Travel, Photography, Life
A Log Cabin in Bend, Hiking with No Shoes, Kayaking on Hosmer Lake, Fall Colors and a Birthday Celebration
My week in photos
I’ve always heard about people who run with no shoes, and I’ve certainly seen those folks on the hiking trails, but I never imagined that I would join their ranks. But when you forget your shoes at the cabin and you find yourself on the banks of Suttle Lake in Bend, Oregon, you just have to go with the flow.
I doubled up on the socks, putting the precious smartwools on the inside, and off we went. Fortunately, the trail around Suttle Lake was mostly dirt with soft pine needles and mulch from fallen leaves.
My husband, my sister and I had ventured to Bend, Oregon to celebrate my birthday. When I was a kid, in Upstate New York, my birthday weekend always coincided with the changing leaves in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, so my parents would bundle us into the 70’s green station wagon and off we went for a road trip. So, in my mind, birthdays have always been equated with colored leaves.
My lovely step-daughter, Ashley, tracked down our address and sent me fall-colored birthday flowers, which were so lovely. And my sister, Katherine Pollock, found us this fantastic log cabin to rent.
We did several more hikes (with shoes) while we were there. All of these photos are iPhone photos (I’m in the midst of the huge project of switching over from Lightroom CC to Lightroom Classic, with all of the accompanying glitches, so I have not done much editing of the photos from my Nikon yet.)
This is from a hike along the Deschutes River Trail from Dillon Falls to the Aspen Campground.
As you can see, the landscape is quite otherworldy with lots of volcanic rock.
On the way back, we encountered this set of killer stairs, which we had to climb to get back up to the main trail.
The leaves, especially the aspen, are beginning to change to fall colors.
We also stumbled onto Smith Rock State Park, which looks like a little Sedona, Arizona dropped in the middle of the flat ranchlands.
As we were leaving (at an hour at which I am not normally awake), the view of the mountains from the tarmac was pretty incredible. They looked like they were lit from within.
The temperature had plummeted on that last night and a storm had blown in, dusting the mountains with fresh snow. It was 27˚F when we left the cabin.
I dozed off while we were taking off, and when I opened my eyes again, once we were airborne, the view of the Two Sisters Mountains, covered with snow and floating in the clouds, took my breath away. This shot is of Mount Ranier, a little closer to Seattle. This is where my sister and I did our astrophotography workshop last month.
The whole flight back to Seattle and then down the coast was mind-blowing (more photos to come — I happened to have my Nikon with me on the plane). I have to admit that there may be something to this getting up early idea. But then, what would this night owl do after the rest of the world has gone to bed?
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).
I hope that you all had lovely weeks. As always, I thank you Dennett for creating this “week in photos” challenge.
It’s so fun to share about the week and to read about so many other photographers’ weeks around the world.
You might want to check out a few of the others who participate:
Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/ Mia Verita /Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett and more… (if I’ve failed to mention your name, please let me know so that I can add it in future weeks).
I hope you enjoyed my photos and musings. You might also like:
Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.