Love at First Frolic

We bought Jackson Frolic from a tired lesbian in a grocery store parking lot in the suburbs. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

For our first trip of the season, we headed out to Big Lake in central Oregon. Big Lake is a big lake that sprawls out beneath Mt Washington and where we incorrectly thought the mosquitoes might not have hatched yet.

We spent an evening hiding from the mosquitos in Jaxson. Around dusk, a family van pulled up in the site next to us. Over the next eight minutes, innumerable children of various ages piled out, set up six tents with military efficiency, and started a smoke fire in a pit positioned such that all the smoke poured through our window and vents into the van. Bombarded by smoke from within, and mosquitos from without, we drank wine and watched old episodes of Alone like god intended, until the full moon rose over the lake and we sat on the shore and whispered together, honoring the solstice.

The next day we stopped at Smith Rock and putzed around in the high desert. The following weekend we returned, and scampered up to the top in time to see some climbers summiting Monkeyface. If you zoom in you can see them.

And then it was off down a BLM road to find Vanlife magic, the perfect secluded pullout on a ridge with views of the mountains in the distance, just in time to make a fire while the sun was setting. Portending good things to come.