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I couldn't even tell you how many hot summer days I spent swimming all day in mountain lakes on backpacking trips when I was growing up, and it is a soul satisfying experience to watch my children do the same thing. We spent the weekend backpacking with a group of friends to a little lake tucked in the forest up the Umpqua River drainage, and aquatic fun abounded. I always enjoy getting folks out backpacking who have never been before, so this half-mile trek up gentle switchbacks was a good one to discover. Even with little ones along, the hike was easy and still gave the flavor of an all out backpacking excursion.
When I was researching trips in William Sullivan's "100 Hikes in Soutern Oregon," I was immediately caught by the line "There are no crowds in the Calapooya Mountains." Since one of my main aims with backpacking is to leave the crowds behind, this sounded promising. The hike in was shorter than I would usually do, but it allowed friends to come along and there were good dayhike options.
To get to the trailhead, we drove to Roseburg on I5 and took exit 124 onto Highway 138 towards Diamond Lake. At 38.4 miles we took a left on steamboat creek road just past milepost 38. Then after 10.4 miles and crossing a bridge over Steamboat Creek, we forked right onto Rd 3817 and travelled 2.2 miles. Then a right onto road 3850 for .9 miles. We forked left to stay on this road and kept going 4.7 miles. We kept left on road 200 for .1 miles then forked abruptly left onto road 300 until we came to a trailhead sign in the trees on the right. All in all, it was about 3 hours from Eugene.
The lake only has one campsite, which we had to ourselves, and the shelter which I read had leaking issues from being improperly roofed was in a dismantled state, awaiting reconstruction. Once the shelter is rebuilt, I would imagine Bullpup Lake will be a good future off-season destination for a drizzly Fall weekend.
With bullfrogs, tadpoles and logs to play with, there was no boredom to be had around camp. Mosquitoes were my only complaint, and shouldn't have been surprising with the cool summer we're having, but during the day they weren't so bad. I went on a moderately difficult dayhike up to the top of a rock face looking down at the lake, up to another viewpoint looking out at Bulldog Rock, and then to a high mountain meadow so filled with blooming Lily of the Valley that the smell was intoxicating. The boys even did their own morning dayhike/scramble to the top of the rock face one morning. It was quite the adventure. My friend relayed that on the hike, the boys had a conversation about what they would "take" with them if they were to die (for the betterment of man kind). River: Pollution, Clayton: War, Jing Wen: mosquitoes.
Although we didn't scale any epic mountains, have showdowns with bears, or hike through breathtaking river valleys, this was a good backpacking trip that the kids enjoyed and will always remember. And my friend did see a mother bear with two cubs on her drive in. It was a weekend of swimming, playing, and relaxing in the woods, which everyone needs now and then. I am still planning to fit in one more backpacking trip this summer where I can push myself a little harder. In the meantime, I think I can take a lesson from my kids on how to derive maximum enjoyment from life.
It's all about bullfrogs and logs.
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