H to I to J to K: Ape Cave to Hood River, OR to Lost Lake, Mt. Hood National Forest to campspot near Government Camp, OR
July 28, 2011
We woke up early to start backtracking towards Windy Ridge road. At first it was hard to deliberately backtrack, but soon we were reveling in our new plan to not plan and the decision to backtrack leading us to see something awesome. It was right about the time all this reveling was at its peak when we saw that there was still a closed sign over the Windy Ridge road. We turned around and went back to the Ranger Station where we were told that the by the 28th, the road would definitely be open. When we walked in, we asked another ranger what was up and he replied that the road was still closed. When we pointed out the ranger who had told us the now apparently erroneous information, he informed us that "She's not a ranger." Max asked if then she was just a crazy lady that they let hang out in there. Luckily, they laughed. Apparently she had wrong information and they all suggested we stay another day and wait. Tempting, but there is too much to see ahead.
We drove south through the National Forest towards Carson, WA. From there we traveled east along the Washington side of the Gorge and crossed over to Hood River, OR, which the Moon Guidebook had made seem like an interesting place to stop for lunch and explore. There was no wind, so we didn't get to see the famous windsurfers out on the Columbia River and the bakery that the book suggested was replaced by another artisan bakery - Knead - tasty egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches. We picked up a couple of six packs from the Full Sail brewery and then walked to the address of the Carousal Museum (stopping in between to drop the beer off at the van - we weren't trying to get drunk at a carousel museum.) Unfortunately the museum had closed in the intervening seven years since our guidebook was published. The guy walking out of the title company that now occupies the space where hundreds of carousal animals where once showcased agreed that it was a cool museum but informed us it had been gone for quite a long time. Maybe we need a new guidebook? He was more than happy to tell us more fun things to do in the area, although many of them required us to have bikes. The comment, "What, you guys didn't bring your bikes?" - made us feel like we were missing out on a key component of being in Oregon. Where were our bikes? We could drive the Fruit Loop, visit Lost Lake and Timberline Lodge and do other fun things that he suggested, though, so we left Hood River to explore more. Max stopped at the third fruit stand we saw and picked up some cherries and blueberries for the road.Lost Lake is the lake that is featured on many, if not all of the postcards of Mt. Hood. It is very pretty, but it is a far far drive out there and once we arrived, we were told that our annual pass wouldn't cover the $7 entry fee. The nice gatekeeper said that she does see people park outside of the gate and walk the 1/2 mile down to the lake to avoid the fee. Sounded good to us - it turned out to be a good place to take Buzz for a walk and a shady place to be parked. We grabbed our shower utensils and headed down to the the only public pay shower in the Mt. Hood National Forest. The lake was beautiful and the showers were refreshing.
We drove towards the south of Mt. Hood and up to the Timberline Lodge - a Civilian Conservation Corps masterpiece, and famed exterior of the creepy lodge in The Shining. The grounds are in Scotland, though, so we couldn't recreate running around giant hedgerows. But there were certain forces at work no doubt. There was still some snow on the ground and Emily wanted to get a shot of Max throwing a snowball. Happy to oblige, he somehow managed to fixate on the lens and hit the camera square in the glass. We were able to dry it out and the lens looked fine, but there aren't too many pictures from the rest of the day. It was also getting late, and as we hadn't visited a Ranger Station to get a map or find out where to camp in the Mt. Hood National Forest, we pestered the young gift shop attendant at the Timberline about places to go camping (he didn't really know, he just liked to snowboard on his off time) and bought a map of the forest. We stopped in Government Camp, OR for some ice and the store attendant told us about some dispersed spots near Trillium Lake, so we headed there. There were lots of dispersed sites - and they were full of snowboarders. We took a turn down Still Creek road, west of Trillium Lake, and after about 1.5 miles we were about to turn around when we saw a dirt road leading down to a perfect campspot. Emboldened by previous success, Max maneuvered the van through the trees, into a great camp spot and completely turned around so we could get out easily in the morning. Max decided he wanted to try it just in case and when he tried to go forward found that his last move backward was slightly too far backward and into loose deep forest topsoil. The back wheels started to sink into the duff. We had walked the road to make sure it was hard-packed enough, but we hadn't looked at the perimeter of the site. Max had dug it in pretty badly, but we shoved what suitable wood we could find under the tires. The treads quickly filled up with mud, but we kept trying in vain to get out as the sun went down. When there was finally no more light in the sky, we gave up the struggle. So much for our showers earlier in the day, we were covered in dirt. Damn you Shining Hotel! Luckily, we had cellphone service, knew exactly where we were and were very close to multiple tow truck operators. We were all good to camp, although not completely level.
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