Oregon 07/2008 Parker - Day 1

I make it in to Portland Airport at about 7 pm, and Kyle is due in from a family vacation in Colorado at about 9 pm. He gets in a little late, and our ride forgets to pick us up. We finally get on track and make it back to Eugene late of an evening or early of a morning, depending on your perspective. We sleep in, head to Burrito Boy for breakfast, then Kyle drops by Cascade to tend to ministry matters; anyway, we take on a few provisions, mostly beer, and head east to the mountains.

Our first stop was a fish hatchery at Marion Fork.

The fish folk were gathering up the trout fingerings to be released in some of the local rivers.

Our next stop and were we would spend the night was Breitenbush, a must see on any complete tour of the Pacific Northwest.

We got our cabin assignment and settled in.

Our cabin came with special protection.

This is the Lodge, where we took our vegetarian meals.

Lots of interesting things here,

prayer flags,

the Sanctuary,

Mary,

the Forest Shelter,

seminars, and we haven't even gotten to the waters yet.

This is the Breitenbush River, with the Devils Peak in the background. It's a neat hike up to the top.

Breitenbush is completely off the power grid, and they make their own electricity using a water flume and a pelsor water wheel/generator. This is the dedication plaque for the new flume that was installed to protect the fish from getting in the flume; and well, you know what would happen to the fish at the end....

Remember, this trip is supposed to be for Kyle to unwind a little and wet a hook. The Breitenbush is really a pretty body of water.

I'm sure there are some trout in here somewhere.

Now, let's get to the hot water. This is the sauna. Hot water, at about 180 degrees, flows into the bottom of this cedar room, with all that natural steam rising up through slates in the floor. Ahhhh.

Now, it's time for some soakin....

This is one of the three Meadow Pools.

This Meadow Pool overlooks the Breitenbush River.

Now, it's time for the Spiral Tubs, which used to be called the Medicine Wheel Tubs. Apparently some Native Americans didn't like the use of the Medicine Wheel description, so the name was changed to the Spiral Tubs. Each tub is a different temperature; the one to the front right is the coolest, and temperatures rise as one moves left.

This is a close up of one of the hotter tubs.

This is the Cold Plunge. The water was snow, not too long before it finds its way here. Getting your core temperature up in the hot tubs, then cooling off in the Cold Plunge really eliminates those pesky free radicals.