Yes, it’s definitely Hills Creek Lake. We followed it all the way to the end through more typically Oregonian scenery; hills and trees. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many trees covering such vast areas of wilderness. The original plan was to do a mountain bike loop in Oakridge, just at the end of the lake, with a promised 7 mile downhill section; but the weather was wet and raining so I wasn’t up for a ride. Rose wasn’t up for wet, smelly bike gear in the van either, so we headed on to Bend.
The Oregon Cascades Scenic Highway took us through the Deschutes National Forest, past lava flows and along more empty, tree lined roads. It’s not a place I’d fancy hitching. There’s nobody around! All the talk of an overpopulated planet is a little harder to understand out here. Makes you realise quite how much humanity has flocked to urban centres.
In Bend we stopped off at a bike shop to get an idea of where the best riding spots are (Bend has a reputation for being a biking mecca), to get a real coffee and to check in on some emails. We’ve had zero phone reception for days. No phone reception and no traffic would mean a long bike ride to get help if we had any trouble with the van… but a lot better than the same distance on foot!
Spent a couple of hours riding in the forest just above Bend; from Phil’s trailhead. There are a load of marked trails here; some of them one-way so you can really crank it. Not especially technical, but very flowy, so it was lots of hard pedalling. I felt the altitude, but otherwise not in bad shape. Out on the trails I met a couple who’d come down from Seattle for a few days biking holiday, and a guy who’d moved to Bend from Idaho 6 years ago and says “it’s the best thing he’s ever done”. Otherwise it was pretty empty. Great to be back on the bike in the dust.
From Bend we headed north through Madras and over the Warm Springs Indian Reserve. I’m not quite sure what an Indian Reserve is; all we saw was lots of open land and yet again, new and impressive scenery. Beyond the Indian Reserve we headed up into the hills, into the cloud and rain again, before going over the summit at Barlow pass and down the Hood River gorge in the late afternoon light.
A shower was on the to-do list for today so we found a State Park campsite just along the freeway from Hood River (the town), at Memaloose. This place is windy! I was expecting wind since it’s one of the world’s top kite surfing spots, so shouldn’t really have been surprised. A train track ran along the bottom of the campground, so every hour or so during the night there was a thunder of engines followed by the rumble of hundreds of rolling stock going past. I (as usual) slept through everything but Rose found it a bit harder.
Road and Ocean 