Strawberry Mts. and the Blue Mts.

I left Burns and headed North towards John Day. John Day was a cute little town and I wish I could have spent more time there. I did manage to get to the Strawberry Lake Trailhead for a quick day hike. It was about 600' elevation gain and 4 miles round trip. It was a very pleasant  hike and the lake was amazing! 

I wish I could have spent more time there!

The trail was full of beautiful butterflies. 

I finished my day hike and headed towards Baker City. This part of Eastern Oregon is full of Lewis and Clark stuff. We had to pull over and have a picture of Baby in the covered wagon.

From Baker City, we headed to Anthony Lake in the Blue Mts., more specifically the Elkhorn ridge area. I camped there for two days. The campground was actually super quiet and secluded. 

After a good nights rest, I went on a hike to Angel Pass and Dutch Flat Lake. This area was stunning and it is on my list of places to absolutely go back to soon! 

This is a picture of lilypad lake at the start of the hike with Gunshot Mt. in the background.

Nearly halfway into the 8 mile hike, I was lucky enough to run into another hiker who snapped this photo.

Baby was catching a quick doggy nap while I was taking this photo.

It was pretty rocky.

This picture was from Angel Pass. I think it was at 7500'?

After hiking all day, I relaxed with some fishing at Anthony Lake. Sadly, people were only catching 8" to 9", so I opted to only fish for a little while.

After two fantastic days there, I headed back to Baker City. I had only planned to pick up gas, water and food, but when I saw the car show I had to stop.  

There must have been well over 100 cars there. All the classics and then some interesting vehicles. The pic above is of a pretty nice golf cart!

This was my absolute favorite car there. Love the old Broncos!

From there I headed East. I stopped at the Lewis and Clark interpretive center. I had the dog in the car so my trip was short... very short. I managed to snap a shot of a bison, do a quick walk through, and use the ladies room.

This was a picture from the outside area. The settlers literally entered the valley on these very grounds. It is amazing to think what they went through to settle out West.... A very hard life to say the least.

I left this area and took the long scenic route to Joseph. We stopped at a Hells Canyon Lookout on the way. I just kept going to these amazingly beautiful places. 

Eastern Oregon trip starting in Burns

I had a great trip! I spent 8 days in Eastern Oregon and it was fantastic. I took a ton of pictures and I'm going to have a few different posts because I couldn't narrow my photos down to one post! 

My trip took me from Portland over Mt. Hood, through Madras, then through Prineville and then to Burns. After staying in Burns for a few days with good friends I moved onto the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, then John Day Wilderness in the Blue Mountains and then Up to Joseph. Once I made it to Joseph, I backpacked in the Eagle Cap Wilderness and then spent some time in Hell's Canyon. Then finally home to Portland through the Gorge. I was exhausted when I got home! I camped in campgrounds, slept in my car, backpacked to an alpine lake and stayed with a new friend in Imnaha. I'm still euphoric from all the wonderful things that happened. 

I'm starting with pictures from Burns. I went there to see my good friends Temoya and Bryan. They used to live next to me and they moved there for Bryan's job. Burns maybe wasn't the most astetically pleasing destination on my trip, but the company was fantastic!

I took this photo with my new cell phone in a Prineville diner. 

I kind of planned my trip along the way. Bryan and Temoya helped me narrow down where to go.

They also took Baby and I to the Malheur Nature Preserve where we saw various types of birds. We also went to a pictograph site to see ancient drawings.  It was very cool! 

Mostly we just caught up and hung out in their huge 70's inspired rental with a beautiful screened porch. Their place had a very small town feel to it and it was just what I needed to get into 'vacation mode'.

I LOVE Stack and so does Baby. Stack and I used to cuddle when he lived in PDX. He slept with me both nights and I loved it! 

Burns at dusk... It was a great couple of days! Thanks T and B for your hospitality and the great company. I miss you guys and look forward to seeing you this weekend!

Danskin #4

The Danskin Triathlon went off without a hitch this year. Not much to say except my Mom is my biggest supporter, wearing a wig is an effective distraction, and I love the post race celebration! 

Mom and I at the pre-race sign-in. It is a big deal! I guess they added people this year, bringing the grand total to 5500 woman who completed the tri this year!
Laurie (on the far left) is my friend that did it with me last year. In very typical Danskin fashion, she invited two new ladies to compete this year. It is infectious!

I know... this picture is very strange.... That is my wig and that is creepy bear. It is for another project/blog I'm working on with friends. I will post a link for that later.
The Marinan ladies-

Four years ago, Rita and Beth joined me for our first year in this race. Beth just had miss Lauren and Rita has one on the way. Rita has a ton of sisters and this year her oldest sis (#3120)  completed her first race... Yay Jesse!!!
MMmmmmm.... Laurie and her bloody mary at the Irish pub on Alki.
We all enjoyed good food and drink after the race and can I just say this particular group of ladies was a hoot to hang out with??  So much fun! Until next year----

I'm outta here!

My summer blogging shortage continues! It is just a very busy time I guess. I don't have many pictures from the triathlon, and need to wait to get them from friends. I will post them when I get them.

Today I'm headed to Eastern Oregon for at least 7 days, if not more. I'm finally using some of my vacation days and they couldn't have come at a better time. Time to be in the middle of nowhere with my pup!!

I'll post when I get back-

The South Sister

Yay! Last weekend Betty and I checked another goal off our summer list! We hiked the South Sister.  This Mountain is the third tallest in the state of Oregon at 10,363 feet. We started our climb from the trailhead at about 5,000 feet. It was 6 miles up and 6 miles down. It was definitely a workout and when all was said and done, we both felt a great sense of accomplishment. 

We started our adventure on Friday night. We tackled traffic and finally 4 hours later we arrived in the trailhead parking lot where we slept in Betty's very spacious Subaru. 
We woke up at about 6am and got ourselves organized. I was working hard to happily wake myself up for the hike. Actually, I had a lot of natural adrenaline and super excited to huff and puff.
After hiking through the trees for an hour or so, we made it to the open meadow and this was what we saw. It was a big mountain!Many people hike in with their gear and camp at this lake, but we didn't have the time this weekend. That mountain in the background is called Broken top. I was a fan of that jagged peak!
The nice path through the meadows turned into a rocky, boulder filled hike. After a few more hours, we finally reached about 9,000 feet and many people call it a day at this point. We caught our breath, ate a ton, and gave our legs a much needed rest. Betty and I were too stubborn and we marched on, up the scree filled unstable path. We both brought our Ipods so we could zone out to good music. It helped a lot.
Before heading to the summit, I had to take a picture of this well prepared woman. She made sure she had enough TP.... too funny!
Once we were on top of this mountain, there was so much to see. The top was actually a crater filled with a large snow field and a lake. We hiked around the ridge to get the best views.Betty near the edge with Mt. Bachelor in the background.Another awesome cliff picture.I was really excited to be up there and didn't want to leave.
This is a picture of the highest body of water in Oregon. It is called tear drop pool and tons of people were jumping in. It wasn't my day to jump. I wasn't even wearing matching underwear!Flowers above 10,000 feet!This picture was taken right after we started our descent. It was bittersweet. The color of this water was stunning.
I couldn't get enough of this view on the way down!

Oh my... Betty and I of course had to get a little silly. It could have been the altitude, or not.

Yoga anyone?

As we were walking back to the car, we kept looking back with sheer pride. It was such a great day!
And the best part was taking off my boots! 

Awesome experience!