Trip of Giants - Giant leaps at Three Pools

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Warm sheets, warm room, spacious and comfy house. Last night on the drive to Jas' place I had felt awake but the 3 hrs of sleep and a few catnaps the previous night were taking their toll. I found I was falling completely asleep minutes at a time just sitting in the back seat of the car.

But Albany really put on a good day for us, warm, sun shining. We slept in past 9:30 then hung around getting ourselves in order. At 12 we drove off to a set of three swimming holes in the North Santiam River. There is three holes together so the place is called Three Pools. Nothing unusual about that, why be creative? I imagine in Australia it would have an aboriginal name meaning something like "Place of three water holes". Armed with driving directions from Mapquest (just like google directions), we took the wrong roads a couple of times to Mahema, including following instructions to the letter on the last instruction which was to turn right on Jennie Rd and travel 0.0 miles. That was after we passed the sign for "Mahema".

At the Gingerbread store, where we stopped to wait for Matt and the kids (who had also taken the wrong road at a different spot), I saw a sign for an Elk Hamburger. $4.60 I had to have one. Hamburger stashed in backpack, families reunited, we then drove on a lengthy detour to the swimming holes (direct road was closed).

The three holes are awe some. Beautiful crystal-clear water gushes through chutes in the rock to deep green pools. Rock cliffs, towers and outcrops surround the pools giving lots of opportunities to jump in at different heights. The sun-warmed rocks were a perfect balance to the near-icy cold water that made the plunge even more invigorating. Below the pools the river spreads out with shallow smooth outcrops of stone to wade along between thigh-deep channels with small stony beds. A stony beach provides the launching point for little kids and coldwater-adversive adults, ideally located on the north side to catch more sun in the afternoon.

The authorities have done the right thing here. Although there is a great paved parking area with toilet, wooden stairs down to the river, everything else is left untouched and you are left to experience the area at full exposure to any challenge you care to take. There was even a precarious branch crossing a small divide that we used to get across which any 'controlling' organisation would have replaced with a bridge or secured wire rope.

After 3.5 hours there, we drove out (Jas graciously stopping and permitting me to take a few photos of the forest on the drive: the dusty woods scene is one of those - Ky just rolled her eyes in the back seat). At one of those stops Matt with the kids passed us and escaped our dust (we'd deliberately left in front so they could get our dust on the drive out - the road is gravel for ~3 miles).

Dinner was at a 'Swiss' restaurant. With over a dozen hamburgers on the menu I don't think they offered Swiss cuisine. It was wholesome and cheap. The 7 of us ate for less than $60.

Back home at Jas and matt's, the kids played outside with matt and later when they'd gone to bed (A to sleep, our two to talk in whispers for 3 hours), Matt owned up to enjoying Joseph's company in the car. We're booking him in to a psychologist on Monday 😊

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