Buck Lake

Buck Lake Trailhead (above) and Trail (below)

Buck Lake has been on my bucket list for quite a while.  It seemed like the perfect place to go: middle of nowhere, beautiful, short/easy trail, fun for the whole family.  Anyway, we finally found a day to go, so we packed up and took off.  Because of the Riverside Wildfire of 2020, the quickest way to get to the trailhead is still closed because the Forest Service is working to clear hazard trees from beside the roadways.  I could have sworn that I read this spring that the road was opened, but when I was in the area for work a month ago, I saw a sign that suggested the road might be closed; since I didn't want to take the chance, I went the long way (around the wildfire scar) through Portland, up Hwy 26, past Mount Hood, and down from the northeast.

I got us to the Trailhead without issue, but it was a looooong drive to get there and everyone was excited to get out of the car and breathe some fresh air.  Best part was that we had the trail entirely to ourselves!  The weather was definitely "fall" and in just a few hours time we saw just about everything from sunshine to clouds to drizzle, and wind.  And the fall colors had just started in earnest up at this elevation (4,080 feet).  Best part was because it was cooler, there were zero bugs!

The hike in was indeed pretty easy.  We got to the lake and everyone kinda did their own thing: me and Dohnele hiked to an "island" in the lake.  Emma took tons of pictures.  And Zephyr and Zoe made an adventure video which unfortunately I don't have a copy of.