Lacamas Lake

Oliver and I went up to Lacamas Lake today to walk the 1.2 mile loop that goes around the lake. With a very curious 3 year old the loop took us about 3 times as long. That's okay though, it's like outdoor school. He's learning a lot and doesn't even realize it. We always look at the maps/trail guides and find the "you are here" markers, talk about where we've been and how much farther we have to go. I played a game today that when we heard running water he had to find where it was coming from. Even though he probably didn't understand much of it I explained the importance of keeping those little streams and water around our house clean so that once it made it to the lake it would still be clean. We looked at all the different kinds of trees and found bird nests, holes that the woodpeckers had created, rotted ones with new plants growing from them, etc. All of the birds were really active today and he tried chasing a few of those around and did not understand why they didn't want him to pet them. It was another fun, beautiful day and makes me long for spring that much more!

Checking out the information on the lake and the maps before heading out onto the trail.

Oliver says, "Silly tree growing out of the water!"

Throwing rocks and pine cones into the water. We would watch the ripples to see how far they would go out. There were some ducks in the water and we were cheering the ripples on in hopes that they would reach them and make them quack.

The trail is pretty shaded but the sun was trying to bust through the trees.

There is a small dam at the SW corner of the lake that you cross to continue the loop.

Looking over the spillway from the top of the dam.

I should have dressed Ollie in forest colors then I could have made a game out of trying to find the boy. Not hard to spot in the bright red though.

The loop takes a nice climb up and you get some pretty views of the lake.

I should have turned the video on this loon. It would spread it's wings then inch a little closer to the bird on the end. As soon as the one on the end would turn and look, the one would fold in it's wings and stop until the one on the end looked away. It inched it's way about a foot closer in the time that I was watching.

We found a patch of empty snail shells in a muddy spot. We had fun digging around for them and talking about what used to be inside.