Fly fishing the Deschuttes

Deschuttes River

The bikes were going to be great for getting is further up the river quickly. We headed out the first day & rode about four miles before Levi got a flat. Not long after, both Chris & I had flats also. It was a long, hot walk back to camp. Note: always bring lots of extra tubes.

Levi outfitted with flies on his hat.


I should have known my favorite thing about fly-fishing would be the bugs. We stopped at a tackle shop before heading out of town & I had a great time looking over the hundreds of different handtied flies. It was even more fun to be on the river & see the insects our flies were immitating, from nymph stage to 4 inch flying bug! The photo is not an insect that begins life in the water, but a North American Darkling Beetle. Very cool beetles--I used to have one as a pet!

Levi casting.

Liza casting--do I know what I am doing? Not yet, but it's fun!

We are cool.

Awesome cliff.

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
Norman Maclean

Estate sale treasures

The quilt, yellow Pyrex bowl, & blue metal basin are estate sale treasures from last weekend's outing with my mama & sister. Less than $20 for three items which I am already enjoying very much. The quilt is very well made, the Pyrex bowl was $1 & may make a perfect gift for a close friend (who doesn't happen to read our blog :), & I am envisioning the blue basin on my deck with green plants spilling out of it.
The minute I set the treasures out on the floor, the kitties investigated & seemed to approve of my new additions...

Troy thought she was a perfect fit for the bowl...

And the basin grew a tail.

Hybrid This

Great little article about a super-milage vehicle contest. The winning vehicle got over 3000 miles to the gallon!!!!

Link

Father's Day weekend

We had a great Father's Day weekend. I spent Saturday morning visiting with my Alan & then my mom, sister & I went & found some treasures at estate sales around the neighborhood.
Sunday was the traditional Hearn Father's Day at the Museum of Flight. As Levi & I were also using Sunday as a training day for STP, we skipped the museum, but came for the tailgate lunch party. Levi & I rode our bikes down to the museum to meet the family & then continued south around Lake Washington & up the other side to home--a total of 62 miles. Good ride.

Daddy, me, & Boo:

Red

Ecuador street musicians on Nordstrom's corner downtown.

Blue

Cascade Canyon, Grand Teton National Park

Words, not my strong point

So as many of you know Eliza and I go backpacking a couple of times each summer. While Eliza is good with words I am not. We tend to express our adventures through pictures. However for those of you who like words check out Jacks recount of our latest backpacking adventure. He is an incredible writer and reading his article took my mind right back to the beach.

Enjoy

link

Black/Grey

Seastack between Strawberry & Toleak Point, Washington coast

Brown

Hollow tree--Hoh Rainforest

White

Troy (lighting not very good, but I didn't want to use a flash)

Color Week

A good friend has invited me to participate in a weeklong photo challenge, in which you post one photo with the color listed for the day. Here are the colors this week & I invite anyone else interested to join us.
Monday: white
Tuesday: brown
Wednesday: black/grey (but not a b&w photo)
Thursday: blue
Friday: red

I was rather disappointed there was no yellow day & have decided to stretch the rules a bit & make today, Sunday, be my yellow photo day (Kris, I think today should be your green! :)

And once again I am stretching the rules & posting two photos for today, only because the butterfly photo is not mine. I had to include a photo of a Western Tiger Swallowtail, because they are in my top five favorite insects (I bet not many of you have a list like that!) & because on our 46 mile bike ride today around half of Lake Washington I saw thirteen of them! So, there's your Sunday yellow folks!

Ballard Crit Race

Saturday evening Levi & I biked down to lower Ballard for the Crit (Criterium) Race. It's a flat & fast race, the course being a two-block section of Ballard. They close off the streets, sweep them free of rocks, & then let racers ride crazy fast up Ballard Ave, round the corner & down the canal road, & back up again. There are five categories of riders, Cat Five being the beginners & Cat 1 the "pros." Due to the small amount of female racers, all the categories of women race together. It was the first crit race we have seen & it was incredible! Levi kept asking me when I was ready to head out & I never was--we stayed until the end of the last race at almost 9pm. A friend of ours raced in the mens cat 4 & he finished the race! That may not sound like much, but between 50-75 riders take off from the start & only about 25-35 riders reach the finish line. There are some painful wipe-outs, but the majority of the eliminated riders are cut from the race because they fall behind & cannot keep up with the mass. And they are fast! The mens cat 4 (that our friend raced) averaged 26 miles an hour & the mens cat 1, 30 miles an hour. It was incredible to watch them take the turns going 30 miles an hour!
We'll definitely be attending the next local crit race--I'm looking forward to seeing the women race.

Bike to work Month Ends

Bike to work month was extremely successful this year. I would send you to the cascade web site to check out the cool stats, however it is poorly designed site and hard to find any information.

I finished with 13.5 commutes and Eliza finished with 12 commutes. Eliza in her 12 commutes went well over 300 miles! Go Liza!

Now that next big Challenge is STP - Seattle to Portland. It is now only month away.

Maybe Little Pinch?

Why no pinch?