Current location: Little Goose Dam, Snake River, eastern Washington
So we awoke from a quiet night in the woods and had not heard a single vehicle all evening, night or morning. The plan was to head up to Mt. Bachelor for a half day of skiing (they only open for a half day because it gets so warm in the afternoon the snow is kinda crap). All loaded up and…nada. Crank, crank, crank… Hobbes had decided he was not going to start this day. There was plenty of battery and cranking just no firing. After at least a couple dozen tries we decided we’d run the generator for the engine block heater for a while in case it was just too cold, which we quickly realized was definitely not the problem as it only got down to about 45 that night.
We eventually gave in and called AAA, which we realized later our account was about to expire the next day (it’s renewed, don’t you worry!). We waited about an hour and a half and thankfully we were only about 1/2 mile down a very easy dirt road and about 200 yards off that road. The driver didn’t mind at all backing into our forested site and a short while later we were at the Ford dealership in Bend. The service department was pretty swamped and short staffed, as every mechanic in the entire United States says, so they got all our information, chatted for a while about the previous van issues and the Bend area. They helped us gather our things and gave us a ride over to a hotel in town, including Rooney, a fridge’s worth of food, electronics and our clothes. Again, hotel points came in handy.
We always knew that Bend was great for outdoor activities and breweries but we quickly realized how lucky we were to be there while work was being done on the van. There were about 10 breweries within walking distance of the hotel and on Saturday afternoon after a stressful morning we went across the street from the hotel (literally 100 yards) to a brewery. Otherwise we relaxed the rest of the day and partook in things like shower and internet.
Sunday, we awoke and went for a run along the Deschutes River directly below the hotel. It was nice to get some exercise and the weather was perfect for a run along the trails on the edge of the river that cuts right through Bend. With Rooney pretty tired we cleaned up and got to the Deschutes Brewery in time for their last tour of the afternoon. We then crossed the river with plans to go to Crux Fermentation Project but, as will become a theme with Oregon, we stumbled upon a brewery that just happened to be directly where we were. Immersion brewing, then we got to Crux for a beer in their yard/beer garden as the sun started to set beyond Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters to the west. On our mile walk back to the hotel we, again, discovered Craft Brewery all of 1/4 mile from Crux and Immersion. Why not stop and grab a bite to eat too!
Monday we knew we’d have to wait and see what the diagnosis of the van was. We still weren’t “on the schedule” but they said they would try to fit us in between other appointments. We took the morning to walk along the river all the way into downtown Bend for lunch. We spent some time internet’ing and updating the blog and videos. The afternoon was spent walking in a slightly different direction to Good Life and 10 Barrel Brewing before a stop for fish tacos and an early evening. We did hear that the van had a camshaft sensor issue and the part would arrive and be installed Tuesday. So, thankfully not some major issue and wouldn’t cause to tell the story of how we broke down in Bend and 40 years later never left (although that was tempting).
Tuesday we got a run in along the river in the morning and went through the logistic exercise of picking up and reloading the van in the afternoon. We still had some other parts of Bend to see so we set up camp in the national forest about 20 minutes outside of town. We fell asleep to what we had now figured out was a completely normal thing in the woods of Oregon: pine cones firing off of trees at great heights, bouncing their way through branches on the way down. For a couple days we had no idea what we were hearing but finally figured it out and were amazed at the frequency of this occurrence. Only one actually hit the roof of the van, which is good because it scared the crap out of me when it did.
The next day we finally got up to Mt. Bachelor. We arrived before first chair under bright, warm sunshine without a cloud in the sky. Mt. Bachelor is a volcano and has the distinct cone shape with ski runs circling the mountain. This late in the season some areas of the mountain were closed but we quickly took lifts to the “summit” and enjoyed the views in all directions of other volcanoes of the Cascades and the land a few thousand feet below us. Off the top the snow was already soupy at about 8:30am. We picked our way through parts of the mountain to both explore but try to follow the coolest snow. Eventually the direct north facing slopes were too wet to even make forward motion so we circled around to the northwest side where we found great snow. Given this was early May and Wednesday, it was little surprise we felt like we were nearly the only people on the mountain. We lapped the NW side of the mountain until about 12 and then called it a day as the lifts closed at 1:30pm anyway. We hung out in the parking lot having lunch and enjoying the sunshine for a while, chatting with other skiers and a couple van people. We made a stop back to Crux for a beer in the afternoon before settling into another site in the national forest outside out town, while Rooney stared intently out at the trees wondering why things kept falling from them.
That evening we realized there was a group of trails directly next to our spot in the woods and on Thursday morning we got up and went on a nice 5 mile run along perfectly flowing single track over cushy pine needles. We loaded up, ready to move on, all while still nervously watching every gauge, listening to every sound and holding our breath on every start of the van. We did have one other issue taken care of before we left but thankfully this was just removing a broken key out of the roof box lock and getting a new one made. In and out, finally!
I just realized my recollection of our time in Bend seems very sterile, very factual. And in fact, that’s probably how we felt about some of it because of dealing with yet another van issue. However, the benefit we had this time was that Bend is a very easy place to spend a few days. We really did enjoy the town, the surrounding activities and the breweries. The river cutting through is beautiful and the people were extremely accommodating and willing to share some secrets of the town with us. The good thing is that we know we will be back to Bend for long weekend trips from the Seattle area and it will be nice to have some familiarity then.