##### Spring finally arrived in full force and there are several nice days ahead in the forecast. Hallelujah! ##### We took this opportunity to explore some of the network of forest roads just west of where we live. It was time to escape the house and the sparsley traveled forest roads are a great place to continue social distancing but be in the great outdoors. This trip was about getting out in nature, scouting for a future hike, and some more practice with my telephoto lens. So follow along as I tell the story. :) # Black Crater Lake - Scouting a Hike ##### Since all the trail heads are closed right now, I have been looking for some overland type hikes. The picture below shows Black Crater Peak. About a third of the way down from the summit in this picture is Black Crater Lake which is my target. ***Click images for larger view***

Still quite a bit of snow on the roads I need to use to get closer to the lake.

A screenshot from my phone using the PDF Avenza Map app. The red pin is the approximate location I took the picture from. The Blue Pin shows the lake and the orange line is a .5 mile distance from the end of a road to the lake.

When I looked at Google Earth and zoomed in, I'm not sure that little spur road still exists. So when the snow melts I will need to do some more reconnaissance to determine a hiking route and mileage. # Practice with My Zoom Lens ##### With the abundance of sunshine and blue skies I knew I would probably have access to some great views of the surrounding peaks. The following are some of the shots I was able to get. There were many more but I am still experimenting with my camera settings so some of them were unusable. Even some of these images weren't the best but luckily Lightroom helped me salvage them. Overall a good learning experience for me. [//]:# (!pinmapple 44.253074 lat -121.695362 long d3scr)

The North Sister from the end point of the road I was on.

A zoomed in view.

Mt Jefferson.

Mt Jefferson through the foliage.

The South Sister and The North Sister.

Mt jefferson. ***Click images for larger view***

Mt Jefferson zoomed. Photos taken by me, @oldmans, with a Nikon D3300 and some Lightroom post processing. Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!