From Sisters to Bend

 

We liked Sisters so much we decided to hang around a few more days. We almost never stay at a place that’s right in town, so it’s been fun to walk or bike from the campground. In two days we rode about 25 miles on the local mountain bike trails, Peterson Ridge and Sisters Tie Trail. Nice, easy trails if you don’t mind a little dust. And Jim only fell once.

On Sunday we met up with fellow RVers and bloggers Gary and Leslie (Next Horizon), from Green Valley, AZ, on an extended trip escaping the southern Arizona heat. It was a beautiful evening so we wandered around Sisters and found a strange little bar with outside seating for a beer and some good conversation. They will be here all month so we hope to meet up again at one of the many Bend breweries.

Yesterday I visited the urologist in Bend and have to return on Thursday for a cystoscopy. He said the bleeding I had could be the result of a small tumor, kidney stone, or nothing.  If the cystoscopy is normal the next step will be a CT scan. He also sent my urine off for a culture to rule out an infection. I really don’t like being a patient.

We scoped out some places to boondock near Bend and found a few possibilities. We really wanted to camp near Phil’s Trailhead and the huge network of mountain bike trails a few miles west of town. Jim spoke with a forest service ranger who said it is okay to camp there but they are discouraging it because it is such a popular biking area. We drove down the road to check it out and found a locked gate that said the area was closed due to noxious weed spraying. So why didn’t he just say it is closed??

We did find a couple other places farther out of town, and had decided to move to one of them today, but then yesterday we had a generous invitation to park in the pasture of a friend of a friend who lives in Bend. We are so very grateful!

How great to be camped less than a mile from a Trader Joe’s and just a couple miles from downtown. This afternoon we went over to Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint and climbed the mile long trail to the top of an old cinder cone. We had great views of Bend and the Cascade mountains and were surprised we could even see Mt. Hood way off in the haze.

Since there are quite a number of breweries in Bend we decided we might as well give one a try after our hike, so we stopped downtown at Bend Brewing Co. We both liked our selection and look forward to visiting some of the other breweries while we’re in town. We also walked down along the Deschutes River and through some of the downtown. I think we’re really going to like it here.