We last updated the blog while making our way around British Colombia, which was super fun and offered a ton of different recreational opportunities. After one last night in Seattle (man do i love it there), we were on to Oregon.
The first several days were in Portland, with a mini reunion of my college buddies hosted by Francisco and Heidi. Francisco and i were paired as roommates our freshman year, and for a good semester that seemed like an improbable match. We were nice enough to each other, nothing malicious or anything, but it was not a warm fuzzy feeling in our room. Then, things switched and we became really good friends. The next year had us living together, then a year off for our respective study abroad and then back at it for senior year. We have now traveled together, including a road trip from Maine to Southern California our senior year informally titled Good Seats and Cheap Eats. Our parents have become great friends as well, which is pretty rare. They now visit each other and take trips together.
To me, it seems like we just needed time for our personalities to gel, and I am so thankful for that gelling and the subsequent lifelong friendship. All the better for two families to come together, one from Maine and the other Southern California. It is pretty interesting that the catalyst was an amorphous roommate matching process.
Back to Portland, we had a great couple of days there, hanging out with the kids, eating delicious food and talking for hours. The boys went out for a night to see the Portland Timbers game (MLS Soccer), which was super fun. That is a must-do as far as i am concerned in portland. The rafters seem to shake when the stadium is rollicking, and the atmosphere around the stadium before the game is infectious.
After portland, Mu and I resumed our outdoor recreation focus throughout Oregon. We got in an epic trail run in the Colombia Gorge, running hundreds and hundreds of feet up in elevation above 600 foot Multnomah falls, through virgin forest and along roaring creeks. Looking out across the thick Colombia river, it was easy for me to think of Lewis and Clark leading their expedition down the river towards the Pacific and what a nice reprieve that must have been after the rugged Rockies and Cascades.
Then it was on to Bend, a charming outdoor mecca located along the Deschuees River. Bend has a worthy reputation of being home to excellent climbing (smith rock), skiing on the volcanic mt bachelor, world class biking, big white water and hundreds of miles of trails for hiking and running.
We got in two days of climbing at Smith, which has large walls rising from the river gorge below. The climbing is excellent, if a little airy, and we were fortunate to be there the day before a high-lining festival. High-lining is a sport in which people attempt to cross slack-lines (webbing that bridges two high points). People are harnessed in as they balance on a line hundreds of feet in the air. The exposure is crazy, even if the system is as safe as rock climbing with harnesses and safety protection. Still, knowing that someone is safe does not exactly compute when they pitch off the slack-line a couple of hundred feet off the deck. There is a moment in every fall when it appears that the athlete JUST might be able to keep it together and then the next instant has them pitch forward and free falling for an instant. Mesmerizing.
Beyond the climbing, we got in a some mt biking and a sunset trail run along the river in the nearby national park. Both lived up to the reputation we had for Bend, had us in volcanic gorges and reinforced that we had just scratched the surface on what is available in this hip city that also boasts friendly people, farmers markets, a bunch of excellent breweries and cute coffee shops.
We plan on coming back, to Portland, Bend and Oregon generally, sooner rather than later.
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