[soliloquy id="4358"]

With the warm spring weather, the scenic Cascade Lakes Highway opened nearly a month early, making this the perfect time to drive to the mountain lakes.  It was definitely a “top-down” day, with a turn-out of over 40 cars.  Steve Beer was the trip organizer, supported by Lisa Sarmiento and Doug Kerkoch.  Given the large number of cars, Tim Hagner volunteered to lead a fourth group on the drive.

The mid-point rest break was taken at the Crane Prairie Reservoir.  Given that the ODFW declared this a “free fishing” weekend, there were a few more boats out, but for the most part we had little traffic.  Debbie Beer provided homemade chocolate chip cookies, and when those were gone she broke out the sugar cookies for a quick “energy boost”.

The route back through Sunriver and then past Edison Snow Park provided beautiful smooth roads with some of the best at-speed “sweepers” in the area.  Luckily we weren’t impacted by a controlled burn that was just starting to encroach on Century Drive.  The drive ended with lunch at the Pacific Pizza & Brew house next to Umpqua Bank- there were so many cars in the parking lot, you’d think they were offering special financing for Porsches!  It was a great day for a drive; no one got lost; and everyone had a good time.