Exploring Lava Tubes Around Bend

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:59:59 -800

Jeff, Jonathon and I piled into my car with a bunch of climbing gear and went
southeast out of Portland towards Bend. The idea: scout out and explore a bunch
of caves that I'd read about in a book at the Multnomah county library! Because
of the Newberry volcano's various eruptions, there are some 15,000 lava tubes
in Deschutes county alone; that seemed to make it likely that we'd find some
hole in the ground to climb through. After a late start on Saturday, we got to
Bend around 20:00, ate a quick dinner, then set out on the oddly named China Hat
Road into the wild unknown. Given that the sun had already set, it was indeed
very much unknown!