View over Clackamas Lake (bobcat)

Bog willow (Salix pedicellaris), Clackamas Lake (bobcat)

• Hikes to this location:
  • Headwaters Loop Hike   (TH | <—   —> | LOG)
  • Clackamas Lake-Timothy Lake Loop Hike   (TH | <—   —> | LOG)

• Weather forecast: NWS/NOAA
• Maps: Oregon Hikers Maps Google Maps
• Latitude, Longitude: 45.0962, -121.7430
• Elevation: 3335 feet

Description

The short Lake Trail, opposite Campsite #27 in the Clackamas Lake Campground, leads out to Clackamas Lake. (The boardwalk and viewing platform that used to be here have been dismantled, but one assumes they will be replaced.) A plaque at the trailhead marks the site of the historic Miller Cabin, constructed in 1907 and removed in 1963. The cabin belonged to Herbert Miller, a dentist, who built a road in to access the site. The trail through a boggy area of spiraea, bog willow, and sedge. You may see newts drifting lazily in the clear water and ducks and ducklings scudding for cover. Look also to the lake bottom for the globules of mare’s eggs (Nostoc pruniforme), a cosmopolitan but relatively rare cyanobacterium that fixes nitrogen and is related to the organisms that, billions of years ago, created the oxygen-rich atmosphere we take for granted.

More Links

• Clackamas Lake Campground (USFS)
• Clackamas Lake (Cascade Ramblings)
• Magic of Mare’s Eggs (Edge of the Hills)

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)