Road Trip Leg 1

Oakland > Lake Tahoe > Lassen Volcanic National Park > Portland > Mount Hood National Forest

After Hans’ 4.5 years and Kay’s 3 years in the Bay, we said a sad goodbye to Oakland, CA on Labor Day (Monday, September 2) and set off for our 21 day adventure. Equipped with our 100k mi, 2008, Honda Accord stuffed to the brim with all of our belongings, a detailed itinerary outlining all of the hikes we planned to complete and campsites we had booked, plenty of offline podcasts and music downloaded, and enough dehydrated backpacking meals to survive a zombie apocalypse, we were ready to hit the road.

The trip got off to a rocky start on that Monday morning - we pulled out of Hans’ driveway, made it down his enormous hill one last time, and of course, the tire pressure light turned on. We stopped at a gas station to fill the tire up, crossed our fingers that this wouldn’t be a recurrent problem, and were on our way!

Trippy Rock

Our first stop was Lake Tahoe, about a 3.5 hour drive from Oakland, and although, directionally, it made no sense for us to stop there, we couldn’t resist spending one last night in one of our favorite places in CA. We spent the first day of the trip rock climbing and exploring a beautiful beach called Sand Harbor on the northside of Lake Tahoe, near Incline Village. The crag we climbed at was called Trippy Rock and as it was Kay’s first time climbing outdoors, the casual routes and easy top rope setup were perfect and we had a blast. The amazing view of Lake Tahoe from the top was an added bonus! Since we were headed northwest the following morning, we camped at Sardine Lake Campground, which is about 1.5 hours away from Incline Village. After arriving to our campsite, we celebrated our first night on the road with the first of what was to become many dehydrated dinners, a Pliny the Elder IPA, and s’mores.

Lassen Peak Summit

The second day of the trip began with a total reorganization of the car; already on the first day, we realized that, although we had miraculously fit all of our belongings in Hans’ Honda Accord, we had terribly miscalculated the accessibility of each item. For instance, our hiking boots were on the floor behind the passenger’s seat underneath two 40lb backpacking backpacks and boxes of snacks precariously stacked upon one another - no way we were going on any hikes with our boots kept there the whole time! The reorg was made easier due to the fact that almost every campground we stayed at required that we use a bear box for storing scented items. Because most of our belongings from the backseat were in the bear box for the night, needing to be repacked in the morning anyway, it was a good time to redo the whole configuration of the back seat. This task took about an hour as we had about 20 separate items to puzzle together, but we felt much better prepared and less stressed afterward. Finally, we were on our way to the next stop - Lassen Volcanic National Park, a lesser-known National Park in northern California known for Lassen Peak’s violent eruption in 1915. We arrived mid-afternoon and began the Lassen Peak hike, a great hike that allowed us to summit the mountain and enjoy views of the surrounding alpine lakes and mountains the whole way up and down. From there, we went to our campground, Lake Manzanita Campground, set up camp, and went for a walk around the lake. About a half mile around the lake, Lassen Peak came into view, looming over Manzanita Lake. After completing the lake loop, we ended the night with some dinner and went to bed early, crossing our fingers that our neighbors would eventually turn off Vance Joy’s “Riptide”.

On Wednesday, September 4 we completed our first long stretch of driving, heading from Lassen to Portland, OR. Even though it had only been two nights of camping, it felt great to settle down into an Airbnb and take some showers! We had a great night exploring Portland; we had dinner at a Thai restaurant called Pok Pok, beers at Hair of the Dog, cocktails at the Bit House Saloon and Lardo, and of course we ended the night with ice cream from Salt and Straw. Hans got Carrot Cake Batter and Kay went for Ooey Gooey Brownie. Both were delicious and we made a pact that, even though our Airbnb was dangerously close to this heavenly place, we should resist the temptation to go every day we were in town. We stayed east of the Willamette River between the Hawthorne and Division neighborhoods and really enjoyed this area as it offered plenty to do but still had a neighborhood feel.

Voodoo Doughnut

We spent the following morning in Portland as well, exploring our neighborhood a bit more and then walking over the bridge to the west side of the city. We hit a few Portland must-do’s: Voodoo Doughnut and Powell’s City of Books, and by lunchtime had decided and that we enjoyed the east side better, so we headed back that way for some lunch at a great Indian restaurant with a large outdoor patio called Bollywood Theater. From Portland we made the quick drive to Mount Hood, stopping at Multnomah Falls along the way. The falls were beautiful, but because they are so accessible, it was super crowded there. We arrived to our campsite at Trillium Lake Campground and went for a walk around the lake. Mount Hood towering over Trillium Lake came into view a short distance from our campground - we couldn’t get enough of this view and would highly recommend this campground to anyone exploring Mount Hood! That evening, the sunset was insanely gorgeous; billowing pink clouds took over the sky, only allowing Mount Hood to share the spotlight.

Trillium Lake & Mt Hood

On Friday morning we woke up and had our breakfast by the lake, soaking in the view one last time. Unfortunately by the time we were reserving campsites, Trillium Lake was already booked up for the weekend, so we were only able to stay there Thursday night. Our next site was still in Mount Hood National Forest, but at Lost Creek Campground, which was a very simple site; the biggest perk being that it was about a half mile from the trailhead of the hike we were planning to do that day. We set up camp and walked over to the Ramona Falls trailhead. The hike was very scenic and ever-changing: the way out included a stream crossing and a view of Mount Hood from a canyon; the highlight was Ramona Falls, a massive geometric set of waterfalls set deep within the forest; and the way back out followed a little creek with huge sheer rock faces towering above, and was full of lush greenery. We finished the 8 miles quicker than we were expecting, so we had much of the afternoon open. We decided to drive to the Timberline Lodge, a historic mountain lodge overlooking Mount Hood, and enjoyed a beer while sitting outside on some comfy Adirondack chairs. Apparently, the lodge is a major stop for Pacific Crest Trail hikers, so we sat next to a couple who was nearly done with it and got to hear about their experience! We resisted the temptation of eating dinner at the lodge, and instead drove back to the campsite and had another Mountain House; the meal we were most looking forward to was Chili Cheese and Mac and unfortunately turned out to be a little underwhelming! Since we had a big day of driving coming up, we hit the hay pretty early.

For more pictures, check out our Instagram, from_oakland_to_auckland, also linked below, and Hiking, Climbing, and Camping - The Road Trip Details for specifics on where we went and stayed!