Camping Report - Forlorn Lake

This weekend we went to a place called Forlorn Lake in Gifford Pinchot National Park, which is in Southwest Washington.



Here's the actual location if you're interested in trying it yourself. It's 32 on the map.

We went here with our neighbors, Dirk & Kristen, who are a really great couple who we met a few months ago, and are our neighbors. On the way to Forlorn Lake, we passed Goose Lake. Goose Lake is a larger and deeper lake which is stocked with fish. Where we camped, Forlorn Lake, is a shallow lake that isn't fished, but still has a great view.

We got in the first night and pretty much set up camp right away. We had a great dinner and met a little girl from Castle Rock Washington named Samantha who was in a campspace not too far from ours, along with her dad. She's the one below with the pink hat... too cute.



The first night was really cold (good thing I insisted we bring the winter coats, even though they took up a lot of room) but we enjoyed the fire and stayed up late talking.

The next day we went down to Goose Lake with Dirk & Kristen and their canoe. We walked down to the lake and Andrew had a chance to do a little bit of fishing for a while.



Brianna was a very brave girl and went on the canoe w/ Kai and Dirk.



It was a great day - but the rains started coming at around 1:30 or so and even though we picked up a ton of firewood on the way back to camp we soon learned that we could be either dry & cold in our tent or warm & wet by the fire, but not both warm & dry. I wasn't feeling well, so unfortunately we had to come home a night early.

One of the best things about the trip was that Maybell had plenty of room to run around and have fun, even if she had the occasional spat with Wasabi & Kuma (Dirk & Kristen's dogs). We got a muzzle for her, because she can be aggressive, especially around food, and that seemed like a great plan. She had the cance to run around and get tired out - she's actually still sleeping as I write this.



Things I need to remember from this trip:

1) Get air matresses - they make all the difference tent camping
2) Consider buying a raft... how fun would that be? (Jen wants a canoe, but I want a raft first)
3) Get back to Forlorn lakes soon, but not when it's raining & cold
4) The family needs thermals for camping

To see the full set of pictures, click here.