Camping Trip: Takhlakh Lake, Washington

 After two days of huddling next to a window air conditioner to weather the 116ºF heat, Gary, Zach and I packed up the car to head out on a two-night camping trip in the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest in southern Washington. The first night we'd be camping at Takhlakh Lake, near the base of Mount Adams, a handsome volcanic dome that Zach and I hiked around on the Pacific Crest Trail years ago.

The hot weather hadn't broken yet, so we blasted the air conditioning as we drove up the highways and turned onto smaller and bumpier forest roads. We were going to try to visit Lewis Falls, but that required a parking permit only acquirable on the internet (and there was no cell reception), so we drove on toward our campsite, up the mountains (Zach and I had a fierce argument about whether or not they were mountains— he said that mountains only qualify as such if their tops are above the timberline, which made my Missouri self howl). 

At last we decided that we wanted lunch, so we pulled onto a side road near a mountain meadow full of yellow flowers and little daisies. The alpine flowers, the fresh fir trees, the snowy peak of Mount Adams in the distance— all these elements smashed up against the experience of 101ºF heat blasting us like a furnace when we stepped out of the car. The contrast of landscape and temperature was incredibly disorienting. Still, it was pretty, and we had a nice lunch of tortilla chips and hummus. 

We finally arrived at the Takhlakh Lake Campground, a lovely collection of well-spaced spots shaded by fragrant fir trees. Mountain ash (also called rowan) bushes lined the road, speckled with huge groups of western meadow fritillary butterflies. The lake was visible from our campsite, beautifully blue, with the summit of Mount Adams dominating the view above the tree line. 

Foxglove

It was still about 98ºF, but there was no humidity and the lake had a nice breeze, so it was more tolerable than I expected. I put on my swimsuit and paddled around in the water for a while, which was refreshingly cold.

As the sun fell lower in the sky, mosquitoes came out en force, but that didn't keep us from hiking a loop around the lake, with a detour to a loop that traveled up into the forest and around the edge of a 3,500-year-old lava flow, populated by specialist plants and lovely flowers. As the 90-degree heat washed over us, we suddenly felt bursts of cool air that felt exactly like air conditioning, and soon saw the source: patches of snow among the lava boulders, still frozen even in the scorching temps. 

It was a little hard to enjoy any of this— or the gorgeous sunset on the lake— because of the massive swarms of mosquitoes everywhere. Even with long sleeves, long pants, and a head-net, I got a ton of bites!

See the mosquito in the upper-left side of the photo?

Self-portrait with head net

Because of the skeeters, we packed up early the next morning and headed out on another series of forest roads toward our hiking destination for the day: Mount St. Helens. We parked on a pull-out near a waterfall and nibbled on snacks, enjoying the solitude of these back roads. The hot weather had finally broken, and we could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing we would be safe from heat stroke today. Our hike on the Windy Ridge Trail would begin soon.

Our version of tailgating

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