Alpine Lakes of the Mount Hood National Forest

I got caught up one weekend looking at maps which always becomes a pretty time-consuming endeavor as I always find fun places to go explore.  In this particular case, I zeroed in on the far southeast corner of the Mount Hood National Forest at the crest of the Cascades.  There were a bunch of lakes that promised good fishing.

So I rounded up the family and Cory and we headed out.  As it turned out, the weekend was to be the hottest of the entire summer with temps well over 100 degrees down in the valley.  Although the mountains were much better, they were pretty full of other people escaping the valley heat.  We met Cory in Detroit and then headed up Breitenbush River, crossed the watershed divide and started down the Clackamas River before turning again and heading up Squirrel Creek to Si Lake - our first stop.

It was a short hike in through the woods.  Beautiful lake, but no fish.  But the kids went swimming and we had a picnic back at the car.  After lunch we drove up to Monan Lake which was much bigger and even prettier, but still no fish.  Fishing in the cool water sure felt good and the kids went swimming again.

After a beer we started back, but stopped at First Lake for one last chance at a few trout.  We at least saw a number of trout following our lures and even had a couple nibbles, but nothing landed.  The kids went swimming one last time before heading out.

That's where the adventure began, unfortunately.  I had enough gas to get home, but what happened next, I couldn't have planned for.  We got almost back to Detroit and ran into a line of cars.  We sat in the line of cars for well over an hour.  Finally we got close to Highway 22 and someone said that there had been an accident and fatality and that the road back to Salem was closed.  Cory left and headed up the Pass.  I thought we could go wait at the accident for the highway to open.  After waiting in another traffic jam for an hour where estimates to the road re-opening ran another 5hrs, we returned to Detroit.  I didn't have enough fuel to go all the way to the top of the Pass and then down another highway, so I had to get gas in Detroit.  But so did everyone else who was doing the same thing as us.  So we waited for gas for another couple hours.  Meanwhile, the kids were overheating and starving.  So I left Dohnele in line for fuel and I walked to the grocery store where there was a line out the door.  And the shelves were nearly empty.  But I got some beef jerky, potato chips, and some juice (water was sold out).  Finally we got fuel and headed up the pass.  Zephyr got car sick and threw up.  Then, fortunately, the kids fell asleep.  We made it all the way up to the Pass and then came down the South Fork Santiam River to Albany and took I-5 north to Salem and to home.  We walked in the door at midnight.  Got the kids to bed and then cleaned the car.  Dohnele and I took the next day off work.