Newberry Lake and Rodeo

We woke up to sunshine and a blue sky. Our original plan was to go riding again but since we were pretty tired after for days or riding so we decided to do a sight seeing trip. The other reason was that the trail we wanted to do was still covered in snow since it goes up to 8000' (2600 m or so).

We left the camp ground and on the way to Newberry lake we had this view, pretty cool, should come back here and do some skitouring / mountaineering.

Halfway up to Newberry Lake we stoped at a waterfall.

Newberry Lake is similar to Crater Lake, there is a big crater rim around it and the crater filled up with water. The difference to Crater Lake is that there are fish in and it has water flowing out.

Pretty neat place.

Some vulcanic glass (probably wrong term but that's what I would call it).

Later on we went to a rodeo show in Sisters. Sisters is a small town just outside of Bend. They have a rodeo once a year and I think it is the biggest event around here. Pretty cool to watch. The parking advisors were on horses, I guess you need to sit on one of those to be higher than the huge trucks they have here, there is not much of an oil crisis around here.

Andrew, you would love that stuff, you should go here or to a similar event next year, they tour all around America.

Buying beer chits at the Saloon.

Before the contest started they prayed and honoured their troops, pretty impressive!

In the first event they had to catch a wild horse ...

... slow down the horse ...

... put a saddle on ...

... and ride the thing.

The second event was catching a calve.

Then they had to take the calve and turn it around so all four legs are up in the air.

Some people might think that this is agianst animal rights. Well, I guess the calve isn't too happy about the whole process but it is pretty short and it seems that it walks okay after. I also think those animals have a pretty good life (we saw later on how they keep them, they looked like happy cows) compared to chickens at a farm or dairy cows where everybody of us gets his food from.

Another event, stay as long as you can on a wild horse, the wilder the horse is the more points you get. The whole contest seemed pretty professional to me. They were talking about how much money you could win so I thought about changing my career but I think my back couldn't handel it. So no worries mum and dad :-).

Must say that guy has some talent.

Still on the horse.

And the next event, catch a calve as fast as you can. Each event had different competitors so I guess it is compareable with road biking and mountain biking.

Once the guy caught the calve he had to turn it around again.

There was even a german dude taking part, Chuck Schmidt, mit dt, well, probably not german but his antsisters.

One of the highlights, bull riding, pretty intense.

I wish I would have a faster lense.

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