Turning Thirty-Too

I spent my actual birthday this past Memorial Day with the fam at Lake Tessier, Quebec, but returned home to a "surprise" party that Tom had planned for me at Lost Lake. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday and it was nice to be home in Oregon. :)

Cooper wonders why we're passing all these perfectly good woodsy spots.

Tom had rented the group pavilion at Lost Lake and invited a bunch of HR friends. We arrived first to find about 3 feet of snow covering the path leading to the pavilion. Awesome. We spent about 45 minutes dragging coolers, grill, chairs and other stuff a couple hundred yards through the snow. The spot was really cool though, with a view of the lake and our own private shitter.

We found a dead hermit thrush in the pavilion.

Happy Birthday in the woods.

We tried to rent this same pavilion for a pre-wedding picnic last July, but it was still under 6 feet of snow! This is the 3rd time we've rented it and the 1st time we actually got to use it—with just SOME snow.

Erin, Vicki, Jim & Sam chillin'.

Vicki and I went for a walk and ended up disappearing for an hour on the Old Growth Trail. Lost Lake's original, American Indian name was "Heart of the Mountains". And it is.

Big trees.

Some bits of snow here and there.

We bbq'ed, threw some washers, had a little camp fire to warm us up in the shadow of the big trees and enjoyed a spectacular day out in Mt. Hood Nat'l Forest. My ding is good to me. :)

The Ransoms are good times.

Thanks to everyone for helping me celebrate the big Thirty-Too. Too good. :)