McKenzie River (By the Numbers)

The McKenzie River is so close and has been on my camping, running and cycling lists for such a long time.  Earlier this month we finally made it happen!  It rained a bit (a lot) Friday evening and it was rather cold throughout, but overall it was a lovely weekend getaway.

Here's how it stacked up by the numbers:

7 People
We were joined in our weekend adventure by Christopher Love's sister, her very nice new(ish) gentleman friend and a few friends.  All were self sufficient, friendly, low key and lovely to hang out with.

6 Bikes
One of the draws to the McKenzie River is the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway.  Hwy 242 cuts East towards Sisters in Central Oregon and is a designated "scenic highway."   What makes it an awesome "bikeway" is that the road is closed during the winter due to snow.  Depending on the year the road opens up to cars as early as mid-June but opens to bikes much sooner and cyclists get a 36 mile stretch of road all to themselves. The route climbs from the lush valley of Western Oregon through switchbacks and forests I'm pretty sure have a very high population of gnomes and elves.  By the time we reached the pass it was the high desert lava lands of Central Oregon.  A rustic observatory built of lava rocks at the top provided 360 views of something like 15+ peaks and mountains.  Beer is to be had just down the hill at Three Peaks Brewing in Sisters, but alas we had started late, we were pretty cold and, overall, didn't feel up to an 80-ish mile day.

At the summit soaking up some Vit D

5 Dogs
Among us we had five poochers.  Maxwell and Samson were the venerable old geezers who got along with pretty much everyone.  Gorgeous Sora can be defensive at times but was pretty well behaved.  Scout was on guard and growling and barking at most everyone and everything.  Pretty Daisy is a rescue and had some ups and downs with how well she played with the other dogs but was awesome with all the people - a pretty big deal for her.

4 Knives
Christopher Love and his knives.  It has gotten to a point now where he is a blacksmith (for fun in his spare time) and we have developed extremely ridiculous standards for knives.  Christopher's sister Alicia has a new friend - Kevin.  I like to think that Kevin is secretly a giraffe but he used to work for Gerber Knives and is also quite specific about his blades.  It was a nice thing for the boys to connect on.  For the record:  Christopher brought three kick-ass knives with him, Kevin (as far as I know) only brought one.

3 Waterfalls
There are a lot more than three waterfalls in and around the McKenzie River but I got to spy three of them.  I don't have pictures that do them any justice but here is one we found by accident.  Jen and Dave (parents to furballs Maxwell and Sora) had forgotten the key to their bike rack so we had 40 minutes to kill when they went back to the campground.  We wandered about half a mile into the woods and found Proxy Falls.  I'm really glad Dave and Jen forgot their key.

2 Campsites
Paradise Campground was so beautiful and peaceful.  The campsites were strangely inconsistent with some barely large enough for one tent and others sprawling out with room for an RV, multiple cars and a bevy of tents.  The sites we had reserved for our merry crew were of the former category but the campground hosts were very nice and made it easy for us to switch to two other sites that were a bit more spacious.  They still weren't close to each other but we turned one into the "living room" where we ate and hung out and the other into the "bedroom" where three of the four tents were set up.  With the giant trees, rushing river and very calm fellow campers I slept amazingly well.  It was cold but we had good sleepy bags and a nice 8" queen air mattress in our six person tent that only had two people!
Note for future camping:  Site 54 was my favorite, 22 was Alicia's.

Amazing morning hair!

1 Beautiful River
The McKenzie River has rafting, fishing, mountain biking, hiking and even a crazy 50K trail running race.  A 25-mile trail weaves around a couple of lakes and then meanders, burbles and often roars along lava, waterfalls, old growth forrest, and at one point (after going underground for a few miles) pops up in the stunning Tamolich Pool, nicknamed the "Blue Pool" for its startling aquamarine color.  I got to do a short solo run Friday night along the lower part of the river trail and Sunday we planned a loose group run starting just south of the Blue Pool.  The plan was for speedy Christopher to go 4ish miles north while I went more like 3ish miles with Jen and Dave.  I would turn around while Jen and Dave kept going and Christopher would probably pass me on the way back to the car and we would finish about the same time.  But then I went and got seduced by the splendor and didn't turn around soon enough.  Plan B was for me to continue running north with Jen and Dave while Christopher went back to the car to join me at Koosh Falls.  A mile or two later Jen and I had paused to wait for Dave and behold the glory of the surroundings and then Christopher showed up.  I think either the forest gnomes had been up to some mischief to confuse him ala the goblins in Labyrinth or he was delirious from running too hard and fast.  I wasn't really feeling up to a nine or ten mile run (with no water) but I also didn't really want to send Christopher back into the woods by himself again so we all turned around and took a very easy pace back to the cars.  By my reckoning our pre-breakfast run was Christopher's first trail half marathon!

Declarations of Love

Green is a fine color.  I like it, always have.  In my personal estimation of the vast color-plex it comes in above average, but is not my favorite.  My Christopher, on the other hand, is 100% committed to green and has held this single-minded and absolute preference since about age three.  Over the years with Christopher my wardrobe has evolved under the influence of this strong green bias.  At present a majority of my sweaters are green and those in the minority have been around longer than Christopher. Green is still merely a liked-but-not-favorite color for me, yet I gravitate towards it.  Part of me does this because I know the green shirt will make my Christopher a tiny bit happier when he sees me.  When he was hit by a car and in the ER last fall my biggest priority when going to pick him up was making sure I wore something green.  An even bigger motivation to my green bias, especially with the work clothes he almost never sees me in, is that wearing green makes me think of him as I go about my day.

Photo credit Chelsea Gale whose husband will hike ahead but leaves love notes along the way.   

Now let me rant about a certain type of commercial that is most annoying to me.  It is the jewelry or car commercial saying, "Prove your love by buying an expensive luxury item and the amount you spend correlates directly to the amount you love."  This is (to me) a waste of money that could go towards an extra mortgage payment (aka earlier financial freedom), spaying or neutering a massive colony of cats or any other number of things more worthwhile than a platinum charm bracelet or Lexus.  I realize this is a personal assessment of value, but overall I can't help seeing such gifts as a one time, uninspired act and therefore a cheap and generic way to show love.

Buying me some big diamonds would certainly cost a chunk of cash and likely require my Christopher to work harder and sacrifice in other areas - proof that he loves me!  But he leaves work on time and week after week after week (after week after week!) we have dinner together every night.  I'd guess we've shared dinner at least 2,500 times.  He also knows I like the blue plates better than the white ones so always gives me the blue plate. 

He'll also fold all the laundry when I'm not looking, waits a moment before leaving in the morning so we can share the first few minutes of our commutes, reminds me to take my vitamins and has a habit of asking what good thing happened today. These are subtle choices, tiny moments of tenderness and part of a persistent, unflagging habit of care and attention.  The blue plate is never going to register on anyone's newsfeed but it means a lot to me.