07-14-2020 A Long Overdue Trip to the Cascade Lakes

A few years ago, when Mo’s brother Roger lived in La Pine, Oregon, we traveled to his home for a lovely reunion with extended family.  The first time was in 2004 when we still had the sailboat, and one of our favorite memories is of sailing in wild winds on Wickiup Reservoir with the brothers.  It was a wild ride, and shortly after that Mo decided to sell the sailboat since most of our Oregon mountain lakes are small and the winds mostly go in circles. 

Mo and her brother Don sailing her West Wight Potter 15 foot sailboat on Wickiup in 2004

When we went for the next reunion in 2010 we had our kayaks, and spent a lovely day going down the Deschutes River as far as the waterfall northwest of La Pine, and then spent a day kayaking the two small Twin Lakes that are adjacent to Wickiup.  Both the reservoir and Twin Lakes are located near the southern end of the of the Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway. 

It was easy to travel to La Pine when Roger lived there, but he and his wife Nancy moved north around 2014 and we didn’t have much of a reason to get back to the area, short of driving by on our route north along Highway 97 to some distant northern destination.

Kayaking Twin Lakes in 2010 in our first kayaks

As we were traveling this past week, we both tried to remember if either of us had actually driven the entire length of the 66 mile historic road. Neither of us could remember, and sadly it was prior to blogging days.  Mo thought she may have driven it once prior to the time we met and traveled together, and I think I might have done the same when I visited Oregon in the 90’s when I still lived in Idaho and daughter Melody lived in Medford.  A good reminder of why I try to make sure I keep up with the blog! 

We talked almost every summer about how it would be a great destination for camping, with many lakes and reservoirs tempting us with gorgeous views and great kayaking, interspersed with several campgrounds, both USFS, BLM, and private resorts on some of the lakes.  Each time we would think about doing the trip, something would interfere.  Last year we were recuperating from 3 months away during the winter, and camped closer to home.  The previous year we were adjusting to our new home and decided to stay close.  In 2017 we were in the midst of building that new home and didn’t go much of anywhere, and in 2016 we traveled farther north to another family reunion in far northeastern Oregon along the Columbia River.  And on it goes, ad nauseum.  Several years prior to that, by the time we got around to thinking about heading north to the Cascade Lakes, the summer fires were spreading thick smoke all across Oregon and we had no desire to go camping anywhere. 

Finally, this year, we looked at each other a few weeks ago and said, “This might be the year for the Cascade Lakes!”  Of course this year we have Covid19, and a new policy of almost all USFS campgrounds requiring reservations.  I started searching and found that finding a spot wasn’t going to be easy.  Some of the smaller campgrounds on the more scenic natural lakes were booked solid for months.

I stayed flexible, clicking on the “next available site” several times when trying to settle on a reservation through Reserve America. We finally settled on a site that looked somewhat close to the lake (upper far left by the boat ramp) and seemed roomy enough for our 26 foot MoHo and made a reservation for 3 days.  We planned to use Crane Prairie Reservoir as a jumping off point for exploring the many beautiful lakes in the area.  Remembering the campground at Wickiup from our previous explorations, we expected the campground to be crowded and dry, and probably noisy.  With very little available, we were happy to at least find a reservation.

The weather gods have been with us this year, with a rather cool spring and so far we have clear skies and no smokes coming our way from California.  The triple digits will arrive for the first time this summer tomorrow, but a few days ago, when we got on the road for the trip to the other side of the mountain, predictions were for weather to be clear with temps in the 80’s.  Perfect!

I really love the RV TRIP WIZARD app and thanks to Erin who told me about it

Our route to the east side of the Cascades is a bit different now that we live in Grants Pass. We traveled east toward Shady Cove where my daughter Deborah lives, driving along the Rogue River toward Lost Creek Reservoir.  We have happy memories of that spot as well, camping there for our very first outing in our very first baby MoHo back in 2005.

I was just learning to knit when we camped at Lost Creek Reservoir in 2005

We haven’t returned to Lost Creek because it is a reservoir that rises and falls and by this time of year it has a very steep, very brown dirty and rocky shoreline below the waterline far above.  Not our favorite kind of lake, especially with fast boats stirring things up. Mo remembers that the boat launch ramp was steep and extremely long and not conducive to kayak launches.

Meadow view from our campsite near Diamond Lake in 2007

Our route continued north and east, beyond Diamond Lake (where we have also camped), past the north entrance to Crater Lake and down the long straight highway intercepting the familiar Highway 97 route north toward Bend.  There are several ways to access the Cascade Lakes from different directions, but we chose to follow the old route near La Pine, near brother Roger’s previous home, past Wickiup Reservoir, and on to another forest service road that was blessedly paved to our destination campground.

