Hosmer Lake

We met one of BJ's hiking sisters at the Hosmer Lake boat ramp at 8 a.m. with mirror smooth water in the forecast. There were four other vehicles in the lot when we launched.

Hosmer is a small lake with some open areas chained together by narrow sloughs through the marshes. The open areas enabled views to South Sister. The lake is restricted to electric motors and barbless fly fishing only.

The grasses along the shore provide for lots of great bird habitat. We heard lots of them but I noticed few other than a variety of ducks.

The lake really reminded me of areas in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota. Much of this lake was quite shallow and the water, especially at the south end of the lake was quite warm.

We worked our way north, stopping occasionally to cool Turk down with a drink of water.

At the upper end of the lake we were able to paddle up the creek that feeds the lake. It eventually got narrow enough and shallow enough that I tucked into the grasses along the edge while the gals continued on a bit further with the kayaks.

As we started our return, we started meeting pairs, then groups, then clusters of kayaks and occasion canoes or paddleboards headed up the lake. A beautiful lake - just go early!

Back at the ramp I was very glad we weren't doing a midday launch! Parking was scarce and things were a bit crazy.

The NFS South Campground is located adjacent to the boat launch.  It has some very large pull-through sites for $10 per night but no direct lake access from the sites (and likely no cell service without an antenna and booster.)