Kelly and I along with Jenn (Kelly’s sister) and Dylan got away for a quick two day retreat to sisters staying at the five pines resort.
We hike along the Metolius to get out for some outdoor fun.
Last Christmas we went here for the first time to see a band but it was dark and winter. Kelly and I said we wanted to go back when the weather was nice. We went with our friends Ryan and Molly Oster to listen to music, with food and wine.
We just completed a super fun and leisurely 3 day raft trip on the lower Deschutes River, north of Bend putting in at Buckhollow (just outside of Maupin) and taking out at Mack’s Canyon. It was only about 20 miles making for shorter days on the river and lots of fun at camp. This trip was with the Lovejoy family as usual and the Starlings, (Chris, Hattie and their 3 girls) who we have known for years but never had the opportunity to boat together.
We drove north to Maupin and we were on the river around 10:30 on Friday morning.
Camp on night 1 (Friday)
Warm day so the river and the shade along the shore was greatly appreciated.
Starlings hosted dinner the first night. They served flatiron steaks, smashed pesto potatoes with a wedge salad. Chris is a great cook and the presentation was phenomenal.
Classic Donaldson/Lovejoy camp shenanigans.
As the trip was only 2 nights and 3 families, we hosted breakfast Saturday morning since there were only 2 dinner meals. We did up spicy sweet potato hash and scrambled eggs along with fruit salad and OJ + mimosas for the adults.
Camp night 2 (Saturday)
Saturday target was a camp that Chris (has done this stretch of river a number of times) said was the best site by far. We ended up getting the site and it did not disappoint. An A++ site for sure. Big sandy beach, rapids and a great eddy to swim in and park/launch boats. Lovejoys hosted dinner Saturday and made pulled pork tacos which were delish. Mark got things rolling early with the margaritas which made for a fun afternoon.
Sunday was a short 4 miles to the take out. A great weekend trip that was too short.
Amazing sunset tonight.
Over the last two months, I have been working on a backyard expansion. I started the first week of April and just finished (end of May).
Left (south) side of the back yard
Before: In 2018 we put in the first stage of the backyard in April of that year and I also built a garden off to the left side completed in June of that year. You can see what was left natural.
Here is the new expanded south side completed.
Right (North) side of the backyard
Before: We had a small rustic fire pit with log that got overgrown as you can see in the second picture
Here is the new right/north side of the backyard:
Some pictures of the project at various stages
There is a massive rope swing at one section on the Deschutes river near an area called the big eddy. Noah and some friends went out to try it out. Here is a video of Noah. Some serious hang time when you let go
Hunter and I drove to Washington yesterday to pick up a ‘project bike’. It’s a 3 cylinder 82 Yamaha 750 with a shaft drive (vs chain). It’s not running now so first part of the project will be engine work.
Below are some pictures of what people have done with these bikes to get an idea of the finished product.
Oct 23… well I guess it happened oct 22 but we couldn’t see the mountains yesterday.
Our first major trip of the summer was a 6-day/5-night rafting trip on the wild and scenic section of the John Day River. This is a 70 mile stretch with a put in a Clarno and a take-out at cottonwood. Beautiful central Oregon desert canyon rafting trip. 2 years ago we did a shorter section upriver from here starting at Twickenham and taking out at Clarno which was our put in for this trip. the colder than average variable weather spring we have been having this year continued to play out on this trip with warmer temps earlier in the trip dropping to cold and windy near the end of the trip with a torrential rain storm one night and a major wind-storm another night but thankfully our days were more pleasant.
Like our raft trip to the Grand Ronde river last year we went with our friends the Lovejoy's and the Kerrs. This year the Noah's ran the smaller 'super puma' raft, while Hunter, Jack and Nathan kayaked.
This section of the John day only had one major set of rapids that were in the class 3 range. We hit this set on the very first day but other than that its light class 2 and river float for the most part through a beautiful canyon with some interesting frontier history loaded with stories from early homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, and cattle rustlers. This was the first longer trip with the new raft after its initial voyage in April on the lower Deschutes and first trip with the family.
Morning rainbow off the back deck today!
