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| Camping in the Mt Hood National Forest |
We’d been planning this trip for about a month. We were really looking forward to this trip. School was finally out and we were going camping, HOORAY! We had gotten me a fishing license, a new tackle box, and a new hammock. We were prepared to be out in the woods for a whole week. Awesome!!!
Sunday evening we drove out to the Mt Hood National Forest. We had three lakes in mind to scout for the perfect spot. First we tried Trillium Lake. It was pretty crowded and loud, so we decided to move on to the next lake, Clear Lake. We didn’t even get to scout clear lake because the next thing we knew we were already at Timothy Lake, we decided it was meant to be. So we began scouting the area. It wasn’t too long before we literally found the perfect spot. It was everything we were hoping for. We were primitive camping, so it was free, yeay for no fees! It was right next to the lake, nestled by nice big trees that kept our site nice and private. It had the perfect trees to set up our hammocks, a huge fire pit that someone had so nicely left firewood and newspapers in a neat pile for the next camper. Our first day was everything we had hoped for.
Well, then the night shade began to drop, and that’s when our neighbors down the lake started getting loud and obnoxious. Their music with their loud base started thumping, they started yelling and screaming and whooping. As it got later and later, the music and yelling got louder and louder. As we were cooking dinner we began to hear gun shots. We looked at each other with worried expressions. We felt like our lives were in danger because some partying teenagers thought it was funny to shoot off bullets into the dark woods. Chris and I grabbed our dinner and proceeded to eat in the car. We stayed in there listening to the radio and talking for a while. When we opened our doors, the gun shots had stopped, but the music continued. We decided to sit by the fire for a while and just hang out and try to enjoy ourselves. We went to sleep soon after in our hammocks, very comfortable. We weren’t in there very long however before we heard the guns going off again. We immediately took shelter in the car again. We ended up sleeping there for the remainder of the night.
The next day we woke up hoping that all would be well, that the partiers down the lake would be done and that they would be packing up and leaving so that we could stay and enjoy our perfect site. When we opened our doors, there it was. Music was still blaring, cars were revving, and the rowdy crowd was still going. It didn’t sound like they were leaving anytime soon. We had breakfast, hot chocolate and scrambled eggs, and enjoyed looking out on the lake as we ate. We soon came to the conclusion that we were going to have to move. We decided to head to Trillium Lake and try our luck there.
The first thing we did when we got to Trillium Lake was pull over and try to get some sleep. Chris had no problem falling asleep, I however couldn’t sleep. So after watching a deer walk really close by the car, I got out of the car and began do explore the area. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon another perfect camp site. It was big and private. It was awesome. I was so excited. We went fishing soon after Chris woke up, we didn’t catch anything, but we had fun trying. It was beautiful; we had the perfect view of Mt Hood. We set up camp at the site I had found after fishing. We collected firewood and got our hammocks set up. We had fun hanging out and playing uno and backgammon. As it began getting later, we ran across our first problem at our new site. The fire would not burn the wood in this area. It was either too freshly cut or too damp. I searched and searched all over the place for older, dryer wood, but had not luck. The wood in this area just didn’t want to burn. As it began to get later, it began to get really cold, and there was no fire to warm ourselves up with. Around 7 or 8 PM, after trying to get warmed up in our hammocks and trying to stick it out, we decided to pack it up and head for home. It was sad, but we felt that we would come back at a later time and try again.
We enjoyed the drive home and the next day woke up and heated up our fire pit in the backyard with charcoal. We roasted marshmallows and made smores, after all, it was necessary since we didn’t get to do it during our camping trip. It was good to be home, safe from the flying bullets in the woods.
