The Waldo Lake area has been hit by a couple of wildfires in the last two years and things have changed a lot. Shadow Bay, down at the South end of the lake, has been spared, but the West side of the lake (that is hike or paddle in camping) is all burned and the campgrounds on the North end of the lake are currently closed with no listed reopen date. I don’t know if they are burned or just too close to the burn areas for comfort. The far north of the Lake is a large historic dead zone. I remember hiking it 10 years ago and it was all dead trees. I don’t know if it is an old burn or if it was killed by some bug infestation. I don’t remember it looking all that burned, but burns are kind of funny. Looking at the new burn area, just across the lake from where we are camping, what you mainly see is dead trees. These are pines that are full of brown dead needles. They don’t look burned. Now down underneath them in many places you can see burned logs and such, but most of the undergrowth is green again just one year after the burn. I imagine that in 5 years all of the dead trees will be barren of needles and branches will be falling. Then the trees themselves will fall. Then perhaps the area will look like the dead zone in the north.
- Waldo is the second largest lake in Oregon.Wow. I guess Oregon doesn’t have that many lakes. Presumably the largest lake is Klamath. I am also guessing that doesn’t count some of the man made lakes that are the Columbia river on the Oregon-Washington Border. I am surprised that Billy Chinook (a man made lake on the Deschutes) doesn’t map in there. [fact check: turns out there are many ways to measure size (volume, surface area) and different sites say different things. Waldo is the second deepest lake after Crater Lake)
- There are no fish in Waldo because the water is too pure. No algae. Nothing for fish to eat. I will also note that my friends and I saw no sign of Bald Eagle or Osprey - a sure sign of larger fish.(fact check: Quote: It’s also one of the most oligotrophic bodies of water in the world, meaning it’s low in plant nutrients and high in oxygen, making the water exceptionally clear and blue. Me: The answer seems to be that there are fish, just not many: The two primary species you can fish for are brook trout and kokanee which naturally spread throughout the lake making them difficult to target.)
- Waldo is the headwaters of the Willamette River. I have been over to the North West corner of the lake where there is a little sign on the outflow creek that says so. (fact check: Waldo is the headwaters of the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. Well, I guess that clears that up).
- Waldo has no in-flow. Thus the clear water. It is all spring from the snow melt. I know this is a little wrong because I saw a tiny creek flowing into the lake on my hike around the south end. Perhaps it means no rivers from the mountains. (fact check: Wikipedia says it has no permanent inflow. The only place that says there is only spring inflow is an old blog post by me. Ha)
- Only Electric motors are allowed in Waldo. (Well, and sailboats and people power). Because of this, there is very little boat traffic on the lake. (fact Check: Since 2010. Also, a speed limit of 10pmh. Good news for when those electric waverunners hit the market)
- The lake is 200 feet deep in some places. When you paddle there the water is so blue. It sort of redefines the color. Evidently there is a thermocline at around 30 feet in the deep water and it is REALLY cold below that. (fact Check: Max depth of 410 feet. Over where our camp was, it was less than 4 feet deep for a hundred yards off shore).
We did two excursions while here.
The first was a 4 mile out and back hike (with Wife and Puppy) clockwise (south) around the lake trail from our campsite. This is a beautiful trail, level and well wooded. We let our puppy run a bit when we got away from people. She had never been off leash in the woods before and she had a great time. Before I had a puppy I always used to get exasperated when people would let their dogs run and the dogs would come up to me. We didn’t let Rory do that but I think that was because we got lucky and didn’t run into anyone when she was too far out front to catch her. Am I now one of THOSE people? We hiked out to an old winter shelter on the very South tip of the lake. This was a large wooden leanto. It had one open side that had an iron wood-stove set up in it. In the back of the shelter was a smooth raised platform big enough to sleep 10 or so people. I think this was to shelter cross country skiers or snow shoe(ers) in the winter. This shelter is maintained by Lewis and Clark University. That is my wife and my daughters alma mater.
Lots of scrub pine and mountain huckleberry. No berries on the huckleberry on the trail, but lots on the bushes around my campsite. I guess whatever eats them doesn’t come into where the humans are. The south end of the lake has a lot of low lying terrain and bog. The mosquitos are supposed to be much worse on this end of the lake which makes the north shore campground more popular especially in the summer.
Rory and Paige came out to see us off
My second excursion was with my sister-in-law and her husband. We took kayaks and paddled due West across the lake from our campground. You have to be a little careful crossing the lake. Winds tend to blow up, especially in the afternoon, and if you have a lot of fetch (open water upwind of you) large wind waves can develop that can threaten small boat operators. Today, however, our weather was grand. We were a bit chilly in the light wind but had not problem working our way over to the West shore. Once there, in the lee of the shore and trees, we could rest and observe that year old burn area. I will stick some pictures in. Lots of dead trees. Very few completely burned trees. Presumably the things that burned had been standing dead wood before the fire started (and so already dry and ready to burn). That means that all of these still standing and unburned but clearly dead trees will be what goes up in the next fire. I don’t understand why all of this wouldn’t just catch and REALLY burn in a year or so.
We paddled back to our campground by going counter-clockwise along the shore and ducking into little places to rest and such. There are a number of places where seasonal creeks have washed sand and mud down from the local hills over the centuries and formed places where there are sand beaches and long slowly deepening bays. Great places to land a kayak and get out to stretch your legs. There are numerous hiking and kayaking campsites around the lake but I am not sure which ones of them are still open in the burn area. I know that campfires are not allowed anywhere outside of the official campground fire rings.
I had planned on paddling by the day use boat ramp just to check it out, but it must be tucked back in a hidden bay because I just didn’t see it from our meander around the lake. We ended up doing a 4 mile leisurely loop.
It is very quiet at Waldo. The highways are a long ways away and there are no nearby trains or airports. No loud motors on the lake. Most people aren’t even using generators for their rigs. I had a portable solar panel that I was playing with and had great luck keeping my battery charged and my little refrigerator cold for the couple of days we were here. I did turn my fridge off at night and relied on the frozen quart of water in the little freezer to keep things cold at night.
I have to remember how wonderful this place is and make sure and come back again next year.
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