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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2021
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
Backpacking
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Lower Twin Lake
(Mount Hood area)
This mountain lake near Mount Hood
checks just about every box for a good
backpacking option with younger kids.
It’s 4.2 miles round-trip with 660 feet of
climb to a lake with plenty of campsites
and a trail around the lakeshore. There’s
also an easy option for a longer trek to
Upper Twin Lake.
“It’s just about perfect as a backpack-
ing destination with young kids,” wrote
author Bonnie Henderson. “No surprise
that it tends to be crowded on summer
weekends. Aim for a weekday, or go
early in the season (rhododendrons in
bloom) or in early fall (bring warm
sleeping bags).”
From Frog Lake Trailhead, go a few
steps before turning right to join the Pa-
cific Crest Trail, which you follow for 1.4
miles before picking up the Twin Lakes
Trail. The trail tops out in another 0.1
mile and begins a descent. At the next
junction, at 2 miles, go right to drop
down to the lake. Follow the trail around
the lake to find a campsite. Near the ac-
cess trail the lake shore is muddy; go to
the far side of the lake to wade in on a
gravelly beach.
Pamelia Lake
(Mount Jefferson Wilderness)
A generation of children from the Sa-
lem area took their first backpacking
trip to this beautiful lake below Mount
Jefferson. That includes my 4-year-old,
who took her second backpacking trip
here last weekend.
The hike is a good length at 4.4 miles
one-way. It’s an adventure but not diffi-
cult, with a gradual climb of 800 feet to
the lake. It’s also a scenic hike through
mossy old-growth forest along tumbling
Pamelia Creek to a lake with a number of
designated campsites and a view of
Mount Jefferson from a southern shore-
line that’s fun to explore in the fall when
the lake level is low.
Fishing is decent on the east side of
the lake, and there’s more challenging
hike options to Grizzly Peak or Hunt’s
Cove, a perfect spot for when the little
legs start to grow and want more of a
challenge.
From May 28 to Sept. 24, you need an
overnight permit purchased on Recrea-
tion.gov to enter the trailhead. Pamelia
Lake Trailhead is located 16 miles west
of Detroit off Highway 22 and Pamelia
Lake Road.
Bobby Lake
(Waldo Lake area)
The mosquitoes are rough in June
and July, so target this pretty lake near
Waldo Lake during late August or Sep-
tember, according to Weinheimer.
A mostly level hike of 5 miles round-
trip brings you to one of the best lakes in
the state for swimming, says Weinheim-
er.
“It should be classified as one of the
best swimmable lakes in Oregon be-
cause of the easiness getting in and out
of the pristine blue-green colored wa-
ter,” Weinheimer wrote on Hike Oregon.
The Bobby Lake is right alongside
Forest Service Road NF-5897 (the main
road to Waldo Lake), a total of 5.5 miles
from the turnoff with Highway 58.
After 2 miles of forested hiking on
Bobby Lake Trail, you will cross the Pa-
cific Crest Trail and continue straight a
quarter mile to the lakeshore.
“When you see the lake you will also
see some large flat tent areas where you
can camp,” Weinheimer said. “If you
Blue Lake in the Diamond Peak Wilderness. FRANZISKA WEINHEIMER/HIKE OREGON
want to enjoy a swim in the lake and a
little more secluded camping, continue
another quarter mile around the lake to
the right until you see another campsite
and a large rock that drops right into the
lake. Where the rock enters the water, it
creates a sandy bottom, making it a very
pleasant entry point and a wonderfully
warm shallow place for small kids to
play.”
Blue Canyon Basin
(Sky Lakes Wilderness)
The somewhat less-visited Sky
Lakes Wilderness of Southern Oregon
offers many charms unseen by people
from the Willamette Valley. Among this
land of lakes, the best for kids is easily
Blue Canyon Basin located just outside
the small town of Prospect and Butte
Falls, northeast of Medford.
