrel Riding at the annual 4th of July Rodeo; countless ice hockey games-turned family brawl on the frozen pond.

Our campsite at the Ranch

It was an amazing journey into nastalgia for me to finally return after roughly 15 years. Amazingly the place hadn't really changed all that much. Its a real treat to be able to visit the places where we grew up, and I'm grateful to my parents for having the vision to give us such great opportunities to make lasting memories.

The Ranch located about 10 miles southeast of Bend, among the sage brush and juniper trees. There are about four buildings over several hundred rural acres, with the main centerpiece being a man-made pond (complete with a wooded island) surrounded by campsites. There are countless ways for children to entertain and/or mame themselves, but I will address one in particular.

The Ranch has a pretty well developed playground, most of which was added at various times during my childhood. The oldest and most kickass item in the playground is an old horse carousel, probably salvaged from some small-time carnival. This thing is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and its a perfect metaphor for The Ranch. Its rusty, worn down with peeling (probably lead) paint, creaks and groans as it spin, with bearings left exposed to tiny inquiring hands. This death trap would never be allowed in any public setting in this day and age, and as such, it is uncomparably attractive. Kids just don't have access to this kind of fun any more. Going to the Ranch is like stepping into a time machine and visiting your childhood, when things were just a little bit more dangerous, and seemingly that much more real. Logan and all of his cousins were instantly drawn to the carousel and could not get enough of it. At first they were a bit unsure, not used to being around something so unquestionable awesome, but before long they were climbing up to the main spindle, standing on the horse saddles, and generally trying to find interesting new ways to hurt themselves. At one point one of the un-initiated Anderson spouses questioned the safety of these activities, to which Mike responded "I will like a hypocrite telling them not to do something that I did many, many times at their age".

The infamous carousel

One-handed! He did no hands occasionally too

My parents got us a nice campsite right by the pond, and the weekend consisted primarily of mellow nights of cooking and startgazing split by days of nonstop activity. We took the older kids horseback riding, did easily the sickest mountain-biking of my life at a Bend spot known as "Phil's Trail", paddled many laps around the pond, went swimming on a nearly daily basis, played about 72 holes of mini-golf, explored the nearby Boyd Ice Cave, and did couple of road bike rides (including one of my favorite rides ever, a 50-mile loop on the Cascade Lakes Highway around Mt. Bachelor).

The highlight of our week in Bend was an overnight backpack trip to Green Lakes. We've been camping with Logan twice, but never anywhere this committing. The plan was to hike in 4.5 miles, spend the night, then hike out the next day. With Kate carrying Logan in the baby backpack I would have to carry most of the food & equipment for all three of us in my backpack. I wasn't all that concerned about the weight, but I was afraid there wouldn't be enough room for all of our stuff. One of the reasons I wasn't concerned about weight is that I decided not to bring a tiny 2-person tent and no sleeping bag or pad for Logan. Genius! This made the packing much easier and the hike relatively effortless.

Gearing up at the Trailhead

We started our trip from Sparks Lake, jsut at the base of Mt. Bachelor. We hung out in the parking lot for awhile franticalyl trying to stuff extra cookies and snacks into any empty crevices of our backpacks. Kate & I aren't super fond of camping, primarily because it seems like there's never quite enough food. So we now compensate for that by going overboard.

Kate on the trail with Lucas & my mom behind

The hike itself was much more pleasant and interesting than we expected. The trail follows "Falls Creek", named for a series of impressive waterfalls that are easily visible from the trail. There were some mosquitos but we had ample bug spray and I figure I got bit less than 10 times, which is not too bad. There were copious amounts of lovely wildflowers and great views of the Cascade mountains.

My Dad crossing Falls Creek

We arrived at the lake about 2 hours after we started and picked out a nice campsite near a creek. The entire area was covered in pumice, which is an extremely porous volcanic stone that floats in water thanks to large air pockets. This was a great thrill for the kids, who thought it was fun to throw pumice as its to light to really hurt anyone.

Kate & Logan below South Sister, with Axel in the creek

The kids took a stroll down to the creek while I set up camp. Janelle managed to trap a frog which provided some good entertainment. Dinner consisted mostly of Peanut M&M's, Pretzls and Fun Size Snickers, but we also boiled some water to "cook" some freeze-dried meals. These meals were our staple when Mike & climbed Denali, and after eating basically nothing but these dinners for 20 straight days I think I've had enough for one lifetime. But in fairness they're actually pretty tasty as long as you have some solid food to go with it. I packed in a baguette for that purpose.

Close encounters of the Kermit Kind

After dinner Mike & led Lucas up near by Broken Top Mountain (you can read about that adventure here). By the time we returned, Logan was in bed and it was nearly dark. We hung out for a short bit before retiring to the tents.

Logan inspecting his quarters below Broken Top

Oh ya, remember my genius plan to bring a tiny tent and no sleeping bag or pad for Logan? It turns out accomodations in our tent are first-come, first-served, which worked out really great for Logan, but not so much for me & Kate. Logan literally took up more than half of the tent, with Kate & I crammed into one little sliver of empty space. It was pretty comical but it actually worked out ok. At least Logan slept through the nite which made it slightly more pleasant for us during the 10 wide-awake hours we spent next to him.

Our campsite. Dinner is in the plastic bag immediately left of Kate's right knee

The next morning we broke campe pretty efficiently, posed for photos and cruised the easy downhill hike back to the trailhead. We had a long drive over the Cascades to get to Corvallis for the wedding festivities, but we had to make a few stops on the way. The first and foremost was The Sisters Bakery, which is easily my favorite bakery, featuring enormous and throgoughly satisfying Chocolate Maple Bars. these things are a meal in themselves. When I first started coming here htey cost 85 cents, which was quite a deal for a poor dirtbag climber. Even now they are still pretty affordable at $1.25. Since we were in Sisters we decided to take Logan to the local park for a short break from the car. During the drive we passed countless large brambles of blackberry bushes, and eventually I couldn;t resist, so we pulled over and quickly filled my maple bar back with delicious plump blackberries.

Logan & Daddy on the train

Logan on the slide

Once in Corvallis we headed to my parents house for some much-deserved showers, and then I was eager to show Logan my favorite Corvallis park. Avery Park has a number of unique attractions, but it has changed somewhat since my childhood. The best feature is a retired steam locomotive and coal car that kids are free to crawl around, over and under. Fortunately this relic is still there, and Logan really liked it (he loves trains!). The was a nice playground with some good slides that Logan enjoyed, but probably his favorite thing was the ridiculously long Oak table at the Lion's Club Shelter. This table was constructed from a single piece of wood.

Logan running down the table

We took a nice walk, picked some more blackberries, and then discovered the Rose Garden. Logan has picked up the precious habit of smelling flowers lately, so I thought he might like to smell some roses. Somewhere in there he also learned to "pick" flowers, which to him means grabbing a fist full of petals and ripping them off. Logan did this a number of times before we got a decent photo of him smelling a flower, so we high-tailed it out of there before any gardeners showed up with their pitchforks.

Logan "smelling" the roses

Logan actually smlling the roses

The wedding itself was absolutely amazing, and Kate will confirm that I'm not one to mince words in the event I'm forced to endure an unpleasant wedding. The event was hosted at the Groom's parent's house, and they did an unbelievable job of preparing the site and setting up food and entertainment. The reception was held in a little "hollow" near a creek, and the best word I can think of to describe it is "enchanted". It was a very unique setting and we had a blast. I don't think we've danced that much since our own wedding almost five years ago (yikes! time flies...)