Thirty-Three

Deschutes River - April 3, 2005

Saturday we left the house around 4 PM. I wanted to be on the road earlier than that, but I burned a couple of hours figuring out how to securly fasten the Yakima bike rack to the back of the van. I used two tricks. First, I ran the belts underneath the air foil so the top clips could grab the door frame instead of plastic. Second, I cut out two sections of hose from a broken bicycle pump, slit them, and attached them to the bottom corners of the hatch door. That way the clips that grasp the door in the corner wouldn't slide around.

At the Flying J truck stop, we started following the RAO course. I think there might be a misleading mistake in the Route Book. At mile 18.6, the book says to "Turn left at flashing yellow onto Rt. 212." Well, there is a flashing yellow, but I think you go through it and then turn left onto Rt. 212 at the next traffic light. That's also where the Exxon gas station is.

I wasn't sure what the roads would be like around Mt. Hood, so I had chains in the car just in case. There were patches of snow on Forest Service Road 44. There were good tracks to drive in, but in a few places the snow was deep enough that it scraped the bottom of the van. I was glad I wasn't on the bike.

It was dark by the time we reached Maupin. I reserved a room at the Iperial River Co. My timing was pretty good. Summer rates went into effect on April 1st, but the cafe doesn't open until May. Oh well. We stayed in the Wildlife room. David and Lara were not happy about the mountain lion skin on the wall. I used my jacket to hide the head, but they were still spooked.

Sunday morning, we got a better view of the place. David and Lara found a boat and thought it would be fun to run the rapids on the Deschutes.