Lost Lake

Outdoor Vino from Naked Winery- obviously!!

I am not sure if you googled "Lost Lake Oregon", but Oregon has at least 19 lakes with this moniker. This Lost Lake is probably the most known, I'd imagine. There is a small resort here that charges you $7 for parking for the day. The lake is about 21 miles southwest of Hood River, located just north of Mt. Hood and provides spectacular views on a clear day. There's some fishing available for brown, brook, and rainbow trout and kokanee salmon. There are no motor boats allowed. We saw quite a few paddlers as well as some aluminum hulls powered by oars and arms. The resort has some of these available to rent and some rustic cabins and a general store. We did not stop by the general store even out of curiosity. Despite being further "inland" from the Columbia River, it was still quite windy and gusty. We started out very chilly and quickly warmed up in the sun and with the exertion of human power. We clung to the northern half of the lake because it was the sunniest (widest area). Unfortunately the view to the south was still very cloudy and only the base of Mt. Hood was visible. We did notice that every time a cloud covered the sun large gusts of wind would arrive, which at least made it predictable. [...]

The base of Mt. Hood. 

When we decided to return to shore and pack up- so did half the people on the lake. I guess there is only the one boat launch? There was also only one close spot to the launch to park the car and load kayaks and it was currently in use by a couple clearly new to loading. I can't fault them- we're hardly experts, but it did remind me a lot of us with the female instructing her clearly clueless male counterpart on how to dump the water out of the boat (he was wildly unhelpful in this effort) and tying them down to the roof rack. We were politely waiting our turn, however the man behind us in his truck waiting to pull a "real" boat out of the water was not. Matt pulled the car off to the side as much as possible to allow others to get around us. Then we went to grab our boats. I have my back to the truck that is now backing up and once it's within two feet of running me down another kayaker starts shouting "Watch out!". The man reversing the truck stops, asks if I am okay, then tells me to get the hell of the way. Excuse me sir, but I am not even in the road! Learn to back up your rig! I was so angry but we made very (and I mean VERY) strong effort not to be rude back. It was just another example of how people who are not out on trails or sharing adventure space don't know squat about courtesy to others in the area and general outdoor etiquette. They bowl you over on trails and yell at you when you are going out of your way to be courteous to about 20 other people. Brenda and I have discussed this at length. The city people who venture outside a few times a year don't know the first thing about who yields and when on a hiking trail and never bother to find out. It tends to sour the mood for those of us who adore these rec areas and go out of our way to make it enjoyable for other people. The good news is that they mostly stay on the popular trails and rec areas. What we got out of it was this mantra: There are a lot of jerks in the world, try not to be one of them. Lead by example.