Our nephew Mitchell flew up from Southern California to join us on a beautiful pack trip that took in a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail up close to Mt. Hood.
Twin Lakes is, of course, two lakes, the first of which is about 3.5 miles from the trailhead at Barlow Pass. We were very concerned about mosquitos after the trip to Three Sisters a few weeks earlier, but to our surprise, and utter delight, we encountered nary a mosquito - literally! It was an amazing bit of good timing (and luck). The weather was perfect - not too hot and no rain.
Elka was on about her third trip with the new pack and she is now an old hand at carrying at least her food, the frisbee she eats and drinks from, and (shhh, dont tell her) the CHOCOLATE which on a recent trip to Steens almost killed her.
When we pulled in, we hardly noticed the mountain, shrouded in clouds. We actually watched as the clouds rolled over and covered the entire peak in just a minute or so. The same went for the hike in, with the mountain behind us, and covered in clouds, we were hardly aware of its towering presence, just a few miles away.
We took the PCT about 2 miles in and then branched off another trail out to the first lake. When we arrived it was well worth the trek. This is a beautiful alpine lake that was comfortably swimmable, yet only 3-4 deep all the way across.
There are lots of pictures in a shutterfly album here.
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