At last!  Dave was ready to try out his two new knees someplace other than on the tennis court.  To that end, he researched a number of small, remote (read “obscure”) lakes and told me to pick one.

I did, and today, we headed out to find Summit Lake, an undertaking not for the easily discouraged.

Well, maybe this was a little discouraging:

This was somewhat encouraging  — but it did not mean that we had arrived.

Maybe just a bit farther up this logging road.

Oops.  No.  That wasn’t it, so we found wide spot to turn around.

And then, suddenly:

And so worth it.

Dave’s new knees were definitely up to the challenge.

And we two old bug lovers spent several hours observing the tiniest species of wildlife.  

These two blue bottles needed to get a room.

Wildlife highlight of the day:  Dave spotted an albino frog, but, sadly,  it was too quick for the camera.

I felt like we were a million miles from anyone and anyplace, but after we took out and loaded up, and headed back to the main road,  there was our magnificent mountain.

We drove back the other way, along the tumbling Clackamas, turned off at Estacada to Molalla where we scarfed down chili rellenos, fajitas, enchiladas, Dr. Peppers, coffee and churros to fortify ourselves for the rest of the drive home.