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Saturday, December 16

Silver Falls State Park

Got a bit behind on the blogging...not much to write about this season, but more on that later.

Dylan flew into PDX today and we took a side trip to Silver Falls State Park.  Silver Falls is home of the trail of 11 falls, and the trail goes behind a number of them.  There's nothing like it anywhere.

Dylan in a typical pose.

 


 The bridge across North Fork Silver Creek.

 The trail behind North Falls (some creative naming went on here).

 The trail behind Lower South Silver Falls.  Lots of water this time of year.

That's all for Silver Falls.

Thursday, December 21
Mt. Bachelor

We hung around for a few days hoping it would snow so Willamette could open, but alas it was not to be.  So, we made a day trip to Mt. Bachelor.

At more than 3 hours, the drive on a day trip is not for the faint of heart.  The weather was good and they had 14" of new snow the day before, so it was the best we could hope for given the circumstances.  We arrived in the parking lot just before 9 when the lifts start spinning and then promptly spent an hour waiting in line to get a pass.  Unacceptable.  Colorado resorts would never get away with service like that; Bachelor can because there's little competition here.  Moreover, they gouged us $96 for pass when less than half the mountain was open.  I wasn't super impressed and told them as much when the sent me a survey soliciting feedback.

 The upside is skiing is pretty fun no matter where you do it and the fresh snow made conditions pretty good for early season.  Still lots of wood and volcanic rocks looming underneath.

Dylan in his natural environment.

 We found some pow in the woods off Cloudchaser.

 Bachelor has the views.

 Panorama on top of the Skyliner lift.

 The statue of Bill Healey, founder of Mt. Bachelor, at the Pine Martin lodge.

 Looking out over the Sisters on last run.

Not a bad day for such a long drive.  We were hoping to get another day or two in, but it didn't snow.  I'm hoping that's not the template for this season.  We'll see.