Loomis Adventures

I haven't been fishing in awhile and when my friend John suggested we go trout fishing sometime, I thought of Rock Creek Reservoir. It's a 100 acre (when full in the spring) reservoir and is stocked several times in the Spring with rainbow trout. It shrinks down to a pond by the end of summer. Rock Creek Reservoir is located in Tygh Valley within the Mount Hood National Forest. It's about 6 miles WSW of the town of Wamic. Rock Creek Campground is located on the Southeast shore of the lake and has 33 sites with water and outhouses nearby.

Snow levels have finally come back down to pass level, so my friend John and I went snowmobiling near Mt Hood on Sunday. We were the only ones at Skyline Sno Park. Most of the snow at pass level had melted since we were last up. But luckily there was enough new snow to cover the bare spots.

After not being able to host our annual family snow day last year due to a lack of snow, we were happy to continue with our tradition this weekend. We had eighteen of us this year with family from San Diego, CA and Reno, NV joining us. The weather was nearly perfect with mostly cloudy skies and a temperature around freezing much of the day.

I took my brother-in-law Scott snowmobiling Saturday near Mt Hood. We unloaded from Frog Lake SnoPark and had beautiful weather. The temperature started just below freezing and warmed into the upper 30's. The trails were packed snow with consolidated snow off trail.

The annual snow camping trip with my friend Kyle had finally arrived. Unfortunately the weather forecast was less than stellar, with rain in the mountains in January. That's Western Oregon for you: never predictable which makes planning anything in advance difficult.

It has been a while since Katie and I have snowshoed, so we finally planned a trip Sunday to Twin Lakes. Our Mini Adventurer traveled along on my back. Twin Lakes are a pair of hike-in lakes near Frog Lake about 8 miles SE of Government Camp, Oregon. It's about a 2.2 mile hike each way to the first lake (the bigger of the two). It was a beautiful day today with the temperature around 28°F with partly cloudy skies. Frog Lake SnoPark was already packed with dog sled racers by the time we arrived around 8:15 AM.

While Julian spent the day with "Grammy", Katie and I went to the mountain to snowmobile. Originally we planned to ride from Frog Lake SnoPark, but it was too busy with dog sled races, so we ended up nearby at Skyline SnoPark. It was snowing lightly and about 24°F which was quite a bit warmer than last weekend.

It's the new year, so it's time for another adventure - snow camping with a two year old. Even through we were working around a toddler's schedule, we still managed to leave only 15 minutes later than I wanted. Luckily we still made it to Skyline SnoPark before it became crowded. It was 9°F when we arrived with moderate wind and snow flurries. It was definitely going to be a cold snow camping trip.

I had the last day of 2015 off today, so I took advantage and went up to the mountain to set up snow camp for tomorrow. I found a nice snow camping spot along Clear Creek not far from Skyline SnoPark a couple weeks ago, so Katie, Julian, and I plan to snow camp for one night on New Years Day 2016.

Katie and I both had Christmas eve off work, so we went up to Frog Lake SnoPark with our Mini Adventurer to introduce him to snowmobiling. We pulled him in a sled behind the snowmobiles last year, but this was his first time actually riding on one. We have a harness that attaches a child either to the front (which is what we did) or the back of an adult rider.