Red Barns, Grass Lands and A Whole Lot of Nothin'

Bend/SunRiver, Oregon

May 24, 2016

Leaving Dunsmuir and traveling North on the I-5....Arrived in SunRiver (community right outside of Bend) the Foodie/Brewery Capitol of Central Oregon!  Played along the Little Deschuttes river with Bodie, took a lovely hike and found a yucky TICK embedded in my stomach.  So gross.

Did you know that Bend has its own app for the BEND BEER TRAIL!  snazzy stuff. Lots and lots of microbreweries.  Interesting.  I also love the fact that Bend is so Dog Friendly.  We visited a book shop where the ladies were so into Bodie, I think they must have gave him 20 dog treats.  He had no tricks left up his sleeve.

Coming out of Dunsmuir we had a great shot of Mt. Shasta right smack in front of us with a trail of Airstreams. Beautiful shot for sure.  Passed the exit for the PCT where I resupplied Kevin a few years back, had to go check that out again.  Shasta Lake was so great to see full of water.

After leaving the I-5 at Weed, we head north on the 97.  Now we start the Red Barns, grasslands, and big, huge nothing lands.  97 leads us through dry grasslands traveling through the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs (many tribes together).  Then there is the whole “John Day” area, which according to Kevin, he didn’t do that much compared to other early settlers.  He was a trapper for the Astoria expedition, but a whole lot of land is named after him?

Hung out at a nice Brewery in Sun River. Crossed into Washington over the breezy Columbia River.  At Ellensburg we veered off on the scenic 97.  Key word here is SCENIC.  WOW.  This will be a road trip I will never forget.  Somehow we were dropped in Switzerland and no one mentioned it to us.  After driving through a valley of my dreams, we saw the Polk’s (Stream 1) entering the highway.  What a lovely drive with us in tandem through big tree forests and winding roads with very few cars around us.  Got a lot of “rear end” shots of their silver wagon.  We left them as they headed back east to Lake Chelan and us west to Leavenworth.  Spent the evening freaking out about my stupid tick in the Belly. I did get a new "call name" out of it from Jim Polk - TickGirl :(

SunRiver B