Hunters friend Jack Lovejoy turned 10 and for his birthday party his dad Mark rafted a few of them down a stretch of the Deschutes just south of Bend - how cool is that! Here are a few shots from the afternoon fun. There wasn't quite enough room in the boat so I sat this one out but got some great video of them going through a section of class 3 rapids near lava island!
Today I wanted to take the boys up on a mountain hike for some views without a lot of steep uphill mileage. I selected Triangulation peak. While it was about 1:45 drive from bend to the trailhead, it looked to be a hike with some great views of the massive Mt. Jefferson Volcano and a fun hidden cave. The hike was about 4.5 miles round trip with only some minor elevation gain to get to the summer with the amazing views you see in the photos. Also some great wildflowers along the trail
We also hunted and found Boca cave as well that allows for a very unique shot of Mt. Jeff framed in the cave entrance. The cave has been used for centuries by Indian hunting parties to get out of bad weather.
First family camp trip for Abbie and PJ. We went with some neighbor friends of ours (the Gillettes) to Rock Creek campground on Crane Prairie Reservoir in the Cascade Mountains. Just one night but a fun time even though it was a bit of a cold night. Here are a few pictures around camp.
On Saturday afternoon we did a hike to Lucky Lake. Preston gave it a good go but I ended up carrying him most of the way:)
A couple of panoramic shots from down at the lake below our camp site
Hunter is in the second lane. This is a race he won.
We had a nice leisurely hike today along the Deschutes river south of Bend finished off by a picnic lunch. We started at the Meadow Picnic area which is accessed about 4 miles south of bend on the Cascade lakes highway. From here we simply walked south along the river.
Today they had a 'Panning for Gold' activity at The High Desert Museum that the kids wanted to go check out. The pictures show them with the pans trying to strike it rich and the video is a device that prospectors used to use called a Rocker Box which made the process more efficient than traditional panning.
Today the boys and I did an rock hounding outing to an area about 75 miles east of Bend called Glass Butte. This is an area where there are veins of obsidian (volcanic glass) everywhere all different types and you are free to collect whatever you find. We wanted to go now before it got too hot. It got up to about 78 degrees F today so still pleasant.
Here are a few shots of pieces we collected including standard black obsidian as well as some mahogany obsidian. See the size of the one chunk we found. It was actually bigger but I had to knock some pieces off to make it small enough to carry.
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