As I write this, we are enjoying our very quiet campsite in
the Gillette Campground up out of Colville. Gillette is one of a cluster of
three campgrounds in the Colville National Forest. The campground just below us
is on Gillette Lake, a recreational lake with boat launch, so I’m sure this is
not such a quiet place on weekends. For today, though, it is. Our site backs to
the open woods, which I love. We’ve been sitting behind the tent trailer in a
spot that provides some sun for Frank and some shade for me, basking in the
feeling of being alone in the woods.
Unfortunately, the woods here have been affected/infested by
the beetle or fungus or whatever it is that has wiped out huge swaths of
forests up in BC. The trees here don’t seem as far gone as the trees I saw up
there a few years ago, but there are a lot of blackened, droopy, dead branches.
All around them, though, is green, with a lot of young new growth, so hopefully
the forest will recover.
The campers closest to us are a family with two small
daughters. The piping sounds of the girls’ play – “Now pretend this is a
bridge, and if you fall off the bridge…” – feels entirely natural to us.
We haven’t seen any chipmunks here! I’m really missing them.
They were our constant companions at Ida Creek. There are a lot of birds,
though, little brown jobbies and others with spots of bright color who catch my
eye and then are gone before I can do more than register that they were there.
A brown and yellow butterfly – I like to imagine it’s the same one – visits our
site from time to time.
Yesterday was a fine day as far as travel days go. I was
hampered by a headache on and off all day, no doubt the result of several hours
of insomnia in the motel the night before. (My body apparently no longer finds
regular beds acceptable.) But the drive up Highway 395 was lovely – it reminded
me of the Siskiyous – and the shopping in Colville was brief and easy. In
addition to cows and horses, I spotted a lone deer munching in a farmer’s field
and, once we were headed up Highway 20, a lone moose wading in a pond. That was
my first moose sighting, a brief glimpse as we zoomed past at highway speeds.
Our first stop for a possible campsite yesterday was at
Douglas Falls Grange, which is just a few miles out of Colville. We learned
about it from the “$12 and under” camping guide we bought, and it sounded
interesting – free, with scenic waterfalls – but the campsites were meh and the
heat was much. We continued on.
Here at Gillette, it is probably 20 degrees cooler than down
the hill – we were pretty cold last night! – and we have the prospect of a
do-nothing day in the quiet woods ahead of us. Very likely we are leaving tomorrow
for Glacier National Park, where I would very much like to stay put for more
than two nights.
So far our route has taken us north of places where friends
live. I hope this doesn’t mean we’ll entirely bypass some of the good friends
who live just south of where we’re headed, but for now the lack of social time
is really feeling good. I have been talking, talking, talking for four years
for work, with most of our vacation time spent with between two and 700 friends;
I can use the break!
Two spotted deer have just come bounding down the hill
beyond our campsite. They are shy and
keeping a good distance away, but we can see them well with our field glasses.
They seemed too big to be fawns, so I thought at first that the spots might
just come with the deer. No, an hour or so later, mama showed up. She’s big and
beautiful, and the fawns were thrilled to see her. They are still nursing. Very
lovely to see them.
I love it here!!! Yes, yes, I said that about Ida Creek,
too, and about the shower in the Motel 6 in Spokane, but traveling from beloved
spot to beloved spot is just what I was hoping for.
