Oregon North to South

NEW TIRES! With a little bodywork done in Calgary to trim back the wheel wells and fenders our new 35” Mud Terrains look and work great! Little did we know we would also find “Carl” in Vancouver, WA to do a great alignment job, replace some bushings on the front end, and just next door John finally got something he has been hankering for. A new exhaust system! Known as “the pipe” this is the largest, shiniest exhaust pipe I have ever seen. But now Tonto runs and sounds great! Just over the hum of the new tire tread you can really hear the turbo wind up, and then with increased air flow from “the pipe” we can keep the engine temperature down and really get up those pesky mountain passes on the freeway! Can’t wait to see what it will climb off-road. Thanks to Pat and Michelle for putting up with us, Lobo and some serious car-talk for two days!

After a too-quick stopover in Portland to see friend Sadie Carney, and cousin Meredith Theis, we headed to the outdoor sportsmen-uh, persons mecca- Hood River. After finding a beautiful spot at Bitteroot Farm with John and Marcie Helleburg, we went for a sunset hike up ‘Sincline Trail’. This is a special memory for the people we were with, but also because it really felt like the first time we had seen anything but rain since a few hours up on the Olympic peninsula! After some world-class mountain biking, and arts fair, some shopping, and food we headed south again. We soon discovered that traveling north to south in Oregon can be entirely done on National Forest land. Our favorite for views (See the video of Tonto spinning-up the new 35’s in the snow at Mt Hood!!) and boondocking!

As always, we look at the map and pick a place. Anything that says hot springs is worth a look. Unfortunately last night’s boondock required a swim across a river…it didn’t happen. Lucky for us, John and Marcie tipped us onto biking the Mackenzie River Trail, and it “ends” at a great hot springs resort! We’ve enjoyed a FULL 6hr day of shredding up and down a smooth running trail along the river, through lava fields and shrouded with the super green northwest rainforest and rewarded ourselves with a night here to plug in the van, eat ice cream, and soak in the hot pools!