9/4/12 -- We have been having the best time!

We spent the long weekend at Starvation Lake (not starving, I assure you) just a mile or two outside of the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Preserve.  The area is named for the Pend Oreille River that passes through the northern part of the reserve (named for the Pend Oreille Indians).  Sculpted by ice sheets during the Ice Age, it is just east of Colville WA.  Our destination, Vancouver WA, is in the southeast corner of the state. 

Our destination, Vancouver WA, is in the southwest corner of the state.

We took a couple of drives through the forest reserve.  It is a beautiful area on the flanks of Beartail Mountain and Olson Mountain in the Selkirk Mountain Range.  Elevations range from 1800’ in the lowlands of the west to 5,610’ on the east.  We are camped somewhere between those extremes.  As we drove through the Reserve, each turn brought a new ecosystem, new trees, new views.  This is the only Reserve in America that contains a mountainous, mixed-conifer forest refuge.

Now, when I say that we took a couple of drives through the reserve, many of you are imagining a nice asphalt, 2-lane road and since it’s primitive, maybe it doesn’t have a yellow line down the center.  Perhaps you imagine gently rolling hills.  The reality is far from this picture.

All the roads are dirt – not even gravel.  A logging truck would have trouble getting through some areas.  Most roads are wide enough for one vehicle.  There are 2 foot wide spaces now and then so you can pull off if you meet someone.  This allows both vehicles to keep one set of wheels on the road, anyhow.   
 
Sometimes the road winds through forests where you can see through the underbrush.  I guess that’s misleading too.  In one such area, we saw a buck with a full rack.  The underbrush was so think that we couldn’t see his legs at all.  It looked like he was floating on the grasses.  We saw a lot of deer.

Other times we drove through an area that had burned some years ago where nature was reseeding it.  In these places, we saw fireweed for the first time since returning to Washington.  This is one of the first plants that sends it emissaries in after a forest fire.

Sometimes the narrow roads climbed steep mountains.  We looked down into deep valleys full of trees.  Actually, we looked down at the tops of the trees.  We passed several log cabins that were falling apart.  Winters are severe here – 4-6’ of snow or better.  Since you can’t see ‘round the next bend, and since we didn’t want to frighten any animals, we drove at 15-20 mph.  Of course, for all those mountain roads that climbed to the peaks, they had to come down too! 

Here’s one of the roads we drove. 

Some of them were even more primitive that this.  It is the kind of mountain back-roading that we love best.  We had such a marvelous time!

Sunday, we lazed in camp all day.  That morning, a young buck with velvet antlers led a parade of wild turkeys through our campground.  Morning and evening, a young doe grazed just below our campsite near the cattails that ring the lake.

Took a walk down to the lake and watched our neighbor fly-fishing off the dock.  It’s catch-and-release until October 31^st.  Fishing here is strictly for fun.  After he left, we sat on the rocks in the shade and enjoyed the lake.  It was so still.

Reflection on Starvation Lake

The water was so clear I could see fish swimming.  Made me wish I had my fishing gear.  In this picture, I just missed the fish but you can see by how clear the water was that I could have taken his picture.  The campers here who have been fishing have been pulling out rainbow trout nearly two feet long, and that's no fish story!

 

Starvation Lake's clear water

Later as we sat in camp, a cheery voice called out, “Hello!”  Donna, from across the circle, stopped by to chat.  Her husband is an avid fly fisherman.  She was taking a book and a folding chair down to the lake to watch him fish.  She said she wanted a chance to visit first.  Donna and her husband and us are the only campers in camp.  We really enjoyed her visit. 

After she left, we built a fire, but not for warmth.  (Although temperatures dropped into the 30’s Saturday night).  No, our fire on Sunday was designed to created lots of coals so that Adina could bake a cake. 

She uses her Dutch oven – it has three little feet.  In this campsite, we have a raised barbecue stand as well as a fire pit so we can create coals in the fire pit.  We take coals from the fire and slip them under the Dutch oven, then take more coals and lay them on the lid. 

Adina with a shovel full of coals

Adina can hold her hand over the Dutch oven and tell when the temperature is right for baking. 

Testing the temperature

To me, it is like magic. I just build the fire. 

The cake was, of course, delicious.  We tasted bits that fell off and then took it down to our camp hosts, Bill and his wife as a thank-you.  Bill had brought his tools down on Friday and repaired a couple of things in the trailer -- minor to him but a big deal for us. 

Reminds me of all of you.  We have a lot of “thank you’s” to say.  We wish we could bring a thank you cake to each of you, baked outside in a Dutch oven, right on the campfire, away up on the flank of a Washington mountain.  There isn’t any cake that tastes better!

Monday, we did cross-word puzzles and lazed about camp all day, enjoying our view of the lake.  We didn't enjoy the fellow across the lake who spend the afternoon shooting at his personal target range, but it 's all part of the journey.  Just a slow, easy day.

We did walk down to the lake where we saw coots swimming.  They are funny little black duck-like birds, black with bright yellow beaks.  They have webbing on their feet but the webs don't connect so it looks like each of their toes has a lace outline.  I have always like coots.

First time I ever got a picture of a coot!

I also got a picture of the local osprey. 

Osprey in flght

Donna stopped by for a visit, which we really enjoyed.  We got to know her a little better.  Then the campground host's wife, Joanne, came down to see us too.  We were thankful we were able to provide seating for all of us, with three camp chairs and my walker.  Joanne is a quilter, imagine, right in camp.  We had a good gab-fest with two delightful women.

This morning - Tuesday - we broke camp.  As I write this blog, Adina is at the laundromat, a necessary stop on a trip this long.  This afternoon, we head west on hwy 20 toward Republic, Omak, Okanagan and then the Cascade mountains.  We don't know where we'll be tonight, but armed with our Campground book and our map of DNR campgrounds, we are prepared for whatever comes. 

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