may 29, Bachelor's Butt(e)
5/15/06
OR elsewhere
4433
9
this is not Virginia...
i'm going to be short as i'm traveling right now -- but those involved will surely fill in the details. i left the office in Richmond, VA on Friday at 11am to catch my flight in DC to Seattle. the 2+ hours drive was pleasant despite the AC in my vehicle being broken. the humidity hasn't picked up yet -- i don't mind the heat so much, but the humidity can be annoying. anyway, the first leg of my flight was interesting. at 32,000 ft. i noticed what appeared to be clear liquid squirting from several seams on the top of the wing of the plane -- it flowed for two-hours. "that's water from the clouds," the flight attendant reassured me... okay, i guess you're the expert, but i'll bet you that "water" is flamable!
at 9:30pm Allyson picked me up and we drove to her place where i was greeted by Cinnamon and Cass. at 7am the next morning Paul, Kelvin, Cass, Cinnamon, Darryl, Allyson and i left Seattle for the Sisters. it was pouring rain all the way to Mt. Hood. the infrared maps that Cass brought showed rain from WA to VA. i should have just stayed in VA. after lolly-gagging in Bend, we settled down for the night car-camping next to Sparks Lake. Paul was most excited about our camping spot. the weather did not let off and it wet-snowed throughout the night. the morning brought unmotivated spirits for a ski tour, so we lift-skied at Mt. Bachelor instead. visibility was tricky at times, but the snow was decent -- about 6" of new snow, and it was light enough in spots for face shots... after the lifts closed at 1pm, we happily returned to our soggy camp. Paul was so, so excited about returning. for night two, we decided to drive down about 5 miles to camp below the weather. we found a great site and managed to dry all of our gear, while at the same time hung out drinking rootbeer. blue-bird skies greeted us the next morning. given our time constraint, we decided to climb to the top of Bachelor's Butt(e) to look for skiing. halfway up, a ski patroller warned us the summit chair at Bachelor had just opened, so we had to deal with downhill ski traffic. but the slopes on the southwest side were completely empty. protected slopes offered nice untracked powder. it all worked out in the end. from the top of the Butt(e) we enjoyed fantastic views of the Sisters and Busted Cap.
more photos
0. 20-point
2.
4.
6.
i'm going to be short as i'm traveling right now -- but those involved will surely fill in the details. i left the office in Richmond, VA on Friday at 11am to catch my flight in DC to Seattle. the 2+ hours drive was pleasant despite the AC in my vehicle being broken. the humidity hasn't picked up yet -- i don't mind the heat so much, but the humidity can be annoying. anyway, the first leg of my flight was interesting. at 32,000 ft. i noticed what appeared to be clear liquid squirting from several seams on the top of the wing of the plane -- it flowed for two-hours. "that's water from the clouds," the flight attendant reassured me... okay, i guess you're the expert, but i'll bet you that "water" is flamable!
at 9:30pm Allyson picked me up and we drove to her place where i was greeted by Cinnamon and Cass. at 7am the next morning Paul, Kelvin, Cass, Cinnamon, Darryl, Allyson and i left Seattle for the Sisters. it was pouring rain all the way to Mt. Hood. the infrared maps that Cass brought showed rain from WA to VA. i should have just stayed in VA. after lolly-gagging in Bend, we settled down for the night car-camping next to Sparks Lake. Paul was most excited about our camping spot. the weather did not let off and it wet-snowed throughout the night. the morning brought unmotivated spirits for a ski tour, so we lift-skied at Mt. Bachelor instead. visibility was tricky at times, but the snow was decent -- about 6" of new snow, and it was light enough in spots for face shots... after the lifts closed at 1pm, we happily returned to our soggy camp. Paul was so, so excited about returning. for night two, we decided to drive down about 5 miles to camp below the weather. we found a great site and managed to dry all of our gear, while at the same time hung out drinking rootbeer. blue-bird skies greeted us the next morning. given our time constraint, we decided to climb to the top of Bachelor's Butt(e) to look for skiing. halfway up, a ski patroller warned us the summit chair at Bachelor had just opened, so we had to deal with downhill ski traffic. but the slopes on the southwest side were completely empty. protected slopes offered nice untracked powder. it all worked out in the end. from the top of the Butt(e) we enjoyed fantastic views of the Sisters and Busted Cap.
more photos
0. 20-point
2.
