What’s in a name?

We left Lake Tahoe and headed northward. Our original plan was to go to Crater Lake, Oregon which is one of those “1001 things to see before you die” places. However, it is accessed by a steep, winding road which is currently deep in snow, so it becomes one of those “1001 things to see that may cause you to die” places. Big sooky-la-la chickens that we are when it comes to this type of driving, we rerouted our trip to Klamath Falls which is nearby but much easier to get to. 

On the way, we had a marvellous morning in the glorious northern Californian town of Weed. We took in the sights including the Weed Smokeshop, Weed Forestry and of course the Weed Police. We also went to the toilet so that we could say that we’d weed in Weed. The Weedy folk are all in on the joke and are milking it (til the cows come home).

When in Klamath Falls, don't waste any time looking for the falls - there aren't any. Apparently there used to be, but with dams and irrigation they disappeared. We rode part of the OC & E Rail Trail, the old railway line converted to a bike / running / XC skiing trail. On the trail we came across 2 snakes, one big one and a baby, so we gave them a wide berth. It’s amazing how fast you can pedal when you need to. 

there seems to be a bit missing here

Pipeline over a canal over a river - irrigation in tiers

The next day we drove up to Upper Klamath Lake and hired bathtubs kayaks, and paddled the Klamath canoe trail. This trail is 10 miles long, however as my boat turned round in the opposite direction every time I stopped paddling, I think I actually paddled double that.  It was a beautiful day for kayak circle work, and the mirror-like water made great reflections of the mountains. We came across another snake, going for a swim. It attempted to board my kayak but Mike bravely fought it off.  (We won't mention that it was very tiny.) 

Would have been a super day to be in Crater Lake, but oh well….

The spreadsheet told us that our next stop was Portland. If we didn’t have this spreadsheet we’d have no orientation to time and place and would be locked up in a dementia ward. The first part of the drive was via some covered bridges – there are about 50 remaining out of hundreds built in Oregon, but we stopped after seeing just 3 of them. Very cute.

Most of the rest of the day was spent on the Interstate, and we were captivated by the names of places as we passed, such as Drain and Riddle. As we were looking for lunch, we passed by the “Heaven on Earth” Restaurant but gave it a miss as it promised too much and could never possibly deliver. We did wonder if it served Angels on Horseback. Sunny Valley was indeed sunny. Linn County is the “Grass Seed Capital of the World”, bless it. I bet the citizens of this fine county don’t get on with people from Weed.

After travelling on the Road to Damascus, it was all downhill to……

Wouldn’t you love to go to school here?

What international citizens they are.

Unlike the citizens of Weed, the Boring townsfolk don’t seem to have figured out that a bounty is theirs for the taking. The town has only a few references to its name and is generally run-down and well, boring. 

We arrived quite late into Portland to find a Bikie convention going on at the opposite corner to our hotel. I dared Mike to go and tell them that they are all sissies and push their bikes over, but for some reason he wouldn’t do it.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Portland and beyond.