Cast Lake - Oregon City, Oregon - Week 32 - August 9- August 15, 2021

This was a fun week...but a very hot one. The first three days I, along with Olga, Bev, Jessica, Jen Isom, Mikala Lillie, and McKenzie Mumford, went on a two night hike to Cast Lake and East Zig Zag Mountain.  The weather the rest of the week was very hot - in the 80's, 90's and 100's.  In the afternoons, I cleaned up inside  the house.  In the mornings I went to Clackamas Town Center and walked the stairs (six floors up and elevator down) and then came home and sprayed two to four batches of herbicide in the woods.

It was 3.7 miles to Cast Lake.  The trail was good - all uphill. And it was hot.  I thought I had been to Cast Lake before with Olga and Kyna, but nothing looked familiar.  It must have been 18 years ago or so.  

On the map I had thought that we'd  make camp on a little peninsula in the center of the lake, but when we got there, the site really wasn't any good.  

Bev and Jessica continued around the lake and found a MUCH better place almost directly across from where we first stopped

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Jen was very enthusiastic about getting water from the lake.  The temperature of the water was quite warm, and in the morning mist swirled above the water's edge.  The water was also somewhat greenish and a bit brownish.  Filtering the water ruined my filter - we couldn't even backwash it when we got home.

We enjoyed a nice evening around the campfire (with no fire, that is).

There were marshy meadows on three sides of our campsite. I like the flowers on the edge of one of them.

And there was a pretend sunset.

On the second day (Tuesday) we hiked up to East Zig Zag Mountain (about a mile) on the top of which used to be a fire tower.  We could see old concrete slabs and wire cables.  The view was great - not spectacular...but close,

From this vantage and facing north we could see Mt St Helen on the left, Mt Ranier in the center, and Mt Adams on the right..  Kinda hard to see, but the three are there.

One last evening at camp

Our last breakfast...the air temperature was much warmer

The hike back to car....