by Kim Cooper Findling
Photo Courtesy of Lake Creek Lodge
From our home in Bend, the driving distance to Camp Sherman is under 45 miles—and anybody who has ever traveled with a toddler and an infant knows why, for us, that’s the first bit of excellent news about this weekend’s getaway. The other reasons to be enthused about our pending adventure are chanted by my daughter, two-and-a-half year old Libby, as we drive towards the Three Sisters. “Sleepover!” she trills. “Cabin!”
Camp Sherman, a gorgeous little gathering of rustic cabins on the banks of the Metolius River in Central Oregon, has beckoned to families looking for escape since the 1920s. We’re heading to Lake Creek Lodge with a group of friends for a double birthday celebration, intended, indeed, to be the sleepover to beat all sleepovers.
Tucked into a pine forest and surrounding a glinting, wandering Lake Creek are over a dozen structures, one of which is Libby’s own cabin-in-the-woods. The rest of the grounds are kid paradise; a playground and swimming pool sit up top an easy hill, along with a tether ball pole that brings out a sudden burst of competition in the grown-ups.
In the morning, we have a date with some fish. Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery, just five miles outside of Camp Sherman, is the birthplace of six varieties of fish; a total of 2.5 million fingerlings are distributed around the state from this location each year. From a vending machine, fish food is dispensed to the two-year-olds; they in turn share it with two-inch swimmers in a long cement pool. The trout ambitiously leap and swipe at the scattered bits, as do their much bigger cohorts in a nearby pond.
The headwaters of the Metolius River are our next destination. Baby Maris gazes, unconvinced, and the toddlers are more captivated by the Yellow Pine Chipmunk trailside, but we adults are suitably impressed to see an entire river emerge from a rocky hillside.
That evening, the dads stay in and we moms venture to the Kokanee Café. The simple exterior hides a great secret; the only restaurant in Camp Sherman happens to serve some of the most amazing food in the state. Huge portions of fresh, creatively prepared seafood and steak are delivered to our happy crew. I eat every bite of my Lemongrass and Plaintain Crusted Alaskan Halibut, including the last dribbles of mango salsa.
Then it’s back to Lake Creek to tuck into bed, for sleeping late the next morning isn’t my destiny, not this weekend. But I can’t complain; as the sun rises on our last day in Camp Sherman, Libby and I, clad in pajamas, are the only ones standing in a mist-covered, sweet pine-scented meadow, watching the alpenglow creep across the flanks of Three Fingered Jack.
“Oooooo, Mommy,” she says. “Pink!”
Camp Sherman
The Kokanee Café
25545 Forest Service Road
541.595.6420
www.kokaneecafe.com
open from May to December; hours change according to season
Lake Creek Lodge
13375 SW Forest Service Rd. 1419
Camp Sherman, Oregon 97730
541.595.6331
www.lakecreeklodge.com
Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery
7500 Forest Service Road 14
541.595.6611
www.dfw.state.or.us/hatchery/wizardfalls.htm
free Kid’s Fishing Day the second Saturday of June
--Kim Cooper Findling
www.kimcooperfindling.com
www.shebloomseventually.blogspot.com
originally published in Travel Oregon Magazine
