Lost Lake is located in Mount Hood National Forest and it is about 1.5 hours East of Portland. It is a very VERY popular camping site and extremely hard to secure a camp site unless you go there early. Lost Lake provides a clear view of Mount Hood and offers numerous hiking trails around the lake.
To get to Lost Lake, the easiest route is to take Lost Lake Road all the way to the end. However, when I went there for the first time, my GPS told me to take Low Low Bypass. This was a terrible idea. Low Low Bypass is a gravel road and unpaved. In some sections, the road became very narrow with cliff on one side. I was extremely nervous and being very focused on the road. After 40 minutes, I finally drove off Low Low Bypass and got back on track onto Lost Lake Road. I was wondering why GPS instructed me to take Low Low Bypass, and it appears that it is because the absolute distance is actually shorted if you take Low Low Bypass; however, I probably spent more time driving because I had to drive slowly.
Unlike Trillium Lake, there is a lodge at Lost Lake providing supplies, snacks, and boat rentals. It even has rooms on the second floor to let you stay over night! The lodge also provides a motorized air pump that you can use for free to inflate your flotation devices. This is very convenient especially for a dad who has to inflate all the flotation devices for his kids! For others such as myself, I usually rent a peddling boat for an hour and peddle the boat to the center of the lake to enjoy the breeze. when you peddle your boat in the lake, make sure you stay aware of the surroundings and don't run your boat into other people!
One interesting thing we saw once was that a Golden Retriever went swimming at Lost Lake. After a while the dog seems to get very tired and unable to get back to the shore. The owner of the Golden Retriever got very nervous and started to scream for help. Luckily there was a boat near by and the guy is able to peddle the boat to the dog in time to grab the dog onto the boat. Otherwise it would have been a tragic.
Other than hiking around the lake, the lake offers rentals for boat, canoes, and paddle board. You can rent a boat and paddle to the centre of the lake and enjoy the whole afternoon there and feel the breeze of the wind! Nevertheless, you can bring your own canoes and any other flotation devices! One thing to note is motorized boat is not permitted.
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