Day 6: Bend with Jim - June 20

We heard that Sparrow Bakery was the best in Bend so, naturally, we headed there first thing today (which was actually more like brunch time by the time we got going).   It looked a little deceptively unassuming from the outside but the smells coming out of it let us know we were in the right spot. We ordered an embarrassing amount of pastries, peach bread pudding, and breakfast sandwiches (perfectly poached eggs on croissants), each better than the next.  We ended up sitting with the guy who was in front of us in line and had lots of advice to share.  He was Jim, his dad was Jim, and our Jim – all males at our table were named Jim!

From there we went to the Northwest Crossing Farmers’ Market – the first Saturday of the season!  I feel like such a master planner that this weekend is really the start of summer in Bend.  It all looked amazing!  After sampling a variety of delicious local foods and listening to a couple different bands play, and knowing we wouldn’t be able to eat lunch anytime soon, we picked up some fruit (yay, cherries!), a pretzel, and some bread for later in the day.

Our big outing of the day was to Smith Rock National Park, said to be one of the Seven Wonders of Oregon.  The towers of volcanic ash were super impressive from first site.  Look closely at the picture and see there are people walking next to the rock to give you a sense of scale (and this isn't the tallest rock). 

You start off walking down a very steep path to get to the water’s edge and cross the only bridge leading to the rocks…and then the hiking really begins.  We decided to tackle the appropriately named Misery Ridge Trail.  Of course, it was worth the misery - from the top, you are surrounded by gorgeous views of the river and valley below. geological formations all around, and the snowcapped mountains off in the distance.  We had views of Mt. Bachelor, the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, and even Mt. Hood.

The path up

From the top

  

The hike also takes you by a 350-foot spire called Monkey Face that is very popular with rock climbers.  The whole park is a rock climbers dream and draws climbers from around the world.  (It only really looks like a monkey from the other side - wait for it....) When we reached Monkey Face there was a woman on top preparing to repel down so we stopped and watched her for a while.  

Now I see the Monkey Face!

We then made our way back down the other side of the rock to continue on our hike the long way around, though on flatter terrain following the river.  Along the way, we came across another pair who were just starting their climb up to the top of Monkey Face.  Of course I had lots of questions for them, though most of their discussion was a completely foreign language to us—that of rock climbers.

When we got near the bridge to cross back over we spotted a bride off in the distance going up the last part of the very steep hike out of the canyon.  We are taking part in a summer-long scavenger hunt and one of the things on our list is a bride.  We were dust-covered and tired having hiked almost five miles at that point, but when we saw the bride, Rachel dropped her camelback and took off running to catch up to her.  She made it to the top in good time, but the bride was nowhere to be found.  When I got to the top (not too long after) I started asking people if they had seen a bride go by – we tracked her down and I got the photographer’s husband to snap this picture of me and Rachel with the bride in the background.  He thought it was “epic” that I found a bride in that setting and wanted in on my winnings – which I told him was just pride.  He was cool with that.

Exerting that kind of energy after a very long hike left us pretty tired.  After resting at our apartment for an hour, we headed downtown for dinner out and more of Bite of Bend which was four times as large today as it had been yesterday.  Jim got to sample some beer from local breweries (Crux and Deschutes).  Bend is known as Beer Town, USA and has more breweries per capita than any city in Oregon.  Funny how you miss these things when you don’t drink – I have noticed people do like to talk about their beer here.  We also were able to pick up another item in the scavenger hunt, as the kids had their first ever funnel cake, while Liz spent some time getting taken care of in the free massage tent.  From there, we headed back to the Sport Chalet to throw some more darts and curl up in front of the laptop to watch Hot Fuzz…