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Father's Day Trip report....just a bit late
This place is a bit slow so I thought I'd throw an old trip report out here. With COVID-19 this is the first time in a long time that the whole family was in the same spot and all ready to get out of the house. We talked about it for a few days and a few things resonated we wanted to do something outside, wanted some activities, but ones that we could attempt to social distance. Ultimately we decided that we'd go to Bend, OR. Bend is known for having a lot of outdoor activity it has great ski'ing, great fishing, trails everywhere, multiple and an Arnold Palmer golf course, and great whitewater rafting. We really only had three days so we really had to choose. Ultimately we decided to do a father son fishing trip one day, and a family whitewater trip the next.
I had taken off on Friday so the plan was to drive up Thursday night, fish Friday and raft on Saturday. Thursday morning Cade sprained his wrist doing stupid shit kids do (jumping a skateboard) with their buddies. None the less we took off around 3PM on Thursday and arrived at our AirBnB cabin around 9 that night. Cade and I had to leave the next morning around 6:30AM so it was one Johnnie Walker and bed for me. Cade and I met our fishing guide around 7:30 and we were on the water in a drift boat by 8:30. The guide was amazing. Neither Cade nor I had ever fly fished. He took a lot of time to explain and was patient throughout the process. Cade ended up catching the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fish and I finally caught the 4th. I think just having that positive experience hooked him a bit on fly fishing, although he's always liked to fish. The best part of the fishing trip was watching him and the fact that phone service didn't work.
Sidenote: Our guide clearly went to the BBP school of fishing. First thing he told Cade after he caught the fish....When you hold it out for the picture hold it way out.
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The next day was time for rafting. Honestly this was probably some of the most fun I've had in a while. The whole float was only 3 miles and 1.5 hours long. It started out slow with the guide giving voice signals and trying to get the raft team all to work together. Then, it went into some minor class 2 type rapids and we all practiced on getting the boat into the right position. In the slow parts we had some great conversation. Our guide had spent time in South America, Alaska and other places finding the biggest rapids and waterfalls he could, he had some great stories. Just FYI wearing a dry suit to whitewater raft does not sound fun. Anyway as we pulled into the Class 3 there was a small eddy takeout where you could actually go on land and see the full 1/4 mile section that was coming up, that really got the blood flowing. He talked to us about how we needed to enter and things that would happen such as the left side of the boat being pulled under briefly....and then we set out.
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With Kenzi graduating college this year these times are going to be few and far between so it was awesome to get out and do a family vacation even if only for 3 days.
