Our sleep was minorly interrupted during the night thanks to Cleo trying to chase shit from within the car and Dan thinking there were bears outside. Despite that, it was a great first night back in the Cabana. We snoozed all morning, the whole camp to ourselves. Our serenity was only broken when a lady walked right through our camp, sussing out the spot apparently. I didn’t see her, but Dan said she was looking at the space around the campfire ring thinking it looked pretty good! From bed, Dan politely told her there was another campsite just down the way and she said thank you very much before going back to her husband and walking all their stuff down the road since their sedan couldn’t handle it.
When we eventually emerged from the Cabana, a shower was on the cards in our private creek. It was crisp, but necessary, even Cleo joined us. After building up the courage to dunk our bodies in, we both felt brilliant and ready for a big traditional Dan & Sarah breakfast. I relaxed while Dan cooked up some pancakes, egg and bacon in my kitchen. It hadn’t even been 24 hours yet and we were back in the groove of things. To top it all off, Dan cracked his bottle of maple syrup that I’d given him which was delicious.
After the dishes were done, we had a planning session sitting around our cars. I had my Atlas and Lonely Planet guide at hand while Dan was Googling around on his phone. We had a couple of weeks to kill before we needed to be in Oregon somewhere for the solar eclipse on the 21st of August and so we were looking at the top hits of Washington. There were a lot of ideas thrown around but the one that stuck was the Coulee Dam, a hint from the Lonely Planet guide which told us that it was four times larger than the much more visited Hoover Dam. Really? Both of us were keen to see that. In looking for a camp between here and there, I found a trailhead to the third most suggested hike in all of Washington, the Enchanted Traverse. We started getting excited then, thinking we could do an overnight hike, just for something different. Dan was doubtful because we didn’t have the gear, but I quickly explained I had enough to cover two people on a backcountry adventure. The whole thing was quashed pretty quickly when we found out that dogs weren’t allowed and there was a permit system which was overly complicated, cost money and fully booked out for the summer. Oh well, maybe we could still go see the dam.
After all that planning, it was past 1pm and I suggested that we go to the nearby Kachess lake for a look and a swim, then come right back to camp for another night in our private forest. Yep! We were both up for that. We packed a bag of beer and some snacks, locked our cars and walked the half mile down the road to the campground.
Halfway there, we came across cars parked on the side of the road and the craziness only got worse. There was a line of cars waiting to get into the campground and day use area, all sporting national forest recreation passes that cost money.
The campground was predictably full and the day use area was a picknicking madhouse. We didn’t mind too much, knowing we had our own little nook just up the road. We walked around the picnic tables, towards the shore of the lake, but continued walking around until we found a spot quiet enough for our liking. The shore was rocky and we got ourselves in the water quick smart to cool off. Cleo jumped in which us, feeling more comfortable in the water with every day that passes.
We put my Thai mat down on the rise above the water in some shade and proceeded to relax and people watch the rest of the afternoon away. We still had plenty to catch up on so pretty much talked non stop while Cleo was on guard for squirrels and chipmunks. There were plenty of people to talk about, on the water and off it. There were plenty of people floating on the water in doughnuts, paddle boards and other toys, all amongst boats of all speeds.
Around 4:30pm, everyone seemed to be packing it up so we did too, ready for dinner back at camp. We walked back through the madhouse to our quiet spot and found it just as we’d left it. On the walk back, we’d both thought about having a cookie to snack on and since neither of us had any, I resolved to make some in my kitchen. Surely it would work in a covered frying pan if the heat was low enough? I smashed together some flour, syrup, oil, peanut butter and chocolate into a dough and Dan lit the stove as I rolled them into balls and put them in the frying pan. The mixture was a little dry and the first batch were slightly burnt on one side, but other than that, we’d successfully made cookies out the back of a van!
We’d contemplated pasta for dinner but since neither of us were super hungry, Dan whipped up another salad, this time with cooked chicken. Bloody beautiful dinner it was. I drank some more of my wine while Dan cracked a bottle of his own. We both had our preferences, me with Italian wine, him drinking the Aussie stuff. By the time we were done with dinner, it was cool enough to have a fire which Dan proudly built. He was confident his massive tepee would be a “set it and forget it” deal. I was sceptical, but held my tongue. It initially went up in a firy blaze, but needed just a little attention to get her going properly. We were moving our chairs back before long it was so effective.
Unable to let the idea of an overnight hike go, I looked around the area on my Hiking Project app for an alternative to the crazy popular Enchanted Traverse. In Googlind dog friendly trails, I found a 16 miler that would take us over Mt. Defiance to a camp at Lake Thompson. No permit required, dogs allowed the whole way, it sounded like a winner. It was only half an hour away too, we were both excited for our next adventure by the end of the night.
We got the cards out and played a round of Queen’s Chair by the fire before one last glass of wine and bed.
