And we’ve returned! Robey and I have spent the better part of a week vacationing at Gordon Lakes, a primitive campsite about 40 minutes east on Highway 20 outside of Sweet Home, Oregon. It was fantastic and relaxing. We spent a majority of our time there fishing, hiking, and crawfish huntin’.

The campsite itself was a half mile hike in from the parking lot. This meant we had to lug all our gear in a half mile on a decent hiking trail, to reach the site. Therefore, we packed as little as possible and (due to Robey-ingenuity) used a hand-truck for anything unwieldy. For the first half the week my nephew Alex joined us. We also had some friends come and camp with us for the first half of our respite. The first day we did a fair amount of hiking and fishing, along with some swimming at High Rock. High Rock is a delicious chunk of the South Santiam river. The river is pristine, clear to the bottom. A great place to swim, but also freakishly cold. On a 90 something degree day it’s fantastic for cooling off, however anything below that and it’s hardly bearable. Thus the pictures of my nephew and I doing out best to stay out of the water.

Halfway through I drove my nephew home, and our friends left, leaving Robey and I alone in the wilderness. The first night there was much talk of cougars, coyotes and bears. We didn’t actually see any of the sort during our stay, but we did hear some coyotes on our last night there. We did drink some boiled lake water, and thus kept up a constant ‘giardia’ joke line anytime anything regarding our intestinal track happened. Overall most of our trip was fraught with sitting in the sunshine fishing and drinking tea near the campfire. There was also some occasional book reading and campfire cookin’. We both incurred a fair amount of sun and dirty clothes, but overall enjoyed a satisfying vacation. We hope you enjoy our pictures!