Week 33 - August 15-21, 2022
Clackamas County Fair'
Lower Twin Lake with Clara and Gretchen
The Clackamas County Fair - what a family affair we have with the fair. We have been going to it every August since...probably, 1977 when we probable went with Jessica and Ivan as toddlers. We've done almost everything - talent show, flower/fruit/veggie entries, baking entries, daily kitchen cupboard entries. We've don fair sponsored games for kids and for a couple of years our group of violinists performed on the Main Stage at various times of the day. Oh - don't forget, we helped "man" the dough-boy booth when our ward used it as a fund raising project.
This year started out with selecting fruits and flowers to enter. Here Malcolm and Dad are picking pears - choosing the best ones to be their entries.
On Monday all of the agricultural entries had to be submitted (all of the entries for Kitchen Cupboard had already bee submitted on Sunday.
Monday was the first "official" day of the fair. Warren and Whitney did quite well in the Kitchen Cupboard Division.
Warren with a first place for a wedding cake. He placed many other ties...but too many to publish here.
Whitney entered her favorite gingersnap cookies and she took "Best Cookie in the Show She was very excited!
Everyone is congratulating Whitney.
Over in the Ag department, there were so many tickets from the Gray families that officials were wondering if we do anything besides grow hydrangeas..not really. There were these tow big cutouts - they've been here every time we have ever come, and this day, we actually took a photo of us behind them.
There are daily entries at the Kitchen Cupboard. Each day is different, and Warren and Dad entered something everyday....maybe Dad didn't, but Warren certainly did. One day was Cheesecake competition. both Warren and Whitney entered, and Whitney won!!! Confidentially, she was ecstatic that she beat Warren.
Saturday is Men's Chocolate Cake competition day. Everyone is tacitly wondering how there can still be a men's only competition......it's a left over from a time when men didn't know how to bake anything in the kitcehn.....that's an old fashioned idea, but this is an old time/old fashioned fair. both Dad and Warren entered....neither won and they are still scratching they heads wondering why.
Here is Dads - unfortunately is sagged a bit - he should have put dowels into it to keep everything up right. We didn't even get to taste it...cakes go somewhere for a cake walk event.
Warren's was amazing too, but didn't win a prize. But it was featured in the fair's daily Instagram photo.
Besides the fair, this week was when I took Clara and Gretchen on their birthday hike. took them to Lower Twin Lake, just a bit past Mt Hood. I chose this spot because it was only about an hour+ away and the hike to the lake was just 2+miles. It's a nice trail - yest mostly uphill but the trail is smooth with not rocks or tree roots waiting to trip you.
Dolores came too and met us up at the lake.
The next day we did a day hike up to Upper Twin Lake which turned out to be much nicer. there were fewer people, more secluded campsites, and the area was not to 'overused' as at the Lower Twin Lake.
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After a while we headed back to Lower Twin Lake.
We had an interesting "once in a lifetime event" happen to us while at Lower Twin Lake. We interacted with two women, their horse, four goats, and six dogs.....in an unhappy way. These two people weren't exactly two hippies but they were certainly living an alternate lifestyle. We had just set up our camp when their group entered the camping area. The six dogs immediately ran everywhere - everywhere - including to our site where they jumped up onto the two girls. It was stunning as I had never before experienced other backpackers who were so blatantly breaking all of the backcountry courtesy rules! At first, I didn't know to whom the dogs belonged. So I stood up in a conspicuous place and I shouted as loudly as I could, "To whom do these dogs belong?" No one responded - - there were maybe four groups of campers in the area. I suspected the two women and walked in their direction only to realize that they were deaf - as they were signing to one another. I approached them, and they looked at each other, turned their backs to me, and walked off. So.....they weren't going to cooperate. I went back to our site....because what choice did I have. Those dogs and the goats continued to wander everywhere and enter our campsite. Dolores finally arrived and was also very annoyed by the dogs. We got her tent set up just as it was getting dark.....their dogs were still coming over occasionally. Dolores had yelled occasionally at the two women. They yelled back - obviously their deafness had been corrected.
When morning came the dogs were still roaming. Dolores headed off with her roll of toilet paper, when suddenly the two women with their dogs and goats walked towards us in a very provocative manner - their purpose, made obvious by their demeanor, was to provoke us and to prove that they could do whatever they wanted. There was a shouting match. Dolores went ballistic telling the women that they needed to keep their dogs on leash or tied up - that they couldn't just let their animals roam freely. The two women said, "this is national forest land, and we can act freely. If you don't like it go back to your city or go to a developed campground where you space is defined by lines." Two campers next to us joined in the fracas and were our advocates. Camera came out, threats were made, there was yelling.....Dolores was a rock star. The two campers next to us joined in the conflict - talking and photographing. Clara and Gretchen were, however, were in tears - totally bewildered by adults yelling at each other. I told Dolores that regardless of what we did, we couldn't change their actions. She agreed but said that in a situation like this, if you don't do something to challenge them, they would continue to be annoying. She said you have to make a big enough stink that they will choose to leave. And they did!!!! They took themselves, their stuff, the horse, the four goats, and the six dogs and headed away on the trail that went around the lake to get away from us. Wow!! I consoled Clara and Gretchen, and we talked about what the lesson was.....sometimes bad, uncomfortable things happen, but you have to be strong and have yourself under control.
After we returned to Lower Twin Lake, we were happy to see that the dog people has actually gone for good. We packed our gear up and headed back to the car. Just as we walked into the parking lot we met a forest Service ranger. I told him we had a complaint to make, and he said, "we already know all about the situation" - the two women had been in two other places and had been ejected by authorities. The two campers next to us who had photographed the conflict with the dog women had, indeed, reported the conflict to the authorities. There were three law enforcement vehicles parked in the lot.
We told them our side of the story. They told us that this was the third incident involving the two women and their animals. They asked where we thought they were, and I showed them on my GAIA app where I thought they were. The last we saw of them, the were walking up the trail with their guns and wearing their flack jackets. Ahhhhh.....Justice or maybe Vindication!
Uneventful ride home. Dinner at subway, Gretchen was very tired.
