Broken Top and Three Sisters Wilderness

After climbing down the mountain between electrical storms, we were famished and decided to use the cook stove to cook up some oatmeal from the back of the truck. While eating our breakfast, we had a conversation with a forest service ranger about camping opportunities and hiking trails in the area. He told us to follow the road on the other side of the Todd Lake parking lot and work our way back to the Broken Top trail head. This proved to be wonderful advice as we discovered the grassy, rolling hills I was picturing the day before. Throughout these grassy areas were snow run off streams which provided much music to our ears.
We were able to park our truck after 4-wheeling down the road to the trail head. (note: I don't think I would try this route in a vehicle without 4-wheel drive due to the deep ruts occaisionally in the mud road.) From there we hiked 1-2 miles to the base of Broken Top. This we decided was an area worth returning to on future trips! The wild flowers and streams provided much enjoyment and restored nerves after the electrical storm earlier in the morning.

Waiting for Lightning

One of my favorite musicians, Stephen Curtis Chapman, has a song called "Waiting for Lightning" which played in my head several times as we camped at Todd Lake. This camping experience was very enlightning to me. Randy and I use different words to communicate camping and hiking expectations. Randy wanted to go up a "hill" to camp above Todd Lake. I thought "hill" meant a grassy rolling field slightly higher than the lake. When in reality, Randy meant "miny mountain" which is most successfully climbed by mountain goats! So, we packed the tent, sleeping bags, tarp and food up the steep "hill" and found a nice flat spot to pitch our tent. After being bit by the dracula mosquitos on our trek up the hill, we applied OFF. Anywhere we missed in the application became a target for these ruthless little bugs.
After pitching our tent, we decided to go for a little hike around the top of the hill. When we left it was clear blue skies and in the 90s. Water seemed so far away! On our hike, we hurdled down trees and branches as we worked our way though the forest. After a bit of this, we decided to turn around and go back to the tent. Good thing we did. Thunder and lightning were moving in over Mt. Bachelor and it was evident we were in for a storm. Randy immediately took charge and applied survival knowlege to rig up a tarp over a rock so we could cook over a small fire. We ended up only receiving a few sprinkles Wednesday, but Thursday morning was a different story. Thursday morning there was sheet lightning and thunder on two sides of our camp. One crack was a flash and boom almost simultaneously. Needless to say, after the hail hit our tent and tarp, we were ready to go down the hill back to the truck in the parking lot. I don't think I have ever been so eager to get to flat land in my life!

Roseburg and the North Umpqua

For our second anniversary we decided to drive down to Southern Oregon and visit friends we hadn't seen, go to church and then go camping up the North Umpqua River. Our stay in Roseburg was about 36 hours. In that short time, we managed to at least say "Hello" to about twenty of my friends whom we hadn't seen in about two years. Most of these friends were at church and it felt a little frantic trying to catch up with everyone. I wanted to genuinely hear all about their lives and families, but it so hard to catch up in an hour after a service. Randy and I were able to see the old house where I used to live and spend a little time with the Schumakers. It felt like going home, except my old home has been remodeled and hardly looks like the place I lived for seven years with my dog and cat.
Monday, after a lovely time with Pastor Steve at a coffee shop and one last visit with Laura and family, we journeyed up the North Umpqua River to the Horseshoe Bend camp ground. My favorite spot on the river was available so we pitched our tent. With the weather in the 90s, it was nice to have the river nearby to dip in to cool off. Believe me, it was cold snow run off and didn't take long to bring down body temperatures.
On our actual anniversary, we hiked up to Watson Falls! This is the second highest water fall in Oregon. We spent a long time sitting on a rock taking in the mist of the falls as it crashed down on the rocks. A perfect day!