I love that feeling as we approach a new site in a new place.  In spite of photos and reviews and descriptions, there is no way of knowing what it will be like.  Part of the adventure, I guess.  We turned into the quite large campground and wound our way around to Site 114 in the Blue Loop and attempted to settle in.  Next door to us was a man in an older RV with a very big dog running a very noisy generator and cooking something on his outdoor stove that was just feet from our picnic table.  Our door opened right into his space. Not a particularly good omen.  Then, as we attempted to level the rig, the levelers reached their maximum extent with the bubble nowhere near the line on the level.  Hmmm.  How many blocks could be put under the rig to get it level.  I thought for a minute, and noticing all the empty sites with little reserved stickers on them, I wondered out loud if it might be possible to request a move.  My little handicap tag might be helpful in this case, maybe an ADA site was possibly open?

Leaving Mo at the site with the rig, I drove back through the winding roads to the entrance where we had seen a camp host.  Faye Winkler came right out of her rig, and was so cheery and accommodating.  She told us that most sites were reserved but she wanted to try for a site that we could occupy for our entire reservation, and within minutes she was leading me back through the campground to site 103.  We couldn’t have asked for a better site.  The beach was right across the road from us, we had only one neighbor on the door side of the rig who was facing the other direction, and no one either behind us or on the bedroom window side of the MoHo.  Perfect!  Something to mention about this campground as well is that all the roads are paved, and perfect for tooling around on bikes. The view from our site was perfect, the lake and South Sister in the distance and no rigs in front of us.

With no hookups, setting up was a snap, leveling was miniscule in the flat site, and shortly we had our chairs and small table set up on the rug in the north side shade of the rig.  We had eaten lunch on the way north, so the afternoon was wide open.  After a rest and a cool glass of wine we decided to take Mattie down to the beach.  Readers may remember that Mattie doesn’t like to swim.  She can do it, but has never tried to get in the water on her own except for that last trip to the coast when she mistakenly jumped into a river that was a bit too deep.

This time she was on leash and when Mo and I walked into the cool clean water on the nice sandy bottom she followed us right in.  What fun!  I had treats in my pocket and got her to swim to us several times.  I think she liked it because the water was quiet with no waves and not shockingly cold. 

After a little bit though, her enthusiasm waned and she decided it was time to swim back to shore.  It was fun playing with her in the water and after 5 years with this little dog, she is finally accepting that she won’t die if she goes in.  Just recently we were watching precious videos of Abby who loved the water so very much that she would start whining when we got within a mile of a beach.  Each family pet has their own personality, and while Mattie doesn’t swim like Abby did, she also doesn’t have anxiety issues like Abby did and we are blessed to be able to leave her for hours if need be in the rig with no problems. That was never an option with Abby.

As the evening settled in we unloaded the firewood we brought from home so we would be ready for our after dinner campfire.  Dinner was simple and wonderful.  I had spent most of the previous day cooking for the trip and at the time wondered if it was really worth it.  No question, it definitely was!  We had tri tip sandwiches, home baked chicken fingers, spaghetti, and yummy salads without any special effort at dinnertime.  Such a treat.

The evening fire was big and beautiful, and I enjoyed once again pulling the marshmallows out of the freezer for my personal treat.  It isn’t that they are so great, but it is so satisfying to toast one perfectly and pop it into your mouth all hot and drippy and sticky.  Silly stuff.  Funny thing, we both began to wonder who invented marshmallows and who decided that they could actually be toasted.  I had no internet at the campground in spite of the 2 bars of 4G reception on the phone.  We had to wait a few days to discover that marshmallows were around since Egyptian times made from the mallow plant, but officially invented sometime in the 1850’s using the same ingredient.  Nowadays they most often have gelatin in them, which makes toasting marshmallows a bit difficult for vegans unless they could make their own with the original ingredients.  First toasting of marshmallows for s’mores seems to be recorded in the Girl Scout Camping Cookbook from the 1920’s.  It is always funny to me the questions that come up and how strange it feels to not be able to immediately go to the internet for the answer.  We are all so very spoiled.

In spite of our fears of a noisy campground, it was actually very quiet, even with kids and campers walking about, and as the night progressed into inky darkness the stars came out one by one as we let the fire settle down.  In the middle of the night I woke up to look at the stars and was thrilled to see the Milky Way right above me and gazillions of brilliant stars lighting up the skies.  The air was cool but not cold and the night among the lodgepole pines was just about close to perfect