July 31, 2024—After waking early and having a breakfast of cereal, we drove down to Hosmer Lake. The drive to Hosmer Lake is a scenic one that takes you past Mt. Bachelor, Sparks Lake—another beautiful lake to paddle—and Elk Lake before arriving at the turnoff to Hosmer. Past experience at Hosmer Lake alerted me to the need to arrive at the lake early or face a long walk to the launch. By late morning, the parking lot can fill up, requiring people to park alongside the road, sometimes over a long distance. Fortunately, when we arrived there were only three other vehicles in the parking lot. That changed as the morning rolled on.
I tried to fit three adults (daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Nick, and me) and my granddaughter Sophia into my Old Town Penobscot canoe. While I could squeeze everyone into the boat, the stability seemed a little questionable. I didn’t want to capsize because I had with me my good camera and 600mm telephoto lens to photograph yellow-headed blackbirds that frequented the wocus on the lake. I decided, instead, to break the paddle trips into two trips with Jennifer and Sophia going first and Nick going on the second trip.
Hosmer Lake is a beautiful lake that lies on the western flank of Mt. Bachelor. It’s a shallow lake that is slowly being taken over by rush and grasses. The lake will eventually be fully overtaken by vegetation and become a marsh before turning into a meadow. It’s a popular lake with paddlers because of the channels formed in the lake by those same rushes and grasses that will eventually overtake the lake. In addition, the lake affords beautiful views of Mt. Bachelor and South Sister. Forests of Ponderosa pine surround the lake. There is a small, rustic campground on the southwest lower arm of the lake. I wanted to show off the beauty of the lake to my family.
Jennifer, Sophia, and I set out from the launch. The air temperature had yet to get too hot—it was supposed to get into the 90s. There was a slight amount of haze in the sky that made photographing South Sister and Mt. Bachelor less than ideal. Fortunately, I wasn’t there to photograph the landscape but to photograph the wildlife. The lake abounded with several bird species, including bald eagles, osprey, and yellow-headed blackbirds. There was also the chance we might see elk, deer, beaver, and other wildlife. And here is where things turned a little weird.
The last time I visited Hosmer Lake, yellow-headed blackbirds were as common as Starbucks coffee houses. They were everywhere during my last visit; this time, not one could be found. The only birds I saw in large numbers were red-winged blackbirds and ring-necked ducks. We did observe one great-blue heron. Where had all the yellow-headed blackbirds gone? The habitat is ideal for them, and Hosmer Lake is within their breeding range. We paddled from one end of the lake to the other and nothing, not even a bald eagle. We did see schools of brook trout, which fascinated my granddaughter.
We did spot in the lake’s muddy bottom at the shallow north end of the lake what appeared to be several elk tracks. Sophia was getting restless, and I still had to take Nick out for a paddle, so we headed back to the launch after about two hours on the lake.
On my second trip out across the lake, I decided to leave my camera back in my pickup truck since I hadn’t seen any of the birds I had come to photograph. Big mistake. While Nick and I were out on the lake, I spotted an osprey in the distance fishing. Had I brought my camera along, perhaps I could have gotten a shot of him diving into the water to catch a trout. More importantly, the osprey, once he caught his prize, flew right over us, trout in his talons. I would have had the perfect shot.
The morning was quickly wearing on, and we needed to leave the lake to make it to the Lava River Cave in time for our 2 p.m. reservation. We still needed to have lunch. Nick and I made it back to the launch a little past noon, too late for lunch as we needed to get the canoe back onto the truck. However, I had left my truck keys with my daughter, and she was nowhere to be found. She showed up about five minutes later.
With the canoe finally loaded on the truck and all the gear stowed in the pickup bed, we left for the cave, arriving about 30 minutes prior to our check-in time for the tour. That gave me just enough time for a quick bite to eat. I was starving after having only a bowl of cereal in the morning and having paddled Hosmer Lake twice.
Before entering the cave, visitors must attend a safety briefing where the Forest Service ranger presents a talk about white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats that has devastated many bat colonies around the country. This safety briefing includes making sure visitors aren’t wearing the same clothes they wore in an area where WNS exists. Not wearing the same clothes is critical because the fungus that causes WNS cannot be removed by washing. This also means not wearing the same shoes worn in an area where WNS is prevalent. Oregon so far doesn’t hasn’t had any occurrences of the disease, and wildlife biologists with the Forest Service would like to keep it that way. Climate change is playing a role in the impact of white-nose syndrome in bats.1,2
Following the end of the safety briefing, we headed down into the darkness of the cave. We weren’t sure how Sophia would do since she has a fear of the dark. Jennifer thought Sophia might only go part of the way into the cave before getting scared and wanting to turn around. We descended into the cave; the coldness of the cave was a welcome relief to the hot temperature outside. The only way we could see where we were going was the headlamps we wore. My Black Diamond headlamp provided inadequate light to thoroughly light the cave floor, so I oftentimes found myself stumbling over rocks and stepping into slight depressions. A mile in, we reached the end of the walkable section of the cave. To my surprise and that of my daughter, Sophia made it all the way to the end. In fact, she was really enjoying herself. It was now time to turn around and retrace our steps. There was quite a temperature difference when we exited the cave and returned to the heat. We went from a temperature in the 40s to a temperature in the 90s.
We left the cave and, after stopping off briefly at a Walmart in Bend, headed back to Tumalo State Park for a much-needed shower and dinner. That shower felt wonderful after getting sweaty paddling and loading up the canoe onto the truck.
I love to eat good when camping—no dehydrated foods for me, though I will confess the Mountain House does make some tasty, dehydrated meals. Still, I didn’t think my family would take too kindly to dehydrated food, so I prepared Sloppy Joe’s and a tossed salad. While it might not have been as tasty as the dinner we had at Greg’s Grill yesterday, it wasn’t bad, at least my family didn’t think so.
We topped the night off playing Uno before going to bed to get ready for tomorrow’s bike ride at the Sunriver Resort.
1. Maher, S. P., Kramer, A. M., Pulliam, J. T., Zokan, M. A., Bowden, S. E., Barton, H. D., Magori, K., & Drake, J. M. (2012, December 18). Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate. Nature Communications. 3:1306. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2301
McClure, M. L., Hranac, C. R., Haase, C. G., McGinnis, S., Dickson, B. G., Hayman, D. T. S., McGuire, L. P., Lausen, C. L., Plowright, R. K., Fuller, N., & Olson, S. H. (2021, December 30). Projecting the compound effects of climate change and white-nose syndrome on North American bat species. Climate Change Ecology. Vol. 3, December 2022. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666900521000472
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