After a great nights rest by the river, we headed down the road with a big decision ahead. We had two ways to see the cascade mountain range. One consisted of going a couple extra miles with a gradual up hill, and the other was pretty much straight up with a lot of switch backs. We stopped at the ranger station to ask if the pass was passable this time of year. They told us it should be pretty clear, and bikers have been coming across with no problem for days now. But, they did show us a picture that a biker took about 5 days ago with 12 foot walls of snow on either side of him. This made the pass a little more interesting, and it would be sweet to see the snow like that on the side of the roads. Along with the snow, we had the chance to see one of the biggest lava fields in the states that stretched for 50 miles. On top of the mountain, there was an observatory to see the three sisters, Mt. Washington, and the lava fields. So the pass was looking pretty good and the ranger said it was worth the ride, but the other route offered some pretty sweet stuff as well. Many movies where shot at these falls not too far off the road and made for a difficult decision. We came up with the idea if we went up the pass we would try to climb the middle sister. The ranger station had a sweet 3-D map that we looked over. We decided that we would all point to the route we wanted to take. 1...2...3...point! We all pointed to the three sisters with hopes of climbing one of them.
The trip was amazing up the pass. 11 miles down the road a gate was shut to keep cars from going up over the mountain until it was ready for safe travel. We had the whole road to our self and kept climbing up and up and up. We passed 2000 feet......3000 feet....and came to a little pull off that said water falls that way. We could not pass up the opportunity for a hike. About a half mile into the hike, we came to a gorgeous water fall about 150 feet tall in the middle of no where. We even got to hike though a small lava field. We got back on the bikes and climbed for another 1000 feet and reached the lava fields, which were amazing. We all got a small piece of lava, like we need anymore weight on our racks, and got a sweet group picture. Back on the bikes and finished our climb to the 5324 summit. It was sprinkling the whole way up the mountain, and when we reached the top it was raining and about 14 degrees cooler if not more from the bottom of the mountain. So we could not really enjoy ourselves, but did get to go into a pretty sweet observatory that had these sweet windows that lined up with all the mountains which we could not see because of the clouds. We had enough of the rain and booked it down the mountain and into the town of Sisters. We let Chad do his thing and see if we could find a church to stay in instead of the tent. We found a very nice little church just outside of town that opened up there doors to us, how God continues to bless and watch over us is amazing. Once at the church, it was time to grab dinner. This was an amazing experience for us. We took off all our bags and left them at the church as we rode into town for food. We all about did a burnout as we left the church parking lot. We stopped at a local grocery store called Ray's, and we picked up some frozen vegetables to cook on the church stove. As we were checking out, we had to ask if there was a good bakery in town and if they had any leftover donuts they were going to toss. It's a good thing we asked because we got two packs of donuts for the price of one. A quick run to the store and a nice warm sit down dinner at McDonald's made for a wonderful night.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The trip was amazing up the pass. 11 miles down the road a gate was shut to keep cars from going up over the mountain until it was ready for safe travel. We had the whole road to our self and kept climbing up and up and up. We passed 2000 feet......3000 feet....and came to a little pull off that said water falls that way. We could not pass up the opportunity for a hike. About a half mile into the hike, we came to a gorgeous water fall about 150 feet tall in the middle of no where. We even got to hike though a small lava field. We got back on the bikes and climbed for another 1000 feet and reached the lava fields, which were amazing. We all got a small piece of lava, like we need anymore weight on our racks, and got a sweet group picture. Back on the bikes and finished our climb to the 5324 summit. It was sprinkling the whole way up the mountain, and when we reached the top it was raining and about 14 degrees cooler if not more from the bottom of the mountain. So we could not really enjoy ourselves, but did get to go into a pretty sweet observatory that had these sweet windows that lined up with all the mountains which we could not see because of the clouds. We had enough of the rain and booked it down the mountain and into the town of Sisters. We let Chad do his thing and see if we could find a church to stay in instead of the tent. We found a very nice little church just outside of town that opened up there doors to us, how God continues to bless and watch over us is amazing. Once at the church, it was time to grab dinner. This was an amazing experience for us. We took off all our bags and left them at the church as we rode into town for food. We all about did a burnout as we left the church parking lot. We stopped at a local grocery store called Ray's, and we picked up some frozen vegetables to cook on the church stove. As we were checking out, we had to ask if there was a good bakery in town and if they had any leftover donuts they were going to toss. It's a good thing we asked because we got two packs of donuts for the price of one. A quick run to the store and a nice warm sit down dinner at McDonald's made for a wonderful night.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Mackenzie pass
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