Another Brew Tour & More Fishing

La Pine, Oregon
Bull Bend National Forest



If you're getting tired of beer and fish pics you may want to skip this blogpost.  But then again, I caught a really nice German Brown despite getting caught in a severe thunderstorm in the kayak.

My Steve had been dying to go to the Deschutes Brewery and take the tour.  The town of Bend is about a 1/2 hour drive from camp and that is where this as well as several other breweries are located.  We go onto the last tour.

Our tour guy was funny and very informative.  I don't like beer, but the tours do interest me.  I like to learn about the process and the ingredients used.  The equipment is pretty cool too.  There are lots and lots of tanks.

The corrugated outer skin on this tank is kept at an almost freezing temperature.

I love the way the hops look and smell.

A sample of the different grains, hops, yeast, fruit and spices used in the beer process.  You could open and smell them.

Our guide taking us through the hops room.  The smell was very strong in here.

Some wort we got to sample.  Wort is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of the beer.  It contains the sugars that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol.  It didn't taste half bad.

The labeling/bottling room.  This is always one of my favorites.

The mascot dog made from beer equipment.

 

 

I really enjoyed all the framed artwork they had of the beer labels.

Some beer tasting to finish the whole thing off.  Deschutes was Steve's favorite of all the Bend Breweries we tried.  He especially loved the whiskey they made which sells out in hours of being offered.

More time by the river.  We have loved our 2 weeks here so far.  We talked to the ranger and it appears they don't really have a 2 week posted limit.  Since this is a fairly under used campground and there aren't many people here, he told us we could stay another week if we wanted.  Oh, twist our arms!

 

Of course the day my brother and I planned to go fishing out in the kayak there was a storm due to come in later in the day.  We decided to head out anyway and keep our eyes on it.  We could always paddle/float more and fish less if we needed.

For a dreary day the fishing really picked up!  Look at my beautiful Brownie!

And my brother's big catch (heh heh, I told you I was going to post this!!)

  

The fishing was great even as the weather turned bad quickly.  We had to pay attention to all the logs, snags etc.  Sometimes keeping the kayak where we wanted it was impossible and sometimes comical depending on the currents and wind so we didn't get many pictures of all the nice fish we caught.

Well the storm blew in with a vengeance, the winds picked up and so we grabbed on to the grasses which gave us quite a bit of shelter from the rain which was dumping in buckets now.  We decided to wait a bit and see if it would blow over.  Once the thunder got closer though we figured it was time to paddle to shore and take shelter for a bit.  Turns out we were huddled under some large pines with 3 other paddlers.  Since the rain was almost sideways at this point we were able to stay out of it by standing behind the trees.  We had a snack and some water and waited.  Of course the temperatures were dropping as they do with these storms and neither of us brought our rain gear.  We were going over our options: Stay put a bit longer, call Diane to come get us and we'll pick up the kayak later, or paddle out.  By this time we were getting a bit cold and the storm quieted down a little so we chose to paddle our butts off.  It only took us about 1/2 hour of hard paddling to get back.  Luckily the wind was to our backs as we went downstream.

A couple of days later the sun was back out and it was beautiful weather again.  We had my friends Perry and Kristin over for a BBQ.

It was great to see them once more before we head out.

 Perry, Kristin, Ethan, Steve and I.

 

One last time out fishing on the kayak while it's nice and sunny!

It's nice to have your own personal lure-put-er-on-er with you.  Thanks Bro!

Lot's of sun and snags but not many fish!  Guess we need another storm.  After the fish trip I went out to get a quick geocache.  Sometimes it's a dangerous hobby.  I got into a little fight with a bush and the bush won.  Sharp, little bugger!  No stitches, but I had a nice gash.  I also had the last laugh as I broke that branch off after. That'll show it!

 War Wounds!

 

We only have a couple of more days left here before we head out.  Our son's ex-girlfriend has family in the area and we knew she'd be here so we had her over for a BBQ.  She brought her stand up paddle board.

 

                                    Me and Alyssa.                                                And she's UP!

Such balance!

Hurley enjoying the kayak as always.

 

We also tried fishing, but didn't get even one hit!  Kudos to Alyssa for being able to balance in the current AND cast!  Thanks for stopping by to spend some time with us!

One last campfire.
 

 

After spending nearly 3 weeks going back and forth on the dusty roads we were looking forward to getting the trucks and rigs washed at Cascade Truck Wash.  It cost us about $60 for washing the truck, trailer and even a free liquid wax.  

 

 Going into the wash bay.

 Poor filthy Hoss!

All clean and shiny. Even got his boots polished!

 Oh, those dirty tires and rims.

 

 

Did I mention he dried off the windows too?  Not only squeaky clean but I can see out of the windows again!  Oh how good a bath feels!  It's been a great time here but time to move to Sisters.