Jefferson County

Fishing on Olallie Lake with Mt Jefferson in the background.

Our destination in Jefferson County was Olallie Lake which is just west of Mt. Jefferson.  The lake has good fishing and motor boats are prohibited, so it was quiet on the water.  The campgrounds are on the lake, but no drinking water is available.


There is a resort on the lake, too, which had no electricity so camping staples like ice and cold beer are not available.  They also did not sell firewood, but wood was plentiful in the woods (irony unintentional).  What was sorely lacking was insect repellent.  Mosquitoes were incredibly hungry and quite a number were around.  Our 7% DEET was laughable.  Evidently they had 10 cans with 40% DEET and one person snapped up all 10 cans.  They went into town and bought more the next day, and was again an instant sell-out.  The boat rentals were cheap and we caught a few nice rainbows while trolling in the row boat.


We avoided the mosquitoes in two ways.  One was staying in either our tents or our very large screen room.  The screen room finally earned its keep!  The other was taking the kayaks out on the lake, along with renting one of their very nice wooden row boats.  Avoid is a relative term.  Our youngest counted over 45 bites on her and the number of bites generally decreased with increased age. 


One of my standby pieces of camping equipment is an old pair of Montrail hiking shoes that are long overdue for the garbage can. I take them camping so if they get destroyed I won't be too disappointed. What makes them prime for the garbage is our now-deceased cat peed on them. They only smell after sweating in them all day; a small price to pay for comfy shoes, no? They may have made the difference in the number of times I was bitten. 


Final call: Olallie Lake is a gem.  It would be ideal later in the season (like August instead of 2nd week of July) when the bugs die down.  The campsites were full when we were there, so getting a site could be challenging when the bugs are gone.