Trip to Wallowa Lake, OR, June 2010, Day 1 and 2

I taught at a brass camp in Wallowa Lake, Oregon.  Naturally I brought my bike and my camping gear (it's amazing what one can squeeze into the trunk of a '99 Honda Civic).  I left Portland in the afternoon, and stopped on the Deschutes River to camp one night:

This site seemed attractive at the time, but turned into a hard place to camp- not quite flat ground and barbed stickers in the grass.  I was pulling out those annoying seeds for a couple of weeks.

The Deschutes always looks different.  I've been there about 10 times now and it never disappoints.

Next I drove on to the town of Echo, where a private landowner has allowed a local mountain biker to build a network of trails on his property.  Wow!  Though the trails were very overgrown and a little rough, they were very well designed for the bike.  All the turns were wide enough to be comfortable, and the grades were gradual.  It was a lot of fun.  Located on the flat land of the Columbia Plateau, there wouldn't be that much climbing anyway.

Here's a trail side view of the local flora:

Looks like Iowa, huh?  Sure does to me.  Agriculture is the business here.  In nearby Hermiston, the watermelons are legendary, apparently.  Funny to think that this is the same state as the deserts I've visited, as well as the numerous rainforested mountains I've visited.  A real land of contrasts!

Here's a more native selection of plants- sagebrush and bunchgrass steppe, with a storm about to roll over.

I got out of there as the storm came up, and had a meal in Echo proper.  On my way further east, I came upon an incredibly clear double rainbow!

I followed the rainbow (it followed me rather, as a rainbow's location is determined by the eyes of its observers) several more miles, till I found its end.  Turns out that the rainbow ends in a ravine near Pendleton, Oregon:

I passed Pendleton, drove through the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and spent the night on National Forest land.  That's up next.
Thanks for reading.