January 25, 2004
By Ken Kruger
Roger Fox and I had a very nice hike on a typically gorgeous Central Oregon morning at Smith Rocks. Gus, Scooter and Bo accompanied us as well. These guys are canine pals rather than club members; although they should be club members with all the mileage they’ve covered.
We started out at about 8:15am Sunday morning; it was cool, about 30 degrees, clear and relatively windless, and there were no other cars in the parking lot.
We headed for the “Burma Road” at a pretty good clip and made the top of the road where it crests the ridge in about 45 minutes. Roger pointed out a couple of nice rock climbing routes on the way up that I’m sure many of you are familiar with. Then it was up the much steeper section to the top (elevation about 4,200 ft.). It still amazes me that people actually bike up that thing and sure enough, there were tire tracks. I was huffing and puffing pretty well but as you’d probably guess Roger took it in stride.
We had a spectacular 360 degree view from the top and if it weren’t for the clouds out west we would have had a dramatic view of the cascades as well. It’s such a great spot; it’s definitely worth the climb.
During the return to the parking lot Roger told me about an ornithological adventure he had with some raptor specialists from Portland. If you haven’t had the opportunity to spend some time on the trail with Roger you’re missing something because he’s got some great stories and insights.
We covered about 5 miles and 1,500 ft. of elevation gain in about 2 ½ hours and headed back to Bend at around 10:30am. It was great exercise and the dogs just loved it. When we got back home mine spent the rest of the morning sacked out in front of the wood stove, although I had a nice long “honey do” list to accomplish for “taking the morning off”.