Camping

We didn't get our first choice draw this year and instead drew our second choice, High Cascades. We have never hunted this large unit before which starts with an early season hunt then converts to a general season deer tag if unsuccessful. We took a short overnight trip in September during the early season hunt to scout out an area West of Three Fingered Jack. It looked okay, so we decided to come back at the end of September to hunt the opening week of the general season.

We were lucky enough to coordinate a camping trip with my cousin Ryan and his family at Juanita Lake, California. The campground is located roughly equidistant between my cousin who lives in California and us up in Oregon. Juanita Lake is about 45 minutes South of Klamath Falls, Oregon.

I took Friday off (Katie is lucky and has all Friday's off) to have another long weekend to go camping. This trip we towed our travel trailer to Rock Creek Reservoir near Wamic, Oregon. My friend Tyler and his wife Holli joined us Friday night.

We had booked three nights at LaPine State Park for Memorial Day weekend back in December after we ordered our trailer. Finally Memorial Day is here and some good weather too. The State Park's proximity to Sunriver and the Cascade Lakes Sceneic Byway make it an ideal location to serve as a base camp for outdoor adventures.

We finally received our new trailer we ordered in December. Our maiden trip was to Fort Stevens State Park during the annual Astoria Seafood and Wine Festival. Normally we have a bunch of friends who join us, but they all bailed this year. Instead Katie's mom my parents and sister from Nevada made the trek to join us for a fun weekend of camping. We took Friday and Monday off to make it a four day weekend.

Katie and I wanted to take Julian snow camping again this new year like we did last new year. We like to start and finish the year snow camping. It has been an odd winter so far with alternating low and high snow levels, so I went out scouting for a spot Saturday. We wanted to avoid the crowds near snoparks this year. I found about 6-12 inches of snow at one of my favorite upper Clackamas River areas, Shellrock Creek campground. And I was able to drive my truck there so we wouldn't need the snowmobiles this trip.

It's been a long time (pre-Loomis Adventures), but we finally planned a trip back to Diamond Lake. We took Friday and Monday off to make it a long weekend camping trip. As always, our Mini Adventurer was super excited to go camping. We were meeting my parents (staying at a different campground in their Airstream) and Uncle Pat at Diamond Lake campground.

My friend Tyler and I decided to go camping this weekend near where we have hunted in the past on the SE side of Mt Hood. We were hoping our friends John and Ryan would join us, but they weren't able to this trip. Tyler and I met up at the hwy 35/48 junction and then continued on forest service road 4860 to look for a camping spot.

Katie, Julian, and I spent the Memorial Day weekend camping in Central Oregon at Fall River camp ground. This is one of my favorite places in the area. It is a primitive campground with no potable water and rarely crowded. We were able to easily find a spot when we arrived on Friday.

Katie, Julian, and I decided to spend New Years Eve snow camping at Little John Sno-Park. Julian wasn't interested in snowmobiling this trip, so we left the big sleds at home. Little John Sno-Park is a low elevation sno-park (3,300') just of hwy 35 between Mt Hood Meadows and Parkdale

My friend John and I played hooky from work Friday and headed up to Little John Sno-Park on the East side of Mt Hood to snow camp and snowmobile. We waited to leave town until the freezing rain from overnight had thawed out enough to safely drive. We arrived at Little John Sno-Park just before noon to snow showers and a temperature of 14°F. There was one other vehicle in the parking lot and lots of snow. Little John Sno-Park is a low elevation sno-park (3,300') just of hwy 35 between Mt Hood Meadows and Parkdale. It is not often we find this much snow here. I was excited.

We took most of the week off to go camping as a family near Barlow Crossing Campground in the Mount Hood National Forest. The campground is off forest service road 43 near its junction with road 48 on the SE side of Mt Hood. We left on Tuesday morning and arrived just after noon.

With a beautiful weekend forecast, we decided to go tent camping to Bonney Crossing campground with our friend John. Bonney Crossing is a small (less than 10 sites) primitive (no drinking water) campground at the Eastern edge of the Badger Creek Wilderness right along Badger Creek. It is located off FS road 2710 (about 2.5 miles North of Rock Creek Reservoir as the crow flies). Wamic is the closest town.

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'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.