Bend,  OR be a righteous place !!

maybe not at ChinaMart..........but it's GORGEOUS around there.
Try the Cascades Lakes Hwy ( closed in winter ) .........
Been a few years, but i have just camped for free next to pristine lake
there, totally unmolested.
It's bascially pristene in the Cascades west of Bend.
As an outdoor playground. it makes those '10 coolest US small cities to
live in " lists regularly.
high desert.
hot and dry in summer.
real winters. Mt Batchelow is one of THE  premier  ski and snowbaord
areas in Oregon - one hour from downtown Bend.

not to dis Wa............but i have been to a ski area there, hard to
get to due to lack of freeways a lot............where a typical snow
conditioin would be freezing rain.
it's a bit damp in Western Wa.
if hwy 6 is open..................North Cascades National Park is one of
the least known US National Park. Practically undeveloped.
it is SO KNARLY there..............I have read about a First Ascent of a
major peak in that park , only a few weeks ago, that was so remote that
it took two guys or a couple sometihng like 8 stright days of
bushwacking up totally untouched, horribly overgrown with tnakged tree
and shrub vegitation up glacier carved valleys.  wow !  That was just to
GET  to the peak, never mind pull off a First Ascent !!   All on foot.
Fully self-contained, no outside support .
I hope they had a vanagon to return to eventually !

last line-from on top of Pilot Butte
right in Bend..........which you drive up if you want...........
you can see spread out before you mabye 8 major cascade Volcanos'
including South, Middle, and North Sister, Broken Top ( i want to say
One Eyed Jack .......not sure about that one ) Mt jackson i thing.
just AWESOME !!    :-)
scott

Don Hanson wrote:
> In the northwest, the higher elevations still have snowpack.  Neil2, you may
> do better in the lower mountains you mentioned east.
>  It was hot  in the Cascades for a few days, but it snowed again yesterday
> down to around 4000', so I'd imagine the highcountry campsites might still
> be snowbound or very wet and messy if they are accessable.  Be careful where
> you drive..when snow has just gone, the ground is soft and fragile.
>   Hey, I hear the Wal Mart lot in Bend is a big destination resort with the
> RV crowd nowadays...(kidding.....)
>   Don Hanson
>
>
>