Ryan and Amber: Bend x2, Portland Marathon, and other fun

It has been another couple busy weeks. The kokanee salmon started running the first week of October and I took this as my opportunity to finally see a bear. I've been living in Tahoe for almost a year and no bears. Ryan and I tried to head down each morning after work trying to get a glimpse of a bear feasting on salmon. What we got instead was the bear running down the road. A couple nights later I got called off work and with nothing else to do I headed down to the creek and got to see a big black bear in the middle of the river swiping up fish. Pretty darn cool!

We got lucky with an 7 day off streak sandwiched in between 6 days on work on either side. We loaded the van up and headed for Portland via Bend. On the drive up I had Ryan drop me in Sunriver so I could ride up around Mt. Bachelor on the way to Bend to get some training miles in along the way. It was a chilly day with highs in the low 50s, but at the upper elevations temps dropped into the 30s. The beautiful scenery made up for the snowy roads and freezing temps.

South Sister on the scenic ride to Bend

Crazy lava flow just above the road

The Calfee having a fun day

Mt. Bachelor

Where the snow started

The higher I climbed the more snow there was.

There would be no "bathing" in the river on this trip. It was a just a little too cold. I did however fit a quick swim in Juniper pool just as they were putting the top on for winter.

The van at the top of Pilot Butte

Bend bike lane art

After a couple brief days in Bend (thanks Ken and Denise for the hospitality) we headed up to Portland. The real purpose of this trip was for Ryan to run the Portland Marathon. Of course I signed up also because there was no way I was going to stand around and wait while he had all the fun. Ryan after starting his run racing with a trail 50K and a 50 miler kept wondering how fast he could run on the road for a marathon. Turns out he did a 3:06! My run was less than stellar but a good training day and it was a really nice course. We had another short visit with my old roommate from Reno. Thanks Tom, Suzie, and Duncan for having us. We might be back next year..... I think Ryan wants to break 3hrs.

You can't really read the bike counter in this photo but there were over 1400 bikes that had crossed the bridge that day. Got to love a bike friendly city!

Matchy matchy

Post race we drove to Astoria for a little museum time and then headed down the Oregon coast over the next 2.5 days. We did stop in a couple National Parks on the way south. Ssshhh, don't tell. There wasn't a gate and I did have an annual parks pass so I figured we already paid. Sand Dunes was amazing and we were the only people there. Redwoods had a few people but it was also mostly empty. I wonder what Yosemite was like. The last day in Oregon I headed out in the morning on bike and Ryan let me have a couple hour head start before catching up. I ended up getting 4+ scenic coast miles in before he picked me up and we hightailed it home. Back to work the next day for 6 straight. :-(