We left the Walmart of Bend this morning and drove to Lake Hosmer, one of the many high altitude lakes at the base of the Cascade range near Bend: Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, and South Sister.  There was actually a bit of slush on the road as we crossed the summit near Mount Bachelor, which reinforced the notion that it’s time to head south.

I remember Lake Hosmer from my Hancock days.  It’s a wonderfully asymmetric lake with shallow, winding passages.  It’s quite shallow, and the water is very clear.  Since it’s a fly fishing-only lake, there are quite a few fish to be seen in the crystal clear waters.

Here’s the view from the boat put-in area at Lake Hosmer.  That’s Mount Bachelor in the background, its peak obscured by clouds:

I took my action camera along on the kayak trip, but the card got messed up (a technical term) when we got back, so we have mostly Tricia’s photos below:

Our son decided to paddle his way through the reeds, screaming all the way.  So much for the solitude and quiet of kayaking:

At some point he realized that he had picked up a few spiders in the reeds, so he got out of his kayak and lay on top of it.  Remarkably, he didn’t capsize:

After our amazing kayaking outing, we drove a couple miles to Lava Lake, where the fishing is supposed to be amazing, but we were unsuccessful.  The alpine glow on South Sister (left) and Broken Top (right) made it worthwhile:

We spent the night at the closed campground at Lava Lake.

  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.