Twin Lake Hike and Father's Day

It has been quite a while since I last blogged. Finally, school is out for the summer and so that will give me plenty of time to blog. I am back with an incredible journal post. It is Father's Day today, and I wanted to go hiking with my mom and dad today as an escape. My dad found this book and it tells him all the different hiking trails of Oregon. He found that the hiking trail leading to Frog Lake also led to two separate lakes, the Twin Lakes. He also found another trail that led to a lake called Lost Lake. I want to hike that one too. We went to Subway first and picked up some sandwiches to take with us, and we were on our way! It was a beautiful day to hike. It wasn't too warm, it wasn't too cold, and thank goodness it wasn't raining. Down by the lakes it was a little windy and chilly, but the actual hiking part on the trail wasn't hot or cold. It was perfect weather for hiking. 

Some wild Rhododendron growing under the sign. 

We began our hike and we saw this giant ladder thing at the beginning of the trail, from the trail entrance/exit. Of course, I had to take a swing. 

Throughout the trail, we saw these blue diamonds that were nailed to some of the trees. My mom said they were markers to let you know that you were on the Pacific Crest Trail. 

We passed by some more rhododendron and my dad wanted to take a picture of me near the flowers. They are the prettiest pink! 

Lots of other interesting and beautiful plants along the trail. The one that caught my eye was this leaf, it was all different colors, and the colors didn't even fade into each other, it was like the color was dripped onto the leaf, color by color and it stained it. It was so beautiful. I called it the Watercolor leaf. 

I loved looking up during this hike. It was so beautiful because the sky was baby blue, the clouds were light and the trees weren't full, so you could see the sky. It was fun to see the clouds peak out through the tree tops. 

And finally the lakes! Well, one of the lakes. The "LOWER" Lake. We stopped to take pictures and eat our sandwiches. This is where it was chilly, and where the sweatshirts needed to be put on. It was windy and cold, but luckily it was only for a little bit. 

 

We found this fire pit and log area, and someone carved their own little sit out of a log! It looked like it could be in a wilderness magazine, or something you'd find on Pinterest. It was so cute!

A little ways away, we found another bunch of logs, and we ate our sandwiches there. It was a nice view to have while eating a late lunch. At first, I was eating my sandwich, and said, "Who cares, I'm just gonna eat." half way done with my sandwich, I'm like, "You know, I have to take a picture of my food. I'm Courtney Biggs, I always take pictures of my food, no matter how silly it is." and how memorable! 

There were some really interesting trees by the lower lake. There was this group of trees, and one of the trees had four initials on them. It was so cute. 

Another tree had moss growing out of it everywhere! It looked like a leg that needed to be shaven, or a tree out of Dr. Suess books.

We hiked further to the Upper twin lake. It was another mile to the lake, but wow! The second lake was so pretty.  On the way to the Upper Lake, we spotted a wood pecker. I heard it tweet and twitter (the sounds that birds make, not the website) and we heard it pound on wood, and it looked like it fell from the tree, and swooped down, and it looked like it was gonna take out my parents, the way it was flying at them. They had to duck to keep from being flown into by the bird, but it swooped up again into another tree, and cruised up the tree really fast. The whole thing happened so fast, and I couldn't get a picture. I was really sad about that, but it was fun to witness. 

The upper lake is where my dad went the rest of the trail and where my mom and I headed back the way we came. My dad wanted to hike the rest toward the Barlow Pass trail, it was only four more miles, and my mom wasn't really up for it, plus my dad didn't want to hike an extra four miles to hike back to the car. It made more sense for my mom and I to walk back to the car, which a three mile hike it'self and drive to Barlow Pass trail parking lot and pick my dad up. I wanted to go on the hike with my dad, but my dad didn't want my mom walking back by herself. So we parted ways for only an hour, and my mom and I hiked the rest of the way back to the Frog Lake Sno-Park trail parking lot. It was way easier hiking back than hiking to. 

It was a nice hike. There were so many things to take pictures of. It was so beautiful, and the sun was beginning to set, the trail seemed like it was glittering!  

 

Halfway back, we were ready for the trail to be done, and to be done hiking for the day. We kept trekking and oh my goodness, we saw some beautiful clouds! Now, if you are a regular reader, and if you keep up with my instagram, or just know me, you know I love clouds! Clouds are beautiful, they are my absolute favorite. 

My mom and I saw some other interesting nature spazzes and they were quite bazaar. The first bazaar thing we saw was this tree that had fallen down, it looked like the rings of the tree had come undone, and separated. It looked almost like soggy paper, or fabric that was draped. It was kinda cool, and totally picture worthy. 

Another crazy thing was this growth on the side of a tree. We think it is some kind of fungus that is growing on the side of the tree. I wanted to touch it and see what it felt like, but I didn't know if it would hurt me, or if it was some kind of poisonous fungus. I wished I brought rubber gloves to see what it felt like. It was quite odd, and again, totally picture worthy.

We finally arrived at the parking lot, and hopped in the car. We called my dad and he was still hiking, so my mom and I drove to the Barlow Pass trail parking lot, and we waited for my dad to come out of the trees. As we were driving on the road, we passed a sign about Samual K. Barlow, and we passed the actual Barlow Road. Unfortunately, it was closed off because of a bridge that was down along the road, but we saw part of the road. This is the man that my school is named after, Sam Barlow. 

 

We drove up just a bit further and parked to wait for my dad. He came out of the trees and we picked him up, and we started our drive home. Just as we pulled out of the Barlow Trail parking lot road, and drove just a bit further, we came across the most beautiful view of Mt. Hood. We pulled over to the side of the road and I took millions of pictures. Oh my, it was so majestic!

While we were stopped to take pictures of Mt. Hood, we saw two other cars pull over and take pictures. We know it's not a view point, but it's certainly scenic. My mom and I believe that we started a trend, they may not have stopped if we didn't stop. Probably not, but we like to think that we influenced them. 

It was a lovely day, and my dad said that he was glad we came and spent the day with him. I was glad too! I love my dad, he is the absolute best and he works so hard. He is so fun to be with, and he is so outgoing. We always do hikes like this, probably more than 5 times a year. Hopefully this summer, my dad and I can gather couple of other people who would like to hike from Timberline lodge down to Lolo pass road (Obviously friends and family), it is a 15 mile hike and we hope to get it done in a day. We know we will get it done in a day. What an adventure that'd be! I'd totally do it. 

When we were finally home, I immediately fixed myself up a dessert and started getting rid of the unnecessary photos and started organizing my photos for this blog post. It was a super fun Father's Day. Happy Father's Day!