'Crater of Color' or Black Crater

Like a picture...oops, it is a picture

Overlooking Crater

Dear Friends, (those remaining)

Thursday 14th
We have enjoyed the town of Sisters and loved the wilderness surrounding it. We extended our stay by a day and then decided: Why not stay for the two days over Shabbos. During three days at the motel, we noticed never more than a handful of cars on the property. We were thus surprised to hear that the establishment was booked for the weekend, excluding us from this Western town. Therefore, it’s off to Bend tomorrow for Shabbos, unless we head closer to Crater Lake, our next destination. Our editor says it will be weather dependent. As we don’t have a convertible, we’re not sure what she means but we’re not about to ‘rock the boat’. So that’s what we’ll do. It transpires that the weekend is devoted to Oktoberfest activities in the town—we’ll have to miss the beer—tough break.
Here she comes again...
Our hike to Black Crater was an 8-miler roundtrip. It was a climb of 2,500 feet without leveling off on the way to the top. Funnily enough, the climbs are strenuous but often more pleasant than the return journey. We’re sure you found that a most interesting tidbit. Once again, it was a fantastic hike—our editor is selecting only the best these days. She’s on a roll though it means we have completed five in a row totaling 39 miles. If Shabbos isn’t due to arrive early tomorrow, we’ll run into the fields to bring it in sooner. We rose through the forest, which was less dense than on previous hikes. At the summit, the sight of the crater, the colored lava rock covering the surrounding land, views of the North Sister, valleys of trees, Mt. Jefferson and most of the local crew (mountains) gave us much pleasure. It was another beautiful experience. The hazy, blue mountain ranges set in the distance are striking a wonderful chord within us.
Viewing the crater & Surround
On the way up, we stopped to chat with an energetic couple who have retired, moving from Portland to Sisters. What a wonderful concept, we think. Diane and Doug, a charming pair, swopped hiking experiences with us. Times like that are interesting and even uplifting, we find. Sharing exchanges with strangers is satisfying. Why? We have no idea. However, we would say that when people acknowledge each other and show some respect, it recognizes that we are all made in the image of Hashem—we begin to work towards that difficult concept of ‘loving our neighbors’.
Lava Rocks--where's the braai?
We continued upwards until confronted with the colored, lava-covered land, overlooking the crater. There we met another couple of fellows. Our discussion featured some of our favorite topics: guns, knives, cars, hunting and with relief, hiking…it is very interesting to converse with ‘friendly’ strangers and receive different perspectives. They mentioned the hunting season had commenced. First out of the stalls are the guys with bows and arrows followed by the gun crowd who ‘clean up the mess’. We find hunting distasteful, especially when termed a ‘sport’, but that is only an opinion. Then we wonder about slaughtering animals. Is that any better? We don’t know but it sure makes eating salad and pasta easier. Anyway, we asked about our safety while out in the wild with all the ‘gunslingers’ around. This is, after all, Oregun. Could we be the target of an errant hunter, we considered?
Pretty and desolate
‘Best to stay low,’ the guy suggested. Does that mean we should be crawling instead of walking? We pondered. We’ll take our chances. Between the wildlife, both man and beast, we sure have our work cut out for us. Still, beats staying at home doing the dishes.

One more peek

Cheers,

Jenni and Jeffrey