It's been camping mania here out west. We've gone camping 3 weekends in the last month, trying to get as much in as we can before the bad weather hits. For the first trip, we returned once again to the Umpqua Forest.

Since he'd been down this road before, we decided we could just sit back and let Keizer drive...
 

Just kidding! But seriously, you can't get him to stay in the back seat. He just loves to be up front.
 

We drove up Cinnamon Butte (6417 ft) to the fire tower. A lady lives in the tower all summer long to watch the Umpqua for fires. She invited us up to take a look.
 

She said most pilots don't see the humor in her sign. She also said most people don't even see the sign and think it's a parking lot (we didn't mention that we almost parked there ourselves).
 

Views from the tower- Mt Thielsen 

Mt Bailey 

Diamond Lake 

After that, we took a dip in Diamond Lake. Here's Keizer swimming after rocks.  

Taking a load off back at camp. At 14 weeks, he hardly fits in the seat. Compare to 10 weeks below. 

 

On the drive home... He barely fits in Chris's lap anymore. 

Over Labor Day weekend, we meet some of Chris's friends up in Mt Hood National Park. We stayed at Frog Lake campground (it wasn't so much a Frog Lake as a glorified mud hole full of tiny froglets, but it was very pleasant none the less).

Our first hike was to Twin Lakes. When we got to Lower Lake, we were directed to the rope swing. But after feeling the icy water, only Nate was brave enough to try it out.
 

As we walked on the trail to Upper, Chris suddenly yelled "Ouch. Ouch! Run, go go go!! I took off down the slope and everyone else ran back up. He had disturbed an underground bee hive and they had swarmed around him. He took one for the team and got stung five or six times. Kristy helped him remove a stinger from his arm.

 

Upper Lake with Mt Hood peeking out from behind the trees.
 

Keizer needed a little help on the way back to camp 

The next day, we hiked up a ridge trail. Here we are with the 11,249 ft Mt Hood towering behind us.
 

We ate lunch in this rock field that had been cleared by melted snow running down from Hood. From the left- Jen, Nate, me, Keizer, Kristy, and Chris.
 

Mt Hood
 

Keizer and I on the hike back. You can see the area we lunched in right above my head.
 

Before going our separate ways, from the left- Steve and Kristy, Jaime and Aaron, Nate and Jen, Chris, me, and Keizer, whose biting his own leg...
 

And another camping adventure ends with a sleeping puppy...
 

Crossing the Columbia River.
 

Looks like a lot of fun.
 

Wake up puppy! You're famous! They have your name in lights!
 

Actually, we found out there's a Keizer, Oregon. We though we were being unique in the way we spelled it...