Lost Lake and a Cold Night

Joy and I went on the last camping trip of the season yesterday to a place called Lost Lake, on the North side of Mt. Hood. The day before it had snowed, and it was still quite cool during the day--the snow stayed on the ridges surrounding the lake, but it melted a couple hundred feet below where we pitched our tent. This is the sunset we saw after hiking around the lake. I haven't been camping in quite a while, so I was really excited to go, and the promise of clear weather was even better! After the sun went down it got real cold real quick; thankfully we had a raging fire going. During the night, we decided to explore the trail a little bit and see what we could see with the full moon approaching. Here's what we saw, kind of creepy I know. It was an incredibly clear night (which is also why it got so cold) and I saw more stars than I think I have in my entire life. Congo is quite the same from what I hear. It seems obvious, I suppose, when you think about it, that you'd be able to see lots of stars there at night since there aren't any lights for hundreds and hundreds of miles!
Anyway, the night was pretty cold once the fire went out, and by 5am I couldn't stand it anymore, so we got up and went to a good spot to catch the sunrise. It was still another hour and a half before the sun peaked over the hills, but we got some incredible shots of Mt. Hood.
We're thankful that we get to experience things like this. It's so refreshing to get out of your surroundings, relax, and sleep on the cold, hard ground!

We're getting ready for a big meeting on Tuesday, and then we'll be spending the rest of the week in Lynden. Our support is up to 21% now, so that's good!