Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Geo: 44.069, -123.082
On Monday Fletcher and Peter spent the day at the Coaches Conference which they found mainly interesting and informative. They had also taken our car back so I was "forced" to have a very lazy day of reading, updating my blog, playing computer games and generally chilling out. That night we returned to Sabai restaurant which has excellent Thai food. Peanut joined us for his last night in Eugene and once again it was very pleasant sitting outside in warm conditions with lovely food and tasty Oregon wine.
After a slow morning on Tuesday we headed into the mountains and drove along the McKenzie River. This part of Oregon is stunning. Heavily wooded forests with sparkling clear water. Peter drove us off the main road into sheltered nooks where camping in summer is popular. Some very pretty places. We stopped for a sandwich at McKenzie Bridge at a cafe called Inn at the Bridge. This was hilairious. The woman serving us was very frazzled and seemed to be out of everything. She greeted us with "There's no turkey, no bacon, no tuna, only enough chicken for two sandwiches" She was contemplating shutting the shop as she told us that as
it was Tuesday they were always short of stuff on Tuesdays as if we should have known. In the end I had a Chicken Pecan sandwich with cranberries, Peter a Pastrami and cheese while Fletcher settled for a toasted ham, cheese and tomato which originally was a club sandwich minus the turkey, minus the bacon . They were very nice but took a while to come as she was alone and there were several customers.
We drove ten minutes up the road to Belknap Hot Springs from whence our white water rafting expedition was to commence. The company, High Country Expeditions, was full of fun staff who took a light-hearted approach to the trip. We changed into bathers and were driven about 2 miles upstream. After kitting up with shoes, jackets and life vests we were given the safety spiel and then divided up into groups of six. We had a couple of about our age from Fresno, Myron and Cindy, and AJ from San Francisco Bay Area. Our guide was Bill who seemed a little more experienced than the others. He took us into the lead boat and so we had a great view as we drifted down.
It was
a beautiful sunny day and the water was sparkling but very cold. The trip was just over 2 hours and there were some very calm spots interrupted by some rapids which provided the fun! Bill was very experienced and caught most of the currents. The other four had paddles while Fletcher and I bludged. Occasionally the call came to paddle forward and they responded with gusto. This was not all that often surprisingly. Bill did make the raft spin, go sideways etc to give us a more exciting ride. At one point we were invited to "Ride the Bull" which meant we sat on the front or side of the boat with our feet over the side. We then went through some deep waves which flung both AJ and myself back into the boat with our feet rather inelegantly up in the air. Hilairious! Along the banks were many holiday cabins and houses nestled in the tall trees. Some were huge mansions and other wooden cottages but they would be lovely spots for a summer holiday.
At the end of the trip we alighted and then were taken back by bus to Belknap where we could change from our very wet
clothes. They had also had someone taking photos along the way so we bought the USB of our boat. Outside Belknap were some interesting carvings and a great fountain in the form of a jazz band. There was also a humming bird feeder and it was fascinating to watch these tiny birds hovering with their wings whirring furiously.
We stopped on the way home at a roadside restaurant called Takoda. We sat outside in a very pretty garden setting and had a nice meal with a glass of Sauv Blanc. We got back to Eugene, tired but happy about 8-45pm. It had been a great afternoon doing an activity which we might otherwise have not attempted but we were sure glad we did.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb