Crater Lake and Eugene OR

Hey Everyone!
While the girls are watching the human experiment known as "woman's" gymnastics (i sware those girls are like 11 years old), i'll take this time to update ye olde blog.

We are in Eugene Oregon, we stayed here for 2 days because we heard this was a nice city and we were not let down. they have countless trees, miles of bike trails and paths and really nice people. last night we stumbled upon a block party that had 30 bands with art and dancing it was really fun. i might have more pictures of that next time.
We're tipping the odometer at about 900 miles, but we have had some help. in northen CA we came to a bridge that we did not feel safe crossing, the highway patrol, Officer Lawerance said "you're legally allowed, if you want to get run over (laughing)." to which i replied "that's really not that funny." he suggested go around the lake, some 160 miles around a 1/2 mile bridge. we biked to the bridge and hitchhiked over. Bob and Gladas were nice enough to pick us up. then since they were going the say way we were, the drove us about 100 miles closer to Eugene, it saved us about a week because it was the roughest terrain yet. from there we biked up our highest pass yet, 1900ft, we foolishly did this at midday when my bicycle computer read 115deg. so from that day we've been waking up at 5:45 and biking only in the morning, when it's 55deg, yes a 60deg flucutation in temperature, crazy weather. at that temperature the mts are a lot easier. but we got stranded at a gas station in the heat and got a ride from a coke-a-cola sales manager about 20 miles to our campsite. we biked to Roseburg, OR and took a day off, rented a car and visited Crater Lake (pictures follow). before we got to the lake, we went swimming in Susan falls, the water was semi cold. Crater Lake was amazing. it's essentially an extinct volcano that the top collapsed and filled with water. the elevation is 6000 ft and the water is ICE cold.
this sign means about 10 minutes of coasting. wee!!!!

it's so hazy because of the woldfires in the area.

the land is so arid, the dirt is like concrete, so some places have cabins for like $10 more than a campsite, which is great cause it gives us a good night sleep.

more mts.

the girls at the top of a pass.

Cow river and our tent. people still pan for gold in this river and i think make decent money, i walked in it but didnt find any nuggets.

i thought these trees were cool with red bark.

this is the Umpqua river, we drove along it to get to crater lake, we could have stopped 100 times and gotten beautiful pictures like this one.

at susan falls

it was a pretty big waterfall.

Crater lake. this is Wizard island, the little tip of the volcano that is left.

the girls' best titanic pose. the views were beautiful, pictures do no justice.

too close?

we hiked down to the lake, it was a 1.1 miles hike that brought us down 750ft. everytime i took a picutre of the lake i swear the water changed color.

90deg tree.

the trail.

rugged eh?

just to give you a sense of scale. this place was huge.

they have boat tours, but they werent going on while we were there.

the trail had to go back and forth just so it was managablly (not sure that's a word) steep.

there was this neon green moss on the trees.

this is the colliding rivers. it is the only place in the USA and one of the few in the world where this happens that two big rivers collide. however, it was night time when we saw it. this picture is taken with like a 30s exposure, we couldnt see too much either.

Thats about all. we'll be in Portland soon, we'll check in again.

Jim likes the tree huggers in oregon