Voodoo Hoodoo

I split Seattle last Wednesday and headed down to Oregon. I spent the day in Portland messing around on the 40 mile bike trail that goes around the city. I stopped at Voodoo Donuts and was rewarded with some pretty funky choices after waiting in line for about 45 minutes! I had dinner at Amnesia Brewpub and then drove down to Eugene.

My plan was to backpack the smaller 35 mile loop around the three sisters range before picking up the Gman. I swung by the Ranger station and found out once again because of the snow alot of the trails were still buried. Nevertheless, I threw my ice axe on my pack and away I went... until about mile 8, at which point the trail eluded me. I had been having trouble keeping track of it but by mile 8 it vanished. After some deliberation I figured it was probably smarter to turn around then risk getting lost. So my day turned out to be a long day hike with a heavy pack :)

There is a special secret place along the Mckenzie River that bike dude told me about last year...only bike dude must have told several folks because I can only get the spot some times since there seems to be folks there quite often. I scored the campsite on Thursday night after my failed attempt to do the Three Sisters loop. It was a lovely night, the food was fresh from kiva, the beer fresh from Eugene!

The next morn I decided to head to Bend to do some mtn biking! I wasn't gonna' make the shlepp but seriously, I couldn't help myself. I picked up the trail map at REI and then spent the afternoon on Phil's trail, After, I went to the Deschutes tavern. The tavern is pretty cool because Deschutes brew masters make beers they serve here that never go to bottling. So I had a King Screamer IPA which you can never get in Austin and an Elk burger that was soooooooooooo delish! After, I went to this shoe store (boutique) to find these shoes I had seen last year that I really, really wanted. Of course I should have bought them last year because I have not been able to find them since. And, they didn't have them this year!

I spent the night on the river again and woke up to rain. I hit one of the Eugene bakeries before heading to NYC to pick up Garrett. NYC graduation was entertaining, the stories were really funny. It was the Gman's bday on Saturday and we got a room in Medford and pizza from the local pizza joint to celebrate.

We made our way down to Oakland on Sunday to hang with the fam. Monday I picked Dani up who had flown by herself into SFO and we all went to see the new Harry Potter movie. We made our way even further south into LA yesterday and we are hangin' with the Sloans for the next couple of days...yee ha! In and Out for lunch, Hugo Tacos for dinner and lot's more in store....

later, rob