Klamath Falls and Burns

After departing Ashland we drove towards Klamath Falls, where we met Todd’s grad school buddy.  He is a professor at Oregon Tech, he’s pretty amazing. He’s the resident geotech professor at this small college.  And he’s probably the resident geotech within a 200 mile radius too. The school is a teaching college and that is his main job, but of course they are happy when he publishes too. He currently teaches 3 classes a quarter and publishes! AMAZING! He’s also a really nice guy and fun to camp with! He met us at Rocky Point RV Resort. A really calm and beautiful camp geared towards fishermen, and owned by the Oddfellows . The colors in the sky were from a pastel painting. Contrasted with the green grasses and fish jumping out of the water. Beautiful.

The next day we hit up Crater Lake. We drove in from the south entrance and started on the East Rim Road. Make sure you keep an eye out for the spires that are hidden in amongst the trees-pretty cool! They are remnants of gas “chimneys.” When Mt. Mazama erupted, gases escaped through these spires and hardened the surrounding material, making them more resistant to erosion. Our goal was to hike up Mt. Scott, the highest point in this National Park. It was great to get some perspective. We were able to see for miles into the valley that leads up to Crater Lake. I think this was our first serious hike since the winter time. With the altitude working against us as well, it was a bit challenging, but thoroughly enjoyable. As National Parks go, we drove around the rest of the park, made sure to get photos at the viewpoints and stopped at the Lodge.

We spent the night in Klamath Falls taking in the small town with our friends. In the morning we made sure to get AWESOME breakfast burritos (Gino’s), bakery goods, and our fill of local meat for our larder at Howard’s Meats-some really tasty meat!!!

Next destination: Burns- to meet STEFAN and ANNA! I justified the bakery stop to Todd by saying we had to bring some treats for our meetup with my brother and his girlfriend on their way to Seattle. I was pretty excited to see them but also pretty sad. This was going to be my final goodbye to my “baby brother” who is moving from NY to Seattle, and will be living in our house. I’ve spent most of my adult life away from Stefan because he’s so much younger, and now he moves to my home, but we’re leaving. Makes me sad. But, I’m also extremely excited for him and Anna because I think they’re going to love the Northwest, not to mention our AWESOME BARRIO neighbors who will surely provide good times in their future.