Mirror Lake, Oregon

One of my favorite weekends ever was an overnight campout on Mirror Lake on the road up to Mt Hood from Portland.

The hike up to the lake was great, through pine forests dripping with a light rain, and crossing raging streams. By the time I got to the lake, the rain had stopped, and I was able to set up camp just above the lake.

There was a Boy Scout group also camping at the lake, and at the far end some conservation crunchy-types.

Over the course of the evening, we all met and ended up eating dinner together. The Scout leader was a gourmet chef, and after we caught dozens of crawfish in the lake, he cooked them up in a creole stew, adding in contributions from all of the campers.

We stayed up well after dark, singing campfire songs, and retired to our tents in the cool of the late evening.

The next morning, I was invited to hike towards Tom Dick and Harry mountain, and help the conservation group release juvenile Peregrine falcons into the wild.

What a wonderful experience.