Olallie Lake

Well, we decided to plan a camping trip for just for the 2 of us. We decided on Hideaway Lake, which is suppose to be a very secluded lake off the beaten path. It only has 9 campsites on the lake but we were told you were lucky to have any company out there. So, we packed up the truck and the dog and headed out at 4pm on Friday. We drove 1 hour and 45 minutes toward our destination. To get to Hideaway, we had to drive about 15 miles off the highway down a mostly dirt road, with lots of huge potholes...it wasn't a pleasant drive. Since we didn't see anyone on the road, we were surprised when we pulled into the campground and realized it was full. Frustrated, we turned around and headed back down the horrible road again. Not knowing the area very well, we didn't really know what to do. We got back onto the highway and pulled into 2 campgrounds we passed on the highway. Both were full. Not feeling very encouraged, but determined to spend the weekend camping, we drove out to Olallie Lake hoping we would be able to find a campsite. Before we got there, we decided if there weren't any open sites, we would just pull off the side of the road, cook dinner then head home.

By 7:30pm (after spending 3 1/2 hours in the truck) we arrived at Olallie Lake to find one of the last 2 sites available! As we pulled in, Cody said "Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise"...and it was!! We ended up having a great weekend.

Camp all set up for the weekend:

A perfect site for two:

Views of Mt. Jefferson:


We hiked into Timber Lake. Since Roxy wasn't allowed to swim in Olallie Lake back at camp she made sure to get lots of swimming in at Timber Lake! As we hiked around the lake, she followed...swimming the shoreline:

Cody was desperate to beat the heat. Desperate times call for desperate measures...Yes, even when a little skinny dipping comes into play. Luckily, we had the whole lake to ourselves:


Once we wore out the dog some and got back to camp, we decided to rent a row boat so Cody could do a little fishing. The wind picked up about 30-45 minutes after we got out onto the water, which made rowing a pretty good workout:

He even caught a fish:

When we got back to camp, we found the dog still exausted from our hike earlier in the day:

We played cribbage, took a nap, cooked dinner and hung out at camp for the evening. We even had a guest...a deer!!! We didn't even know the deer was in our campsite until Roxy took off running after it. Of course the deer out ran her, but she didn't give up. She chased the deer so far away we couldn't see her anymore. For awhile, we didn't know if she was coming back...but like a good dog does, she came running back to us looking for praise for her good watch dog efforts. That same deer came back to camp the following morning, but this time Roxy was chained up. Chelsea tried to get a picture of him just 20 yards away, but she wasn't quick enough.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we decided we are going to make Olallie Lake an annual camping trip for just the two of us.