Spring Break for my daughter and wife was this past week so we decided a two night trip was in order. We decided to stick close to home, so we limited our travel time to about two hours. After a quick check online of State Parks in WA and OR, we decided to visit the Deschutes State Recreation Area that is located where the Deschutes River runs into the Columbia River. (This is on the OR side of the river.)
We left on Monday afternoon and arrived around 5pm to find a mostly empty campground. (The whole time we were there we only saw about six other campers.) While we could have reserved a space online, I didn't see the need this early in the season and on a weekday. We picked a nice spot backing up towards the river and had an empty space on each side of us.
The weather wasn't the greatest... and we didn't care since we had a nice place to stay inside. The wind blew off and on... mostly on... during our stay and we received a bit of rain. But when the weather was managable, Ryan and I did a little exploring. One of the draws to this Recreation Area is a 15+ mile trail that is a converted rail bed that runs up the east side of the Deschutes River. The trail is shared by bicyclists, equestrians and hikers. It is really a great bike trail! Here is Ryan at mile marker 1 on the trail on Tuesday.
Ryan is taking a pic near the above mentioned mile marker.
And here is what her picture is of. The nearby river is the Deschutes. Beyond the bridges is the Columbia.
On Wednesday, I told Ryan we needed to at least ride two miles up the trail. If you have dealt with an 8 yr old, you know what a challenge it can be if she thinks it is too far to go.... But once out riding, she realized it wasn't that far and here she is at mile marker 2.
On the way to mile marker 2, we crossed a cement area where water (less than an inch) was running across the trail. We both rode across easily enough. On the way back, Ryan wanted to get a picture of me riding through the water. As I was slowly going across, my front tire washed out on the slimy bottom and I went down. I survived OK, but i did get a bit muddy! My camara also hit the ground... in the water... but I scooped it up and cleaned it off and it seems to have survived! (No, Ryan didn't get a pic of me going down!)
On the way back, I snapped this pic looking upstream on the Deschutes.
I had noticed there was a rail line across the river as we were riding along and I wondered how active it was. (There is a very active rail line running up and down the Columbia near the campground. We heard trains going by every couple of hours, sometimes even more frequently.) It wasn't long and we saw this train coming up the river.
All in all, it was a good first trip. We accomplished our goal of checking out our new RV. We found some areas we can improve... and discoverd the non-working microwave. We determined we have plenty of black water capacity, but our gray water is severely lacking! Even though we ran the heat most of the trip, we found it didn't deplete our propane too quickly. We are really looking forwad to summer and hitting some more scenic places in WA and OR! (And me, I want to get back to this bike trail and follow it all the way up! I understand there are also campsites along this route.)
P.S. Anyone know where I can find the drain for the fresh water tank?! (Seriously, I've yet to find it! #-o )
