Varied Skies

A small city in Central Oregon surrounds you. You are standing in Riverbend Park with your family. The Deschutes River meanders by on its way to downtown Bend. Armed with a “River Rat” tube procured from a local big box sporting goods store, you and the fam approach the river with some trepidation.

The water is cold. Those with a sunny disposition call it “refreshing.” Those inclined to accuracy call it “brisk.” And the melodramatic among us state unequivocally that “it is colder than Crater Lake!” You kick back in your tube and the water immediately sucks the heat from your exposed posterior. You can handle it, just like all the others. You look around; the others glide by in kayaks or on stand-up paddle boards, above the water. Who cares about the others, your hardy soul soldiers on.

You float by an open air market and the Old Mill District.

You think warm thoughts, recalling how the owner of the Confluence Fly Shop in the Old Mill graciously assisted M3 in selecting and setting up a new fly rod. Downstream from your current location, M3 practiced his fly casting skills just this morning.

Oh, look!  There’s Anthony’s where you enjoyed a nice meal the previous day.

You settle in for the long haul, content and secure in the knowledge that your rolling home has recently been serviced and inspected by the local pros at Coach Masters and deemed roadworthy. The schoolwork is done. Even your cupboards are full. How nice it is to spend some time in civilization.

How nice it would be if this river were a little warmer! It is not a physical impossibility. Newberry National Volcanic Monument lies a few miles upstream. The numerous cinder cones that dot the landscape attest to the thermal energy stored beneath this land. But even the newest Junior Rangers know that harnessing that immense power would be no easy task. One mistake and the whole area could be turned into a molten land and you would be dodging great balls of fire.

In any event, the local homeowners along the river, not to mention the environmentalists, would likely object to any such project.

The environmentalists would not even let you tour Lava Cave absent a guarantee that your clothing and shoes had not graced the grounds of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, citing something about a bat disease. It would have been nice of them to post a notice on the web or in their visitor guide before you and your Mammoth-Cave-tainted-clothes made the drive to the cave.

Before you get too worked up over recalling the blatant regional discrimination, the take-out point at Drake Park emerges from around a bend. Only one thing remains to be done. Do it again! Your posterior moans, but you hop the bus back to Riverbend Park and ease back into the Deschutes. There are far worse ways to spend a weekday than floating through lively Bend, OR.