4th Annual Fall boys Camping trip (2017)

We just got back from our annual fall boys camping trip for 2017.  

Previous years:

A little later than average this year - Sept 30/Oct 1 and the weather was a little more cool and unsettled but still a great time.  This year we were joined by PJ for the first time!  Kelly was a little nervous about this but decided to ok it.  The trip this year was via canoe upon request from Noah.   The plan was to travel along an ~8 mile stretch of the Deschutes river from Tenino boat launch just below Wickiup reservoir to Wyeth boat launch just above Pringle falls.  This stretch has no rapids and is a nice easy down-river float.  Here is a map of the route and our selected primitive camp spot (blue dot) along the river.

We dropped one car at Wyeth and had Kelly drive us to the put in point at Tenino.  Here we are at the put in and just starting down river.

We selected this camp spot about 2/3 down river to our exit as it was relatively remote.  Had a great little eddy to pull the canoe into to unload.

I had a few new recipes I wanted to try on this trip.  The first was pizza over a camp stove. I originally learned this with NOLS many years ago but haven't tried it recently.  Chose to top it with peppercorn feta, kalamata olives, and arugula on half (for Noah and I).  First pic is Hunter helping me by cutting up olives.  Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without hot-dogs over a fire which we did later when the wind died down.  I also cooked a peach cobbler for desert.

Here is a video of the kids throwing pin cones in the river on a walk for entertainment.
After a cool night we rose Sunday morning with a little rain to start but clearing to partly cloudy with a cool wind but not bad for October.  For breakfast I made Fresh sourdough french toast with raspberries and pumpkin spice maple syrup along with a side bacon.  It was tasty!

  

Early Fall Camping on Sparks Lake

Second week in September...  Fall is in the air, but the nice weather is still holding.  It was expected to be in the low 80's in Bend this weekend, so I figured it might be a good to try a last camping trip in the mountains with Hunter and Noah before the weather turned.  I expected it to be cool at night since the lake is at 5400 ft - almost 2000 ft higher than Bend.   My plan was to take them out in the canoe to a wilderness camp site at the far end of Sparks lake. (Kelly and I did a moonlight canoe on Sparks in early August)  Its impossible to get a camp spot here in the summer time but I figured September would be fine, and it was.  This would be their first non car camping trip!  They both did their soccer games in the morning and we headed up to the cascade lakes around 2:30 Saturday.  We probably got on the lake around 3:30.

Here we are launching and going to the camp site.  Also note, it seems to be frog season at Sparks.  The shores and water was covered in these tiny frogs - see the bag full the boys collected.  

We found a nice spot on a bluff at the far south east end of the lake with a view of Mt bachelor in the background.  Lots of lava for the kids to climb and and explore while I set up camp.  Hunter remembered slicing hot dogs like a squid  from our trip to Canada 3 summers ago so we did that again this weekend.  

The night was cold but not as much as I expected.  There was only a slight hint of frost the next morning.  In the morning we dressed warm initially but once the sun came up, it was really nice.  We hung out, ate, played, read some devotionals about the outdoors  and set out for our return journey.

We stopped for lunch and some scrambling on this neat uplifting of lava not far from the return point.  It was great fun to scramble up the narrow fins of rock.  Also being late season the water in the lake was super shallow in parts - you can see it in some of these pictures.  

A short but super fun night out.  The boys loved it.  I think we will try and make an annual trip of this each September!

Moonlight Canoe on Sparks Lake

A local outfitting company called Wanderlust tours offers a moonlight canoe in and around the full moon each month during the summer. Kelly and I have been trying to get a trip going like this all summer with some friends and the timing finally worked for the the August full moon.  We went on Saturday August 9 when the moon was at its fullest and it is also at one of the closest points to earth in its orbit making it extra big.    We went with the Hornsbys (Dean and Ceri - Red canoe) and the Bercots (Eric and Shelly - blue canoe).  After canoeing for a while we stopped at a beach and had local craft brews while the moon rose.  Once the moon was up and it was dark we took to the water again.  It was a fantastic evening on the water.