For me, there is nothing like a camping trip to renew my mind, soul and body. Last week my friends and I went camping at Gone Creek Campground on Timothy Lake. To our delight it was the perfect get-a-way from the chaos of city life.
Fun Fact Time!Timothy Lakes is one of the lakes in the Mount Hood National Forest. Timothy Lake is also a man-made lake created about 60 years ago by PGE. Gone Creek is one of several campsites PGE Manages on the lake. The lake was much bigger than I expected but the 13 mile hike around it should have clued me in.
Kara and I had camped a few weeks earlier and we determined 3 days was simply not long enough. We weren’t filthy enough to truly connect with our hippie-selves. We needed more time in the woods and water. With this observation we pitched to the group to extend the Mount Hood camping trip by an extra day. In the end the only people who could make the extra day was Kara, her boyfriend and myself.
Day 1: Arrival
I was the first to arrive at camp. This was a good thing since you can only check into reserve sites with the ID of the person who reserved them or with the printed paper work and I was the one who reserved the sites. Six months ago I grabbed sites 39 and 37 for our camping adventures.
Site 39 was Sunny. There were a few shady spots but it was mostly sunny. My husband asked me the night before if he should bring the pop-up canopy with him. I told him I would let him know when I got to camp if I thought we needed it. Even though it was cloudy when I arrived, I knew the weekend was supposed to bring the heat. The first text I sent basically read “I made it to camp. Bring the canopy.”
A Note about Cell Signal an Gone Creek Campground (Aug 2017)
Before I left, I checked my cell coverage map and it left me with the impression I was going to have some data. The reality was that text messages sometimes worked, a call was even less reliable and data took FOREVER if it worked at all. So lesson of the story is don’t really count on it but it works enough to get you out of pinch.
Since my husband wasn’t coming to camp until tomorrow, I needed to setup camp myself. First thing you must setup, is a place to sleep — AKA your tent. I was little unsure if I could setup my tent without the help of Kara and her boyfriend.
However, I’m a strong, independent woman as going to at least try. It didn’t go quite as smooth or as fast setting it up as one person but it could be done. An hour after arrival, I had my tent up, air mattress inflated and sleeping bag in the tent. The most important step has been completed.
Just as I relished in my victory, Kara and Mike arrived. They would be camping on site 37 with Jenny. Their site as a little smaller than 39 but it had shade for days. They were also close to 3 other campsites. Site 39 was only really close to 40 and a trail.
One of the first observations of the campground was how dusty it was. We would have no problem getting filthy this trip. I ended up regretting bringing only one pair of jeans and sweatshirt.
I watched them pitched their borrowed bell tent. After they too finished the most important first step to camping (shelter folks), we went down to the boat launch to see Mount Hood in all her glory. Alas it was too cloudy to see. We also did do a brief tour of the campground.
Kara was kind enough to cook the three of us chili for dinner. We spent most of the night at site 37. As I meander back to camp I noticed a hotdog bun on the ground. It had teeth-marks in it. I mused the wild life got the better of some campers tonight and I went to bed.
Day 2: Chipmunk Mafia & The Cold Night
The next morning I woke up deciding it was time for coffee. As I was exiting my tent to start on my morning coffee, I see Kara exiting her camp. We exchange morning hellos and talk about how well we slept.
She said she would grab her coffee things and head over. Kara also noted that she left her paper towels out last night and they ended up on the ground and that next time she has to remember to put them in her car. She told me they were still on ground if I wanted to have a look.
I decided to walk over to have a look. There it was on the ground about 15 feet from the table. Rolled out like wedding aisle runner in some late night union of small portions. There were small holes at the end of the roll. They sort of looked like teeth marks. Kara and I mused over the wholes but coffee was needed before information could be processed. Kara picks up the roll, throws the ground towels in to the fire ring and put the roll back on the table.
A little while later, Kara and I were enjoying our first cups of coffee — rejoicing how much we love camping. Then out of the corner of our eye we notice a chipmunk bound across the trail and through the edge of my camp. This chipmunk had paper towel stuffed in its mouth. It wasn’t until we saw another chipmunk run the same way with piece of paper towel in its mouth, that we concluded paper towels need more security than we provided it. These chipmunks mean business and they love your paper towels.
When Kara and I camp we tend make meals communal and divide up the work. I was responsible for breakfast. I had muffins and skillet plans for us. One of the unspoken rules of meals though is you provide your own utils. Kara and Mike had paper bowls for skillet. When they were finished they threw their paper bowls into the fire ring.
We continued to were hang out at Site 39 for most of the morning and afternoon. It didn’t take too long for the chipmunk to be curious as what was in the fire ring. They keep running passes near by while the three of us humans were withing 2 feet of the ring.
It turns out that chipmunks aren’t really threatened by humans. They will only run away if you close the gap between you and it to less than 2 feet. So here one of the chipmunks decides whatever is those bowls is worth getting close to humans for. After we chased him off for the third time. I collected the bowels and threw then in the trash.