It’s a short and fairly level hike to Blue
Lake — 4 miles roundtrip — the most
scenic alpine lake here. If you can’t find
a site here, fear not, just head down the
trail to Horseshoe or Pear lakes, which
both have sites. And if you want a longer
trek, continue to Island Lake.
As with many other Southern Cas-
cade areas, visit in late August or Sep-
tember to avoid horrendous mosqui-
toes.
Rogue River Trail
(southern Oregon)
A river more famous for whitewater
rafting also makes for glorious back-
packing along the 40-mile Rogue River
Trail. But fear not, you don’t have to hike
that far — simply begin at the trailhead
outside Grants Pass and hike as far as
the little legs will go to a plethora of
great campsites.
The one thing to be careful about is
that the trail does have significant expo-
sure — so keep the little ones close and
on the trail. But the trail is beautiful
from its beginning at Grave Creek Boat
Ramp and Trailhead northwest of
Grants Pass.
Short out-and-back camping options
include Whiskey Creek (3.3 miles one-
way), Big Slide (3.8) and Russian Creek
(5.7) — although there’s plenty more
just down the trail.
Miller
Continued from Page 1B
World
That “Clatsup” (sic) is on the website, by the way,
but the link works.
A quick aside about tides
After a quarter century, my all-time favorite go-to
tide table website at the University of South Carolina
Biology Department has moved.
It’s the one that I use when prepping the annual mi-
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A family of backpackers at Bobby Lake
near Waldo Lake in Willamette National
Forest. JEFF GREEN/SPECIAL TO THE
STATESMAN JOURNAL
5 more options
Threemile Lake (Oregon Dunes):
Go backpacking on the Oregon Coast by
beginning at the Threemile Lake North
Trail and exploring the Oregon Dunes
National Recreation Area. A 6-mile loop
begins here that can be turned into a
backpacking trip, with the best sites on
the beaches of the lake itself.
“The trail provides vistas of freshwa-
ter lakes, wet areas within the forest and
ocean waves,” says Siuslaw National
Forest’s website. “The trail wanders
through a spruce forest with substantial
tree size, stops at the serene Threemile
Lake and ends at the ocean beach.”
You can combine Threemile Lake
Trails and Tahkenitch Dunes Trail #1353
into an extended single loop trail of 6.5
miles.
Erma Bell Lakes (Three Sisters):
Multiple swimmable lakes with camp-
sites access on an easy forested trail is
what you’ll find at this cluster of lakes in
the Three Sisters Wilderness. Access to
the lakes was closed by the Middle Fork
Complex this summer, but the area
didn’t burn and should reopen next
summer.
The trip is 4.5 miles round-trip and
mostly flat. It begins at Skookum Creek
Campground and passes a waterfall,
travels through old-growth forest and
reaches three pretty mountain lakes.
nus-tides list to alert readers to coming clamming and
tide-pooling opportunities.
It still has the same format along with a wealth of
information for times and tides worldwide, along with
moon phases and sunrise/sunset times, but at a new
online address.
For those such as moi who bookmarked it, the for-
mer tbone.biol.sc.edu start page is now http://tide.ar-
throinfo.org
Whew!
Access now park-and-stride
The annual winter gate closure on the access road to
St. Louis Ponds west of Gervais is in effect from Oct. 1
through February 28.
While the road is closed and bathrooms are locked,
you still are allowed walk-in entry to the 22-acre recre-
ation site and its network of fishing ponds, accessible
trails and docks, a dog-training area and large open
spaces by parking on the shoulder just outside the gate
on Tesch Lane, the gravel access road.
St. Louis Ponds is jointly managed by Marion Coun-
ty Parks and Recreation, online at St. Louis Ponds
(marion.or.us), and the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, which traditionally stocks rainbow trout
intermittently during the winter months.
