DAY THREE:

I awoke at 6 AM, turned over in my warm bag, and then awoke at 7 AM, wishing I had gotten up at 6, since I almost missed the misty morning! At seven it was very damp in the tent and 43 degrees. The mist was fading quickly outdoors, so I clicked off a couple of disappointing shots and got on with the breakfast preparations.

It was 48 degrees outside, sunny, with the always clear sky. Our wild blueberry pancakes were delicious! We had them with a side of over-easy fresh eggs, Tang, coffee and hot chocolate. Yum!

We left at 10:50 for a day trip north on the Kelso River. There were multiple butterflies flitting around our sunny campsite as we paddled away, it had warmed to 60 degrees, and a few white puffy clouds were coming in on a slight breeze. A very promising weather situation, indeed! :)

The river is beautiful. It is wide and winds up to the north, with rocks and river grasses, rice, pitcher plants, a few beaver lodges, some meandering side areas to get lost in, a few picturesque snags and occasionally a bright group of leaves showing just a touch of autumn color to catch the eye. We stopped to photograph a water lily and were surprised by a group of five or six otters coming up the river behind us, but of course they beat a hasty retreat when they saw us—no photo possible! There were lots and lots of large green and blue darners flitting about (dragonflies) and none of them were cooperative about lighting to pose for my eager photography either.

We ate our lunch on the shore of Lujenida Lake, at the end of the 460- rod portage from Zenith Lake. I stalked and photographed a large fritillary butterfly, a small damselfly, and a red dragonfly, and photographed a group of green reeds that were waving in the breeze. Still longing for some “real” wildlife!

We paddled back quietly, checked out a neighboring campsite and decided we didn’t like it better than our own, photographed ours from the water, and then noticed that our puffy clouds were gone and we were back to the clear sky yet again at 3 PM. A beautiful summer afternoon, low humidity, and breezy. A mourning cloak butterfly was waiting for me on my camp stool when we arrived back at camp, but it wasn’t cooperative about staying around to keep us company. (They are usually shy, not friendly like the commas.)

Our supper consisted of Cache Lake Chicken Stew with the Really Tasty Dumplings. In my opinion, not worth the long cooking time and the messy pot to clean up afterwards—very salty! I made a chewy cooky bar recipe in the jello mold oven and, while it turned out more the consistency of a cake, it was tasty. We retired early as we planned to get up early for a river trip to scout for early morning wildlife.