Cabin Fever Chronicles – Getting Outdoors with Rod

I take the back seat as Laura navigates. Two of the Three Sisters rise in the background.

No photoshopping here. There really was fog to Laura’s right and sun to her left!

The 2nd weekend in November my friends and I traditionally rent cabins at Lake Billy Chinook and kayak. This year we threw tradition out the window. Instead, we rented cabins on Clear Lake at Clear Lake Resort. Clear Lake is famous for its clear water and submerged forest. Thousands of years ago, a lava flow moved across the McKenzie River at this location, blocking its flow and creating a lake.

A tree trunk in the submerged forest.

The “seascape” at Clear Lake.

In the shallows, sometimes the water was emerald green.

But there was more. The river ran through a forested valley, and the trees were submerged in the lake that formed. Today, at the head of the lake, water emerges through fast-flowing springs, and the water is crazy clear. At the foot of the lake, a waterfall spills to form the headwaters of the McKenzie River.

Clear Lake Oregon is popular for canoeing, kayaking, rowing and scuba diving. Those plying the surface can peer down into the sapphire and emerald waters, and scuba divers can see the submerged forest up close and personal.

While most November days in this part of Oregon are rainy and cold, this day was calm and sunny. We lucked out!

Our cabin. Sorry about the focus…some moisture on the outside of the lens!

Today, Laura and I arrived first. Our group had booked two sides of a tandem cabin. Each side has two bedrooms with double beds and a double futon in the living room. A propane-fueled pot bellied stove heats each side, and there are kitchens on each side. Cost? $99 for two nights per side. Heck if you have some friends along it’s super cheap! Other facts to know…A hiking trail runs around the lake, and there are hiking options nearby along the McKenzie River. Hoodoo Ski Resort is 30 minutes distant. And there’s cross-country skiing at Ray Benson Snow Park. For mountain bikers the nationally famous McKenzie River trail awaits.

The Clear Lake Resort provides a fire pit for the cabins and we took advantage of that.

Group camping/cabin cooking presents some interesting possibilities. What to eat? What’s easy? In this situation we settled on Wok cooking. It’s practically impossible to screw up wok cooking no matter what. Plus it’s FUN. So we brought the woks, each member bringing along a different wok ingredient. Mini carrots and corn, water chestnuts, pineapple, nuts, jasmine rice, mushrooms, bok choy, broccoli,  shrimp, chicken, peppers, etc. plus a myriad sauces. YUM!

Sunday, we picked a 4.5 mile hike which ended at a really beautiful pool on the McKenzie river. Sunday it started to rain, but it didn’t matter. We got a picture of Jim Hashimoto and Becki above a sapphire pool!

All in all, the cabins at Clear Lake Resort Oregon are worth a visit!