SMALL BOAT CRUISE: Waldo Lake, Oregon

I decided to go to Waldo Lake, in the mountains east of Eugene, Oregon in mid-September, hoping to be on the water from Friday through the following Tuesday or Wednesday. Having been to Waldo five times in June and once in early August. I wanted to feel the nighttime chill announcing the coming winter, and be both grateful for it and fortified against it, in my winter sleeping bag. I wanted to watch the long and early shadows of Autumn seizing the forest in the afternoon.

- Robert Schnelle

Waldo Lake is the biggest lake in Oregon that doesn’t allow internal combustion motors. It is roughly shaped like an isosceles triangle with the apex at the south end and the three-mile-wide base running east and west about six miles north. The lake elevation is high at 5,414 feet, and it’s one of the clearest lakes on earth. There are three Forest Service campgrounds, each with a launching ramp nearby, and all on the east side of the lake.

East of Eugene, Oregon, at milepost 59 on SR 58, if you turn north onto Forest Service road 5897, in about 10 paved miles you’ll go past a sign to Shadow Bay Campground. The other campgrounds are another six or seven paved miles north. I had always camped at Islet Point Campground, because previously it did not have reservable campsites, and it’s the most convenient for sailing.

I arrived at Islet Point Campground about 10 a.m. on Friday, set up camp and by about 2 p.m. noticed whitecaps on the lake; it was blowing 12 to 15 knots straight out of the west. I rigged my Hobie Tandem Island sailing kayak at the ramp and asked a passing couple if they’d mind taking a few pictures of me sailing. They agreed.