4.
6.
author=kam link=topic=4829.msg20435#msg20435 date=1149032222]
Paul was most excited about our camping spot.
yes, paul was quite fond of that place. both he and kam really missed out when they decided to drive back to bend on saturday for pizza and beer, instead of joining the rest of us on the 'sparks lake loop tour'... ::)
great trip, everyone! i'm glad we were able to enjoy some sunshine after dealing with sogginess for a couple days. and thanks to darryl for, uh, "misplacing" his boots! ;) otherwise, we would have never considered the bachelor option. fun times were definitely had all around! 8)
hey kam, thanks for posting the tr and great photo on the butte. who would have guessed we'd be skiing powder with blue bird skies after our lovely car camp at sparks lake ;) glad we could come to the rescue that night with pizza and beer for those hard core types in the group, huddled in the megamid while we read vanity fair "waiting" for the pepperoni to cook on the sunny side. the bc experience at its best. ;D thanks to everybody for a memorable memorial day!
Kam, making turns on the Butte...all the way from Virginia
Kam, making turns on the Butte...all the way from Virginia
Excellent. Did you put a couple of hibachis out for "curb feelers" on that 20-point turnaround?
Nice photos, Bachelor is such a great area, looks like you were having a fun time. Wow Cinnamon and Kam, way to balance on the webbing, you know "geezers" can't do that ;).
author=gregL link=topic=4829.msg20463#msg20463 date=1149105263]Nice one Greg ;D ;D.
Excellent. Did you put a couple of hibachis out for "curb feelers" on that 20-point turnaround?
Excellent. Did you put a couple of hibachis out for "curb feelers" on that 20-point turnaround?
no, but there was a line up of small flaming hibachis in the bachelor parking lot Mon afternoon that Kelvin pointed out for me....could have easily taken out 3 or 4 now that I've had some practice ;D
Our intent was to have a great backcountry trip (Broken Top) which turn into pretty damn fun back, front and side country trips.
On the drive to Bend, we did visit every Black Bear restaurant in OR. That was pretty fun!
The back country trip was a fantastic loop trip (90 feet of elevation change) in the Sparks lake area. We had a thrilling 3 turn run from the road into the ditch below the road and toured the beautiful Sparks lake shoreline. Allyson and Cinammon talked "girl talk" on the tour while Chris, Kelvin and I stayed out of hearing range. Kam and Paul didn't participate in the tour. They were too stressed about being behind on their Vanity Fair reading so they had to drive into Bend to read and drink beer. They did bring beer (real and root), pizza and the weather report (dry as a bone on the east side of Mt. Bachelor) back to our very pleasant, wet camp on the road to Sparks lake. They found the rest of us bonding in Paul's megamid praying for the rain to stop. We planned to tour Broken Top the next morning. The night was very restful as we listened to the snow slide off of the sides of our tents.
In the morning, we couldn't see a damn thing but our snow-covered tents so we did a front country trip. We skiied the ungroomed areas of Mt. Bachelor and rode the lifts (rather than skinning). The wind, snow, low visibility and rain made this a memorable ski adventure. Paul was REALLY looking forward to returning to our lovely Sparks lake camp and made a point of mentioning it to us. The rest of us debated where to stay that night - in the rain at magnificant Sparks lake or in a room in Bend. Staying in a room would be too comfortable and we already spent one night at Sparks lake. We compromised by camping on the DRY east side of Mt. Bachelor. The sun light at our new camp nearly blinded us. We had to restrict our movements in camp due to the unbearable heat. Kam sensed that these conditions could destroy our morale. So he stretched 3 feet of webbing to 12 feet and introduced us to slack lining. Kam showed us that slack lining is no problem for people with dominant monkey genes. Cinnamon quickly adjusted to it although it had a delayed side effect on her by bringing out her suppressed gorilla behavior later that night. Paul recommended that we continue our behavior of NOT cooking any of the food that we brought with us so we drove into Bend to eat. Kam showed Paul on two different occassions that the Deschutes Brewery restaurant is NOT at the Deschutes Brewery.
