Donaldson Crew Adventures

With Kelly's family in town this week and staying at Black Butte Ranch resort, we decided to do a boys hike up Black Butte that overlooks the resort.  The hike starts about half way up the Butte.  From the trail head to summit its 4 miles round trip, and about 1600 vertical feet elevation change so a fairly constant uphill hike to the top, but the views are worth it.  

Our motley crew after the hike was finished: (L-R) Pat (Kelly's Dad), Scott (Sister Erin's Husband), Noah, Dylan (Sister Jenn's Husband), Kevin, Hunter, cousin Carter (son of Jenn & Dylan).

Today I did a really nice hike with my friend Jamie up to the glacial lake in the crater of Broken top in the Cascade range just out of Bend.  Two summers ago I hiked to the summit of Broken top and always wanted to hike to the crater.  The trip is about 7-8 miles round trip with approx 1600 ft of vertical.  Was originally going to bring the older boys but they are still recovering from Camp this week :)

Noah wanted to go camping for his 9th birthday. He invited his buddy Blake to come along with us. We went up to East Lake and had a beautiful campsite over looking the lake. The first day was great and we canoed and kayaked and did some exploring. Over night it rained and the next morning we woke up to even more rain and snow. Tent camping when it is wet is never fun. We packed up a day early and headed for home.  All in all the kids had fun and it was a great birthday for Noah.

To celebrate the first day of 2016, we decided to go sledding at the Wanoga snow park in the Cascades about half way to Mt Bachelor from Bend.  Here are some additional video's below.

We just returned from our second annual boys fall camping trip. Last year we canoe camped on Sparks Lake. This year Hunter wanted to do a backpacking trip so I selected Benson Lake as a good starter - a 1.5 mile hike into the lake with wilderness camping.  Mileage-wise not a lot, but with packs on it was plenty to get a taste and enjoy the experience. We left home after the boys soccer games on Saturday afternoon. The drive was about 50 minutes from Bend past sisters on hwy 242. We had spectacular weather and it didn't even get very cold at night. The water was so clean and clear we drank right out of the lake. The boys loved it.    

The weather cleared today for our raft ride on the Athabasca River and the rest of the day, although lingering clouds created some great scenery shots on the way back from Jasper to the Glacier View Inn at Sunwapta pass where we are staying.

Today we drove into the town of Jasper for the day. The weather has been unseasonably cold here. We did not plan for this so we stopped off to buy some hats and gloves for our rafting trip. The weather wasn't looking great but the sun broke through which made for a nice afternoon. After our float down the river we met up with Ralph and Fran to have lunch and enjoy the quaint town of Jasper.

Yesterday we traveled from Lake Louise to the Columbia Ice Fields in Jasper National Park. The first picture is taken at Peyto Lake along the ice fields parkway which is in Banff National Park. When we arrived at the ice fields in Jasper National Park we took a bus tour up onto the Athabaca Glacier. It was our first family trip to an ice glacier. We are staying at the Glacier Inn which looks onto the ice fields. This is a unique area because it is considered the only triple divide in North America where you have water flowing from a single source into three different oceans.

Today we went to Yoho Natifinal Park in British Clombia. There we went to Emerald Lake and rented canoes and paddled all around. This might have been one of our favorite days yet. This water is stunning in color and almost looks like it is not real. The sun came out after it down poured all morning. It made for a lovely afternoon. We then went and saw Takakkaw Falls. It was beautiful!