New Years in Sunriver, OR

View from the kitchen at my grandparents house

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Sunriver, OR. My father and I headed down last Tuesday to get a jump on the trip. We drove over Mt. Hood on Hwy 26 late that night and stopped off at Deschutes Brewery to fill up my growler full of Red Chair NWPA. Delicious stuff.

I had a few goals for the trip that included snowshoeing to the top of Tumalo Mountain with a potential ski decent back to the car through the trees. However, while I would have most likely been safe skiing down through the trees, I have little to no training when it comes to avalanche terrain nor do I have the appropriate gear except for an ice ax and shovel so I decided just a snowshoe summit would be in safest. My other idea was a showshoeing trip to the Paulina Lake hotsprings from 10 mile snowpark on Paulina peak. Although the resort was getting dumped with snow, I didnt want to have to deal with the long lines and expensive lift tickets so skiing was not on my priority list. Plus, I'm heading to SLC and Jackson Hole tomorrow so great skiing is already in my future.

Dad at Besson Spring

So when my father and I on Wednesday morning, we opted for a summit bid of Tumalo mountain. When we got to Dutchman Flat snowpark, the lot was full and we had difficulty finding a spot. The weather was hovering around 15 degrees with a steady wind. Since there is no established trail to the summit in the winter, we decided to follow a skin track up the mountain. We knew not to destroy the skin track, but the snow was just too deep outside the track to get up. Rather than destroy the skin track and due to poor weather, we opted to turn around and head to a lower elevation trailhead. We settled on shoeing back to Besson Springs day use area to get a good view of the peacefully flowing Deschutes River. We ended the night with dinner and a movie.

Deschutes River

Thursday morning, after some research on Paulina Peak, we bailed on that idea due to the length of the approach to the hotsprings. Leaving from the Paulina Resort Lodge, its about a 5 mile round trip in the summer, but from the 10 mile snowpark, its roughly a 10 mile trip. This was out of my father's range and would have been a long day for me. In the end, we decided to try for Tumalo Falls from the Skyliner snowpark.

View from Tumalo Creek Trail

In order to get a more scenic view, we opted to take the Tumalo Creek trail instead of the forest road that leads directly to the falls. The trail in was beautiful and provided a wonderful workout. During the summer, Adam and I attempted to ride up Mrazek trail, down Farewell Trail, down Tumalo Creek Trail and back to the car through the Phil's trail system. I look forward to completing this loop in the future.

Stopping for some lunch

Tumalo Falls was gorgeous! I hadn't been there since I was little, and it was summer then. Winter definitely provides a different perspective.

Tumalo Falls

Quality is a little poor but this would be the money shot

That night the rest of the crew arrived including Mom, sisters, sister's friend and boyfriend and Kerrie. They arrived around 1am as they had to wait for Kerrie's train from Seattle (a 7+ hour journey for Kerrie, extremely glad she decided to come!)

The next morning (New Year's Eve) we went for a walk with the family, read books by the fire, ate loads of cookies and played board games all the way up to midnight. It was great to have everyone there and having a good time.

Kerrie and I

The rest of the trip was spent doing more snowshoeing followed by the occasional winter trail run. I wanted to get out and try my setup in more frigid conditions. Both of the runs that I did occurred during 15 degree temperatures in both nightime and daytime conditions. My nike tights were great and my Marmot tempo jacket excelled, but I was most happy about my Buffwear scarf thing and my shoe set up (Montrail Mountain Masochist GTX and MHW Seta Running Gaitors). This footwear system has now performed admirably in both wet, muddy conditions and snowy, dry conditions. I hope to use this system for a few years if they tread on the shoes hold up.

A very cold trail run out to the Benham Falls Trailhead from Sunriver

Mountain Masochist GTX w/ MHW Seta Gaitors 

In the end, I had a great trip and really enjoyed the company and the activities. It is always great to spend the holidays in the Bend/Sunriver Area. However, now it is time for a quick turn around, and I must start packing for a trip to Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole with the boys. The first Mathering of 2011! (Man Gathering..)

UNT

Bryan

p.s. All these photos were taken via iPhone 4 inside a Sealline small item waterproof case

Shoeing to Tumalo Falls

Mount Washington peeking through the clouds