Residents enjoy holiday weekend

Published 5:00 am Monday, September 5, 2005

The Clark family spent Sunday afternoon on the edges of Lava Lake, the three children casting fishing lines into the shimmering waters and scooping up minnows in nets while mom and dad kept a watchful eye.

The Bend family was halfway through a three-day camping trip over the Labor Day weekend. Hiking, biking and fishing filled their days. Nights were spent hovered around the campfire, eating hotdogs and S’mores.

After a summer chock-full of trips to the coast, the Redwoods and various Cascade lakes, Louise and Dave Clark soaked up the sun in their last official outing with their children, Nathan, 9, Austin, 7, and Isabella, 2, before school started.

”We are trying to eke out every moment we can because summer is so short,” Louise Clark said. ”It’s just nice for us to get outside.”

The Clark family joined the tide of tourists and locals who flocked to the Cascade Lakes recreation area over the holiday weekend to get their fill of shorts-and-T-shirt weather as summer winds to an end.

Paddlers explored the frigid waters in kayaks and canoes. Cyclists snaked along the Cascade Lakes Highway. Hikers tromped on dusty trails among the snow-less Central Cascades.

”We decided it was better to be in the woods camping than to be at home,” Louise Clark said. ”It’s nice getting away from everyday life.”

Heeding the cool temperatures that settled into Bend by Saturday, Dave Clark noted that summer may be ending a bit early this year.

”I thought it would stretch out further than September, but I don’t think it will,” Dave Clark said.

”It doesn’t seem like we’ll get an Indian summer,” Louise Clark added.

Nearby, Joe Vrtiska, and Jenny Crow, of Vancouver, Wash., packed up their kayaks after camping and paddling at the Lava Lakes Saturday and Sunday.

”This was great. I think it’s beautiful up here,” Crow said.

”This will probably be the last road trip of the summer,” Vrtiska said.

At the Green Lakes trailhead up the road from Lava Lakes, Barbara Baldwin and Ed Johnson geared up for an afternoon hike.

Usually avid hikers, the Redmond couple spent most of their summer cooped up indoors working.

”We feel like we’ve been liberated,” Baldwin said. ”We love being outdoors.”

The couple enjoys the warm weather and greenery of summer, but they were just as ready for fall foliage and winter powder.

”I like all seasons, except when it’s windy,” Baldwin said.

At Todd Lake, another outdoor hot spot, visitors like the Chimienti family from Portland hiked around the lake and picnicked in the cool shade.

Five-year-old Elliott and his sister, Isabella, 4, licked the insides of their Oreo cookies, which was their favorite part of the hike beside the frogs they saw along the lake.

After a busy summer that included two moves, the Chimientis enjoyed a respite in Sunriver, where they have a vacation home. They were enjoying their first visit to Todd Lake in the summer.

”We noticed the weather change,” Colleen Chimienti said. ”We think that fall is around the corner.”