A trash stand is something new for my campsite this year. We tied it a tree last year but it left a lot to be desired when cooking. I stumbled upon this stand on amazon and thought it would be work perfect for camping.
One thing to note about the stand, both campgrounds I took it to the picnic table were too fat this this stand. We also have a table-in-bag that we bring. It works great in combo with that table.
If there is one lesson made perfectly clear it is the chipmunks don’t give a F—. This campsite was theirs. Before I took the trash, I was looking out of my tent and I could see my trash stand. There stood a little chipmunk on top of it. We looked eyes and he lost balance and toppled in. This set the poor guy into an instant panic. He burst into full speed run. Except he was at the bottom of the bag. Not matter how fast he ran all he was doing was laps around the bottom of the bag. Getting covered in roasted onions and coffee grounds. He takes a brief pause to collect his thoughts, jumps and frees himself from the bag and runs away. I prompt take the trash to the bin and note that trash and papers towels are never safe by themselves. They need 24/7 security.
Most of the day was carefree, the three of us just awaited the arrival of Jenny and Aaron to the campground. Mike made dinner. We were unsure of the grill situation at Gone Creek Campground and found to our surprise they had very good grills over their fire pits. We had wood fired burgers and they were delicious.
As we wound down dinner we got to talking about our pets. It turns out it was passionate discussion and it was after 10 pm. We were informed by the camp host that were had to quite it down. We went to bed shortly after that. We couldn’t trust ourselves not to bring up pets in the no-fun zone again.
Day 3: Inflatable Watercraft & Bad Neighbors
I’m not really one for the cold. Anyone I know can vouch for me on this. So when I was searching for a tent and sleeping bags “cold weather rated” was not a feature I was looking for. Little did I know it was in fact a feature I cared.
Even while wearing a tank top, t-shirt, two sweatshirts, a scarf, a bandanna (across my nose and mouth), an eye mask, two pairs of pants and my hiking socks, I was still cold. I regretted not putting on two pairs of socks. I remember waking up at 3 in the morning needing to pee. I regretted to inform my body that, I wasn’t leaving the warmth of the sleeping until sun up. It was just going to have to wait.
I don’t remember what time I woke up but it was on the early in – 7 or 8 am. First thing I did was open a bundle of wood I had bought and started to split the wood for kindling. This roused Aaron from the tent. Huddled next to the fire we remained until the day warmed up.
The day warmed up enough that we got to enjoy the lake later in the day. Jenny got inflatable Kayak, Kara and Mike had a inflatable boat, Aaron went fishing and floated in my pool lounger. The lake was an enjoyable temperature. I only left when folks in a Steelers boat pulled up and cleaned their fish in the lake less than 20 feet up “lake” of me. I wasn’t really interested direct contact with fish inners.
The Steeler boat folks turned out to me our camp neighbors. Cleaning fish upstream of was the least offence thing they did. When Aaron and I returned to our camp we found the small boy child firing a airsoft gun at our tent. Aaron kindly asked him to not fire into our campground and the boy complied. Though I did here him whine to the loud talking military man about the man at camp and Mr. Military responded with a prompt lesson about weapons.
Our neighbors… they were a continued source of…. bewilderment…. yeah I’ll go with that. Mr. Military loudly expressed was eager to kill tomorrow with his loud booming voice. He had one of those sport announce voices at was always talking as if what was going on was exciting and demanded your attention. Then there was Miss Plague — whom I actually sincerely concerned for. She coughed non-stop and it was clear it was difficult to breath. She should had never been in the wild. It was smokey and the temperature changed so much even a healthy body was put through our places.
Day 4: Eating like Hobbits, Car keys and Star fields
There is a reason there are only two communal meals. These meals are large and often are accompanied with several side or courses. My breakfast meals are normally two course. Affectionately named after hobbit meals – First and second breakfast. First breakfast is generally a pastry. I’m not a morning person and this is way to appease the masses while I make skillet for second breakfast. First breakfast was muffins, second breakfast was skillet and elevenses was cinnamon rolls.
After breakfast it was round two of water fun. As Jenny was securing her belonging she accidently locked her keys in the car. Thankfully she had AAA. The problem was she didn’t have the number. I thought this might be fairly common thing and suggested she ask the camp host if they had the number. They didn’t. None of us had data. So we had to get creative. I remembered a phone feature back in the day called 411. I wondered if it was still a thing. Turns out yes, Mike called and got a number. But for whatever reason the automated help service gave us an AAA insurance number from a branch in California. Thankfully they were able to give Jenny the correct number.
AAA send out help but the poor guy had to travel an hour just to get to us. He said he would call when he was near. We couldn’t promise we would have signal. Eventually he did make it out an let Jenny into her car.
Day 5: Departure
Truth be told I stopped writing this years ago. I don’t remember much about the departure at this point. I just remember this trip was a great one and I wanted to remember as much out it as I could. I’m glad I wrote so much. I hope you found this entertaining!
It's Beautiful Out There 