Exploring/Reviewing Timothy Lake (a crown jewel of Mount Hood National Forest)

[TrailPerspective]

I hiked the 13 Mile Shoreline Circumnavigation Loop around Timothy Lake with a particular focus on the Developed Campgrounds and Backcountry Camping Sites. I've got a series of Videos I'm dropping over the next couple weeks highlighting the most noteworthy parts - Timothy Lake is a vast sprawling very well developed complex, and is one of the crown jewels of the Mount Hood Area. There are 7 Developed Campgrounds along the Lake as well as 41 FREE Dispersed Backcountry Campsites (marked T1 - T40, strongly recommend downloading a FREE PDF at PortlandGeneral.com for precise locations), and a highly premium Backcountry Camping Area called Meditation Point with 7 Campsites on a Shoreline Peninsula, each site is $10 per Night (as of Feb 2024), no Reservations, First Come, First Served.

Of the 7 Developed Campgrounds, the main campground row is the South side of the Lake. Each Campground is very well built out and maintained, with boat ramp/launch, a rich plethora of Day Use Picnic Sites too innumerable to count, and outstanding signage for an interconnected intricate trail system that helps facilitate the 13 Mile Shoreline Circumnavigation Hike that goes all the way around Timothy Lake. I have organized the Videos as follows:

- Oak Fork Campground (Boat Launch + Day Use Areas + Best Campsites)
- Gone Creek Campground (Boat Launch + Day Use Areas + Best Campsites)
- Hoodview Campground (Boat Launch + Day Use Areas + Best Campsites)
- Top 8 Countdown of the Best Campsites across all Developed Campgrounds
- Reviewing Each Campsite at Meditation Point, Backcountry Camping Peninsula
- Ranking Each Campsite at Meditation Point, Backcountry Camping Peninsula
- Southshore Day Use Area to T1 - T4 (to give a taste of the dispersed backcountry camping)
- Videos highlighting "The Cove" Day Use Area
- Videos highlighting Pine Point Day Use Area
- Silent Perspectives 4K Compilation of Timothy Lake
- Little Crater Lake Area and Flooding Causing Me to Turnaround
- Several Shoreline Hiking Videos capturing the gorgeous Shoreline Perspective

I just uploaded the first three, trying to do this methodically to perhaps provide a resource that may be potentially helpful/useful:

Hoodview Campground Overview:

https://youtu.be/xA4kl4yYEss

Oak Fork Campground Overview:

https://youtu.be/K9QcFlHxVgc

Gone Creek Campground Overview:

https://youtu.be/tFEc2t9nkZ4

[adamschneider]

I gotta say, it's a little hard for me to think of a man-made lake as a "crown jewel." Seems a bit click-baity.

[retired jerry]

My wife and I have stayed at Timothy Lake many times. Probably our favorite in Mt Hood area

She appreciated the videos - "we've stayed at that campsite before"

[retired jerry]

and now youtube is presenting us with a never ending stream of mt hood camping videos

[TrailPerspective]

I gotta say, it's a little hard for me to think of a man-made lake as a "crown jewel." Seems a bit click-baity.

That's a pretty dark, cynical, jaded take and I gotta say a misapplication of the term "clickbait". Typically "clickbait" is a salacious or misleading headline, in bad faith, designed simply to get users to click, typically with a monetary motivation i.e. pay-per-click type of perverse financial incentive structure driving the behavior of creating the disingenuous link. My Videos and YouTube Channel, on the other hand, are not monetized, nor do I plan to ever monetize them - they are a hobbyist passion project sharing a love of hiking. Ultimately it makes no difference to me if 100 or 10 or 0 people click on a given video, I gain nothing under any scenario, its only a reflection of if people are interested in a given subject matter or not which is 100% their prerogative. Also my links are good faith in that they are exactly what they say they are, whether one is interested in them or not is entirely a different story. So definitionally the antithesis of "clickbait".

Furthermore, as far as "crown jewels" if you want to criticize the use of that term - it has to do with the relationship between the two words, "the jewels of each which the crown most highly values", often historically not even actual jewels, often the genes of the bloodline of the Royal line of succession for example. The Timothy Lake Complex of 7 Campgrounds, is without a doubt the most valuable "Camping Asset" of the Mount Hood National Forest by any objective measure, thus is is the Camping Asset Crown Jewel of Mount Hood National Forest. Whether something is man-made or naturally occurring is an irrelevant data point and simply doesn't factor into that analysis whatsoever. I'm guess you're conflating "Crown Jewels" with "Natural Asset", which is a totally different assessment. In that I would agree that Timothy Lake isn't the most beautiful area of Mount Hood Area, I think its clear the 40-Mile Timberline Loop is the Natural Asset "Crown Jewel" of Mount Hood Area, not going too far into Wilderness vs. National Forest map divisions. (I actually have 6 Video Playlists of Timberline Loop from different approach vectors. I have the lions share covered in my videos. I plan to do 3 more and I will have the entire Timberline Loop captured in videos).

I'm totally cool if a stranger doesn't want to click on my topics or videos, or watches my videos and doesn't like them, that's America, it makes absolutely no difference to me whatsoever in my life. However, when you ascribe nefarious (and inaccurate) motives to my actions though, as if its "clickbait" (although I gain nothing if you click on it - WORST CLICKBAIT EVER!) that's a bridge too far so I'm going to defend my integrity, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to respond to your low resolution hot take. My mantra would be if something doesn't interest you, its very simple - just don't click on it, but don't blast people for sharing videos about a pretty Lake they visited and had the audacious temerity to share, especially on a forum explicitly designed/created for hobbyists to share said hiking experiences? Isn't that why these forums exist??????

[TrailPerspective]

and now youtube is presenting us with a never ending stream of mt hood camping videos

LOL that happens to me a lot too! I now turn the autoplay off so I can DJ what I watch.

[retired jerry]

yeah, that is not clickbait in my opinion

yeah, it's a man made reservoir but crown jewels are man made. The stone is natural but then they split and polish it

it's one of my favorite places on Mt Hood, at least if you're not talking about hiking off the road which most people don't do

[adamschneider]

Not full-on clickbait, I said it was "a bit" click-baity: attention-getting words in the thread title and a bunch of external links in the post.

It's not against the rules of the forum, I just disagree with the sentiment.

[TrailPerspective]

Not full-on clickbait, I said it was "a bit" click-baity: attention-getting words in the thread title and a bunch of external links in the post.

It's not against the rules of the forum, I just disagree with the sentiment.

I notice you have a bunch of external links in your signature....a bit click-baity.

Rules for thee.....

[TrailPerspective]

Not full-on clickbait, I said it was "a bit" click-baity: attention-getting words in the thread title and a bunch of external links in the post.

It's not against the rules of the forum, I just disagree with the sentiment.

Just to be clear, you have 3 external links in your signature, have made as of this post I'm making (presuming you've had those in there a while, if not the whole time) lets roughly say 3703 Posts You've Made x 3 External Links = around 11,109 advertisements to your 3 website external links, and I've made 17 posts (before this one), and around a dozen links to YouTube Videos (non-monetized), but you wanted to point out that ethically you have a problem with ME doing that in principle, it offends YOUR sensibilities? Just wanted to be clear Perhaps if/when I ever get up to 11,000+ external links to be in your neighborhood you won't have an issue with it anymore....