Ride Around Mount Raineer in One Day (RAMROD)-July 31 2008

The ride of the season, RAMROD, came the last day in July. To get into this ride, riders are chosen by a lottery system in order to limit the ride to 800 people. Needless to say, Randy was selected and then dove into training. His day of cycling started at 3:30 A.M. (yes, A.M.!) when the alarm went off. He worked his way to the Enumclaw High School for a waffle (legos) breakfast and some coffee! By 5:15, with the dawn light, Randy started peddling the sixty miles to Mount Raineer. The path would take the cyclist through small towns and highways to the south entrance of the Mt. Raineer National Park. Once in the park, the cyclists had a gradual climb. From what Randy has said, this climb was not super steep but it was long which made him slow down at the end of it. The cyclists bypassed Paradise Lodge and went to the rest stop to summons up energy for the remaining ups and downs of Raineer and Cayuse Pass. Cayuse pass was not only steep, but there was road construction before it. Cyclists consistently reported that this was the toughest stretch of RAMROD! It was ten miles in the extreme heat and more than half way through the 154 mile course. Once Randy reached the top of Cayuse pass, it was downhill and some flats all the way back Enumclaw High School.

Statistics from the ride: Randy finished cycling around 7:00pm. His actual peddling time was about eleven hours.

Seattle to Portland (STP)

As a training ride for RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Raineer in One Day), Randy chose to cycle in the STP ride in one day. Overall, the ride was 202 miles and had some big hills. The route took the cyclists through the backroads and some not so backroads of Washington. One town near Chehalis had the Egg Festival. Randy cycled on the Longview Bridge over the Columbia River into Oregon.
Timewise, Randy started from University of Washington at 5:00am and finished at the Lloyd Center at 9:35pm. His total cycling time was about 11 hours.
Randy never saw his friend, Earl, until the finish line in Portland but probably cycled within a couple of miles of eachother for most of the second half of the ride. They even traded places who was in front and still did not see eachother.
Towards the end of the ride, Randy was getting super hot as the temperature in Oregon was in the high 90s. One bank sign showed 97 degrees. To cool off the cooler became a dunking tank for hot feet.

Tour de Blast or Pain knows no beauty!

Team Carver once again found itself peddling into beautiful country to meet a goal of reaching the viewpoint of Mt. St. Helens. The scenery was spectacular and the weather was perfect! We started our morning ride at Toutle High School and rode 40 miles (according to our odometer but 41 according to the maps and signs). Right from the start, the grade was uphill although it was slight the first ten miles. The second stretch after the water stop was in no uncertain terms "brutal". Fifteen straight miles of grueling climbing to the second rest stop. Many stretching breaks were taken to meet our destination. After refueling there was a little bit of a decent before climbing the last consecutive mile climb to the top.

We were one of five tandem teams to ride this tour. More than a handful of single riders commented on how it must be hard to peddle a tandem to the top. We would have to agree that this was a tough ride. It felt more difficult than the day rides of Cycle Oregon. In retrospect, that might not be a fair comparison as this ride was earlier in the cycling season and we have not had as much opportunity to train for it as we did Cycle Oregon. However, with Randy cycling in RAMROD (Ride Around Mt. Raineer in One Day) we are hoping this ride better prepares him for that event. Several of the riders from Tour de Blast indicated they were using the ride as a training opportunity for RAMROD.

All I know is that we reached about 4000 feet in elevation and spectacular rugged mountain scenery which made the pain in the saddle endurable. Randy and I were amongst the last 30 riders to reach camp which was great as it gave us quiet times on the path and time to talk as we rode.

The return back to the high school parking lot was a blast as it was the reverse...all those miles flying down the mountains!

Joke for the day: Back at the high school Randy stated he need to stretch... I declared I needed a stretcher! :-)

More flowers

We returned from a weekend trip to find our rosebush in full bloom!

Flowers at last!

Last year, Randy and I replanted parts of our backyard with the hopes that the trees, bushes and shrubs will eventually cover up the fence and grow tall enough to give us privacy. To our delight, the large rhodie bloomed this year. According to Randy, this wonder has not bloomed in years. We were so delighted by the buds, we went a little picture happy. Maybe it does pay to have crazy winter weather!

Up, Up and Away

Randy's friend from work invited us to go flying with him. We were surprised to find out that Greg is a flying instructor and so Randy was allowed to fly the plane on our first trip up! What a wonderful adventure we had flying down to Seattle and over lakes and communities before we turned around to return to Payne Field. The addiction to flying we now understand! What a blast!

Sun to Snow to Sun

We are a little behind in our posting of pictures. This spring has been crazy with sunny and snowy weather. One week it was in the 70s and then the next weekend it was snowing. The week after that it was mild but the baseball game we went to had sun and then rain after the 7th. Hard to plan.