Week 31 - Timothy Lake (Logan, Jude, Eric, Travis), Oregon City - July 21- July 27, 2025

The backpacking trip last week with Jane and Ruby was so successful, that we decided to do the same thing for Logan, Jude, and Eric - We went to timothy Lake again....but we left earlier in order to have a better choice of campsites.

Our goal was campsite #3 which is at the tip of Meditation Point.  Being at the tip gave a commanding view of the lake....it was also to campsite with the most wind.  We wanted it anyway.

First we hiked to Meditation Point and went directly to site #3.  There were people there who said they were leaving and we could start setting up our tents.  They the guys went back to the car to get the two kayaks and the paddleboard.

The first evening we were surprised by visitors - Paul, Ruby, and Jane came barreling into our Campsie on their bikes.

The boys played in the water on the kayaks and paddleboards.  Travis fished.   We just relaxed and had fun.

Here's the best photo of our site

And they it was time to go home

The usual lunch at DQ in Sandy

Bev's birthday was this week.  She is 47 - hard to believe.

Jack is my favorite brown tabby cat....he loves lying in the sun by the rowboat.

 Week 30 - Timothy Lake (Ruby and Jane), Oregon City - July 14 -July 20, 2025 

Birthday Hike for       Ruby and Jane.  We went to Timothy Lake and parked on the West Side Dah Area, hiked to Meditation Point, and ended up at tent Site 4.  

The trail was nice and easy---one didn't even have to look at their feet and avoid rocks or roots.  The trail passes through beautiful trees in an ancient forest.

Now we just had to find a vacant campsite.  There are seven on the little peninsula, and we were fortunate to get number 4.

There was a good size ledge down to the water, and that area became the "waterfall", the "bridge", the "arch" the EVERYTHING!  I took numerous videos of Ruby describing their 'water feature'.  It was great fun.  They spent hours building the canal and then redesigning it.

Jane made mud balls and got a bit to close with them.

There was a forest fire to the west of us - we could see white billowing smoke.  And then, the helicopter appeared and, for several hours, scooped up water and flew it to the fire.

There were also two small airplanes that flew, skimming over the water, and filling up tanks of water.  Once full they would fly to the west and appeared  again in about ten minutes.  The helicopter was very noisy.

We pitched the tent on the only flat area. Above the tent was a humongous vine Maple.

I loved the way the leaves looked with the blue sky behind them.

We hiked out to the tip of the peninsula to check out campsite #3....yeah, possibly the best view of all of them, but being on the end, it was pretty windy.

We only spent one night which was probably enough for a first time trip for Jane.  Loaded up and heeded back to the car.

The car, all on its own, drove into the Dairy Queen parking lot in Sandy.  We had a great time.

Arriving back in Oregon City, I found Dad working on the chimney flue.  He was applying the fiberglass blanket to the flue.  It was tricky to do  The circumference of the flue was 21 inches and the fiberglass was 24 inches wide.  Should have been easy.  but we called Jessica and said, HELP, and at about the same time Warren arrived.  With their help we got both sections wrapped up.

ON Saturday, the work crew arrived - Warren, Paul, Malcolm, and Val.  There had been a lot of mental planning done ahead of time, and the work was easily done!!!!

 Week 29 - Eddeeleo Lakes Backpacking Trip (Clara, Gretchen, Abby) -Oregon City, July 7 -  July 13, 2025

This week was the birthday trip for Clara, Gretchen, and Abby.  But....Travis checked his satellite photos, and we could see that there was snow on the trail....nope, not going to do snow.  That got me to thinking of the Eddeeleo Lakes trail which I had wanted to do 3-4 years ago, but called it off because of a fire in the area.

Here's Abby!!!!

And Jessica and Rocky

And Clara!

And....Gretchen and Travis!

The trailhead up the mountain from the town of Oakridge.  Yes, you can see burned trees in the background, but the other trees are fine....right....?

No, it was not.... all right.  The fire had been almost everywhere.  The bear grass was pretty!

There were nice green places which lulled us into optimistic thinking.

The trail became more difficult because there were burned tree trunks  over the trail which were a pain to crawl/step over.  We didn't consider stopping.  Finally came to Lower Quinn Lake which was an oasis in the desert......nice place for the tent - the lake access wasn't that great.  Surely..... there will be something nicer further along on the trail.

Nope - there wasn't.  The going became worse.  We could hardly see the trail, a bridge had been burned (and actual bridge) which necessitated Travis' assistance.  Finally Travis and I looked at each other and our eyes said the same thing, "we stop here, we'll  bushwhack (actually, Travis will do the bushwhacking) to the lake that we can see on our map, replenish our water supply, and we'll look at plan B in the morning".

This was our campsite - directly on the trail, nestled in with the dirt and ashes.

Actually, it was pretty grim....we made a life lesson about it.  We're together, we're dry, we have food and water, we are not lost, we are adaptable, we can do hard things!  And we did!

In the morning we broke camp and headed back......searching for another lake we knew was close by.

Yep - there is a sign to Upper Quinn Lake.

It was an oasis in the midst of a lone dreary world.  The lake was perfect!

Access to the water was perfect

The fishing was good.

The fish tasted great.

Early morning lakeside....

We played Code Names .....for a long time.

Took care of mosquito bites.

Four days later, it was time to return to civilization.

Luckily, there was a Dairy Queen in Oakridge.

I'd do again.....if we could go beforehand with a chainsaw and cut away the logs on the trail.

SUNDAY - Malcolm blessed little Samuel Francis Gray.  Everyone was there.

The cats were glad I was back.