A Very Good Saturday

Legs stretched out across a couch, I'm eating apples and sipping a Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA (I'm going to miss these!) and I'm thinking... This was a really good Saturday!

I made it off the mountain in pretty good time, earliest time yet :) I drove up the road to Foree and hiked out to the end of a trail to paint this giant blue geological formation, ie "rock." I'll have to check with one of the ever growing number of Geologists staying here what the real name of the 'rock' is, probably some lahar butte or such and such...

but I just like how it is the only free standing blue rock and it has beautiful shapes within its mass. It also seems like the same shape as all my gear in my Kelty backpack;)

I was out there and set up at 10 am. Already hot. No one else around. So, so quiet. About 3 hours in, a couple from Vancouver, Washington hiked by and stopped to visit for awhile. Later a young couple came through, didn't stop or visit but did have their selfie stick trailing them the entire time. Sigh.

As I said it was hot. It was bright too with the sun bouncing off all the light blue, green and pale yellows... I decided to paint my piece in those 'high-key' colors and values. Came out great.

After packing everything back into my backpack and hiking to the car, I needed shade desperately. That's pretty impossible to find out here. I headed down the road, eye out for a pull out and shade... and 30 minutes later I found myself in the small town of Dayville in a cafe with ice tea, wifi and Marion Berry Pie. I had a salad of course too :)

While I cooled off and had a great lunch I was able to back up all my iPhone photos to Dropbox thanks to their wifi  (hallelujah!)

Feeling like the morning and afternoon had been very successful, I drove up to Blue Basin for a hike. AMAZING! The trail takes you around a blue rock gorge and to an overlook with spectacular views. On one side is a hill that is black from the big June fire and the other side opens out to the John Day River valley and the ash/rocks. Can't explain it but, look!

Took me about 1.5 hours, it's very steep and you climb for 2 miles and then switch back down for another mile. 

So, a very good Saturday!