More Little “Adventures” (09-20-17)

We left off in Bend Oregon. We have almost a week until the alignment so there was no rush to leave Bend.

We hiked for a few miles along the Deschutes River in nearby Newberry National Volcanic Monument.










We could have hiked up Lava Butte, but we drove, instead. Since there is limited parking, they give you  a timed ticket and you can only stay for a half hour. That was plenty of time.  You can still see the smoke in the air.









Lava, Lava, everywhere.

 This particular lava flow is a little unique. It contains over 70% silica, which means much of its content is glass. It’s very sharp and there are warnings about not letting dogs on the trail.

How sharp it it?  Obsidian blades can be sharpened at the molecular level, making them sharper than a steel scalpel.

More lava- in the shape of a tube, this time:

Lava River Cave is about a mile long and huge inside. It felt like a tunnel and it even goes under the highway.

Its quite cold, so you need to wear a fairly heavy coat to be comfortable. You also have to certify that none of your clothing or equipment has been in a cave in the last 10 years. White Nose Syndrome is killing millions of bats and can be carried on clothing from one cave to another.

It’s also very dark and they recommend you bring two sources of light. 

It wasn’t all that fun to explore, and frankly was a little boring, so we didn’t walk the whole mile.

Feeling done with lava, we moved from Bend down to Emigrant Lake, near Ashland Oregon.

Paul has been to Ashland many times. They are known for their Shakespearian plays, and on any given day, there will be 3-4 options of plays to see. Except on Mondays. I guess they are all closed on Monday.  So we arrived in time to see a play on Sunday.

We chose to see Shakespeare in Love, which wasn’t written by Shakespeare, but is about his life. It was fun. Before the play we meandered along the creek front, checking out all the stores and restaurants.

The whole downtown area is very walkable, with many restaurants and a huge park.  There are several water fountains that are always flowing- they contain Lithia water, which is very high in mineral content.  So high, in fact, that the water tastes disgusting.

We were both very happy with the change in the weather. It went from shorts weather to soup weather in a matter of days.  We were thrilled to finally be able to have a campfire!

We left the Ashland area last Tuesday, headed for Grants Pass, OR where we were supposed to get the axles aligned.  Yep, supposed to…..

Having arrived a day early, Paul met with the technicians who were going to do the alignment.  We got bad news and good news.  The bad news was that they didn’t have the equipment to align our axles properly.  The good news was that after looking at pictures of the old tires, showing the (lack of) wear, they said we couldn’t ask for much better, and we didn’t need an alignment. 

 Saved us a few hundred bucks and allowed us to move on early to our next adventure- Fresno, CA, home to Paul’s fraternity brothers.

Here birdie birdie!

Coconino National Forest (06-30-15)

Once we could, we took off for the Flagstaff area and Kaibab National Forest, looking for the road less traveled. After two hours meandering on federal lands, we were thwarted by low hanging branches and had to turn around and try a different route.











We found the perfect spot near Antelope Hill, which we hiked the following morning.









We had to  share the space with a herd of steer, which wasn’t an issue until about 5:00 when they really wanted to come over where we were.  This is them, staring at Paul.










Our next overnight spot was supposed to be near another hike we had planned. And while one of us did hike, the other of us (me) waited for the hiker to return.






As it turns out, I wasn’t in the mood to crawl underground for over half a mile.  This cave, Lava River Cave, was created hundreds of thousands of years ago, by molten rock, and was “discovered” in 1915.



  
Paul enjoyed his hike, and I enjoyed talking to all the people as they exited the cave.  Many families were hiking in the cave to escape the oppressive heat- the interior of the cave is a pleasant 33 degrees, as opposed to the not so pleasant 104 degrees in the city.


Our next stop in our loop around Flagstaff was to see, technically, more caves.  Old Caves Crater Trail was about a 4 mile hike, with lots of small caves along the way.  None of them were big, but Paul did poke his head in quite a few.



Although the caves weren’t spectacular, it felt good to be able to hike 4 miles and not be overwhelmed by the heat.



In my free time in Flagstaff, I found a new, awesome, App.  It’s called Avenza PDF Maps.

Once you download the app, you can download all kinds of maps.  Some are free, and some cost money. Most of the hiking maps cost money, but the ones I downloaded were of national forests, and showed the roads, and where the dispersed camping is.  Once it’s on your phone or tablet, your GPS will show where you are located, and you can save “spots”.  I made note of where we thought the good boondocking spots are, and even added pictures!

Time will tell how valuable it actually is, but one of the perks is that once the map is downloaded, you don’t need internet access to utilize it.  That’s pretty awesome!

Soon enough, it was time to head back, temporarily, to the heat of Lake Havasu City.

House Update

We have cement! When Wes said they were ready to pour cement, Paul was ready and waiting.

It didn’t take them very long to dump 5 trucks  full of cement in the foundation.

As we leave for the July 4th weekend, the foundation, except for the garage, is poured and ready to build.