After a night of listening to motorcycle races, we awoke to a blue bird morning. We quickly broke camp and started our side country trip. We marched up through the Mt. Bachelor ski area to the summit. On the summit, Allyson and Cinnamon posed as slalom gates for the alpine skiers. We skied the magnificant south side of Mt. Bachelor. Kam christened Paul with many new names (although not original) as Paul skied the untracked powder. We traversed back to the ski area and parking lot where half the population of Oregon welcomed us. We couldn't stay to receive their adoration and gifts because we had to get back to the Q that Allyson and Kam were conducting.
What a trip! It was pretty damn fun!!
On the drive to Bend, we did visit every Black Bear restaurant in OR. That was pretty fun!
The back country trip was a fantastic loop trip (90 feet of elevation change) in the Sparks lake area. We had a thrilling 3 turn run from the road into the ditch below the road and toured the beautiful Sparks lake shoreline. Allyson and Cinammon talked "girl talk" on the tour while Chris, Kelvin and I stayed out of hearing range. Kam and Paul didn't participate in the tour. They were too stressed about being behind on their Vanity Fair reading so they had to drive into Bend to read and drink beer. They did bring beer (real and root), pizza and the weather report (dry as a bone on the east side of Mt. Bachelor) back to our very pleasant, wet camp on the road to Sparks lake. They found the rest of us bonding in Paul's megamid praying for the rain to stop. We planned to tour Broken Top the next morning. The night was very restful as we listened to the snow slide off of the sides of our tents.
In the morning, we couldn't see a damn thing but our snow-covered tents so we did a front country trip. We skiied the ungroomed areas of Mt. Bachelor and rode the lifts (rather than skinning). The wind, snow, low visibility and rain made this a memorable ski adventure. Paul was REALLY looking forward to returning to our lovely Sparks lake camp and made a point of mentioning it to us. The rest of us debated where to stay that night - in the rain at magnificant Sparks lake or in a room in Bend. Staying in a room would be too comfortable and we already spent one night at Sparks lake. We compromised by camping on the DRY east side of Mt. Bachelor. The sun light at our new camp nearly blinded us. We had to restrict our movements in camp due to the unbearable heat. Kam sensed that these conditions could destroy our morale. So he stretched 3 feet of webbing to 12 feet and introduced us to slack lining. Kam showed us that slack lining is no problem for people with dominant monkey genes. Cinnamon quickly adjusted to it although it had a delayed side effect on her by bringing out her suppressed gorilla behavior later that night. Paul recommended that we continue our behavior of NOT cooking any of the food that we brought with us so we drove into Bend to eat. Kam showed Paul on two different occassions that the Deschutes Brewery restaurant is NOT at the Deschutes Brewery.
After a night of listening to motorcycle races, we awoke to a blue bird morning. We quickly broke camp and started our side country trip. We marched up through the Mt. Bachelor ski area to the summit. On the summit, Allyson and Cinnamon posed as slalom gates for the alpine skiers. We skied the magnificant south side of Mt. Bachelor. Kam christened Paul with many new names (although not original) as Paul skied the untracked powder. We traversed back to the ski area and parking lot where half the population of Oregon welcomed us. We couldn't stay to receive their adoration and gifts because we had to get back to the Q that Allyson and Kam were conducting.
What a trip! It was pretty damn fun!!
author=Darryl link=topic=4829.msg20472#msg20472 date=1149118570">A great loop trip for sure! with some epic elevation drop 8)
The back country trip was a fantastic loop trip (90 feet of elevation change) in the Sparks lake area.
Great accounts of the trip Kam & Darryl!
More photos of the "Sparks Lake Tour", camping/slack-lining, and Bachelor Butte skiing are posted here.
Kelvin, Paul and Cass: nice photos!
btw Cass, your 4-season tent was overkill for the weather conditions we experienced.
more photos
8. Cass on tele
9. Group
10. Paul
11. Jump-mount
12. Allyson
13. what do you mean you didn't bring skis?
btw Cass, your 4-season tent was overkill for the weather conditions we experienced.
more photos
8. Cass on tele
9. Group
10. Paul
11. Jump-mount
12. Allyson
13. what do you mean you didn't bring skis?
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