If you’re from the Northwest you’ve likely heard or even found yourself commenting, “the mountains are out!” those days the clouds lift and you can see the mountains of the Cascade Range. Well, as we drove from Central Oregon and into the Mt. Hood National Forest, the mountains were out and looking grand! The Sisters are a particular favorite of mine and they were still covered with quite a bit of snow this June, standing out stark against the blue sky.
Family & Friends
We only had a few days in Portland before we were camping again but we made the best of it, visiting family and friends that we hadn’t seen for a while; for some it had been years! We stayed with my aunt and she taught the girls how to play pickle ball and they loved it. It’s such a portable game, we’re even debating whether to get some paddles ourselves while on this trip!
One of the best parts of our Portland stop was spending time with my grandmother. For the few days we had together we shared space and stories. It was nice to just be with her at a time when we only see each other once or twice a year now.
Grandma gave me permission to share the following story which was one of my favorites: when she was a girl her father spent his hard earned money on an 80 foot rope and tied it to a sturdy branch waaaay up in the tree, making a huge swing. And, the only way to get into that swing was to climb up the nailed-in hand and foot holds on the side of the privy until you were standing on the roof of that beloved structure!
Undoubtedly another highlight was getting to watch the Timbers play…from a Suite! Our good friends invited us to watch the game with them from the suite their work uses and it was really cool. You get to go in the ‘suite’ entrance avoiding the lines into the stadium, there’s free food and drinks and the bird’s eye view of the pitch is great. We felt like rock stars. To add a cherry on top of this awesome experience, the Timbers scored two nice goals and beat Houston 2-1!
Timothy Lake
It seems that all of our Portland friends and family have enjoyed spending time at Timothy Lake and if the stressful experience of trying to secure a campsite is any indication, it’s a pretty popular place! All this to say that we were excited to get to camp there ourselves. The lake sits only 50 miles east of Portland in the shadow of Mt. Hood and has six different campgrounds around it as well as over three dozen dispersed camping sites. It is operated by Portland General Electric and was run quite well, at least at Pine Point CG where we spent two nights with our good friends. From our campground we didn’t have a view of the mountain so I don’t think it’s one of the more popular areas. But, the site was large and flat, the pit toilets were probably the cleanest we’ve ever seen and the camp host, Cindy, was a treat. We set up our hammock, played card games, read, ate delicious food and meandered. For the five year old with us, it was her first time camping-so fun to experience that undiluted joy!
There is a 13 mile trail that loops around the entire lake. Andrew ran the whole thing one of the days and thought it was in pretty good condition. My run didn’t take me around the whole thing and actually turned into more of a photo/jog experience as the views of Mt Hood just kept getting better and better!
It had been so long since we’d been able to camp with a fire that we took full advantage and had fires at night AND in the morning! S’mores. Yum!
Love reading your blog but loved more the time we all had with you. Especially playing pickleball with your girls.
Thanks Aunt Lisa-I think the girls are hooked!