What better way than to spend an October weekend than out of doors.
Friday Ben, Greg and I headed toward the wetter side of the Cascade range for a mountain bike ride of The Twins and Waldo Lake, a 5 hour adventure that started with a lung burning climb, a pretty descent and a long loop around the lake. A bit of snow, a lot of sunshine and few wilted, but still edible huckleberries made the day fabulous (not to mention the company of two of Bend's most attractive men). We finished the ride, somewhere between 25-30 miles, just as the sky was getting darker and with big smiles we loaded our bikes back onto and into the Subaru and headed back to town.
Saturday was another great day in Central Oregon. It started with a ride with the Sunnyside Girls, cross training girl style, we had a great ride on the mountain bike trails on our skinny tires. Renee, Mary, Gina and myself made our way up to Tumalo Falls and back to town again where we met up with the guys and feasted at Nancy P's.... As soon as Ben and I got home, we looked at the clock; we had talked about a run to GreenLakes, did we have time before the sun would decide to set on our backyard?? Yes, lets go - so I quickly changed from cycling gear to running shorts and we jumped in the car and headed for the hills.
We started up the trail, both Ben and I feeling our legs from the previous days ride but happy to be out in the forest and enjoying each others company. Our plan was to just run up to Green Lakes and back, about a 8-9 mile run along the creek that flows out of the lakes, but when we reached the lakes and were starting back, we decided to go exploring and take the Soda Creek Trail back to the trail head.... the trails, when put together make a loop (Green Lakes and Soda Creek) so we thought we would give it a whirl.
A long story short, we made it back to the car with just enough light to spare to give me piece of mind and were blown away by the beauty the Soda Creek trail had to offer.... why had we been running up and back Green Lakes all summer? Soda Creek is the ticket; it takes a bit longer and adds a bit more elevation than Green Lakes trail, but that is why there aren't any other people out there - lets keep it that way!!
