This week we gave Archer, Tyler and Magnus their birthday present which was a two day backpacking trip to Top Lake! Top Lake has always been a favorite destination of mine...it is a long drive, but the trail is nice, the area is secluded and beautiful, and there are opportunities for day trips.
We left Wednesday morning and headed to Estacada where we met up with Dolores and her dog, Coda, who were going with us.
To get to the lake one travels for about 50 miles to Estacada-Ripplebrook Store-then to the turnoff on Road 4690 - and then another 8 miles to Rd 4220. 4220 has always been a terribly maintained road, but this season it was particularly bad - humongous pot holes full of brown muddy water. I spent most of the time driving from one side of the road to the other in an attempt to find the path with the fewest bumps.
Finally got to the trailhead and headed up to the lake. We were in for a surprise....I've never been here so early in the season before. The area was really wet and portions of the trail were filled with water which necessitated that we walk off the trail to bypass the flooded area.
And there were patches of snow on the trail---which were kinda fun--as long as our feet didn't thrust through the snow crust and into water below.
Passing by pond I could see swarms of bugs hovering over the water.
And in the middle of one of these ponds you could see where the trail should have gone.
Alongside some parts of the trail there was a robust stream flowing from the outlet of the lake. I had never seen this stream before.
And approaching the lake and before we would normally take a cutoff to the camping spot - -the trail ended at another pond...we had to go another way.
We set up our camp. Archer was the campfire specialist. He gathered most of the wood, started and kept the fire going.
Magnus prepared his own food.
All the boys were superb marshmallow roasters - - in fact they roasted all the marshmallows I needed for my smores.
Thursday started out with some fishing!!
But then Magnus got his hook stuck on a rock out in the water, and Archer volunteered to try to free it.
He was unsuccessful, so the other two thought they would go in and try their luck. It was cold, and really, they only pretended to get wet and never got close to the hook.
Here Magnus and Tyler are telling each other, "we'll go under now", but this is as far as they ever got.
And now they're done and warming up.
There is a trail around the lake, and the boys decided to try fishing elsewhere. This time Magnus got his hook stuck in a tree, and big brother, Archer, went after it..successfully, and only required one bandaid afterwards.
After lunch I wanted to find a geocache that was located at an unnamed lake off of the PCT trail. I'd known of this cache for years, but it requires a bit of cross country hiking and good compass skills. This year, however, I have a new app called GAIA GPS. Using this, one can create a trail map with overlays of contour lines (and other stuff) and confidently go cross country. Here is the map on my phone with the gold triangle pointing to the lake.
We headed off!
Up the Red Lake Trail
Then right on the PCT
And then when the golden pointer was in the right place, we turned and headed into the woods and started walking around the base of a humongous pile of rocks. Watching the pointer I realized that we needed to climb up the rocks. Just to make sure that the lake was there, Archer, Tyler, and Magnus scrambled, like squirrels, up to the top.. When they reached the top, the shout was, 'the lake is here!"
Indeed - the lake was there!!
I knew from reading the description on geocaching.com and from google earth that the cache was somewhere in amongst the rocks. Hmmmm, I thought. If I give my pen to the boys, they will go around the lake, find the cache, sign the log...and Dolores and I can stay on the rim of rocks and shout directions to them.
Archer went to the left. Looking carefully, you can see him as a tiny spot on the left edge of the biggest boulder. I zoomed in on the next photo, and he is a bigger spot.
Magnus and Tyler went the other way around....and easily found the cache.
Most good things come to an end...so the next morning, we had to pack up and return home.
\As we drove away, we got a glimpse of Mt Jefferson magnificently coated with snow.
Sunday the 21st was Father's Day. We had dinner and celebration at the Manor - it was the first time in a long time that we've had festivities here. The kids all got Dad a bird house with a camera which will be so fun next spring when birds will nest in it.
Next week we go to Detroit Lake for four days!!
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