To check on the status of stocking at the ponds usu-
ally beginning around November, go to the Willamette
Zone map on Fish and Wildlife’s weekly recreation re-
port at Fishing Report - Willamette Zone | Oregon De-
partment of Fish & Wildlife (myodfw.com)
To get to St. Louis Ponds, take North River Road out
of Keizer about 13 miles and look for the St. Louis Road
turn on the right. After crossing the railroad tracks sev-
eral miles up the road, turn right on Tesch to the gate.
And finally, let’s talk turkey
There are campsites at Lower Erma Bell
Lake, 1.7 miles from the trailhead, and
Middle Erma Bell Lake, which has the
easiest place to access the lake and my
favorite sites. Just beyond, you can visit
Upper Erma Bell, Williams and Otter
lakes.
Blue and Happy lakes (Diamond
Peak Wilderness): Often overlooked in
the Diamond Peak Wilderness south-
east of Eugene, Blue and Happy lakes
are well named. The swimmable lakes
and easy-ish hikes offer a lot for fam-
ilies, although once again, it’s best in
late summer or early fall to avoid mos-
quitoes. Coming in early July would not
be as happy an experience at Happy
Lake.
The hike to Blue Lake is just 2 miles
round-trip, while an addition to Happy
Lake is 6.8.
“These lakes on the west side of Dia-
mond Peak frequently get overlooked,
even though they are easy to get to and
offer excellent camping and swimming
opportunities,”
Islet Beach (Waldo Lake): From Islet
Campground at Waldo Lake, follow the
Shoreline Trail from the boat ramp to a
collection of white sandy beaches
bathed in sunshine and the azure water
of Oregon’s clearest lake. There’s at
least one campground near Islet Beach,
the largest of the white crescent beach-
es on Waldo Lake’s east side.
Marion Lake (Jefferson Wilder-
ness): Another tried and true favorite in
the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, Mar-
ion Lake has a lot of the same qualities
as Pamelia Lake, except that it’s about
one mile farther and showcases views
of Three Fingered Jack instead of Jeffer-
son. It’s 6 miles round-trip, although it
can feel like longer since it’s such a big
lake and there’s a lot to explore nearby.
There are plenty of campsites, and good
side trips include hiking to Marion Falls
or climbing Marion Mountain. This one
requires an overnight permit from From
May 28 to Sept. 24 as well.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors re-
porter in Oregon for 13 years and is the
host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To
support his work, subscribe to the
Statesman Journal. Urness can be
reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal
.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on
Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
It’s still almost two months until Thanksgiving, but
the fall wild-turkey hunting season opener in western
Oregon is just a week and change away on Oct. 9.
Details about open areas and seasons are on pages
18 and 19 in the “2021-22 Oregon Game Bird Regula-
tions” available free as license agents or as a PDF on-
line at 21ORGB_VLR.pdf (eregulations.com)
Whereas the spring season is a sneak-and-call ex-
ercise in trying to seduce a lovesick tom (male) into
range, the fall season is more of a scout-and-stalk
strategy. One advantage is that unlike the males-only
spring season, the fall hunt allows you to take a bird of
either sex.
It may be the most expensive holiday bird you’ll
ever put on the table, but probably the most satisfying
in terms of reward-for-effort.
You need a resident hunting license ($34.50) and a
turkey tag ($26.50). Those are available at license
agents, or online at Oregon DFW - Login (huntfishore-
gon.com)
You’re allowed two tags a season, so if you get lucky,
you can bag a turkey for Thanksgiving, and another for
Christmas.
Or even New Year’s and beyond if you still have an
unfilled tag.
The season runs through Jan. 31, 2022.
Word to the wise, though.
Prohibitions regarding the discharge of firearms in
city limits means those urban birds that show up on
your porch or in your back yard this time of year are
strictly off-limits.
Henry’s lament: Now that I’m experienced enough
and, ahem, mature enough to have a wealth of great
advice to give, I’m too old for anyone younger than me
to give a fig about listening to it
Contact Henry at HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com