We spent the weekend camping up in the Sinlahekin Wildlife Refuge, a spectacular protected environment in Okanogan country, in north-central Washington. When I say 'protected' I mean that it is obvious that great care has been taken to preserve the refuge for wild-life, birds, deer - and bear. This area, the oldest Wildlife Area in Washington state, was originally purchased to provide habitat for mule deer. Bighorn sheep were re-introduced in 1949 from a herd in British Columbia.
Shrub species used by deer include antelope bitterbrush, Pacific serviceberry, western common chokecherry, and snowbrush. A long field behind the campground was plowed, growing wild oats, grain, and thistle, to attract birds.
Little golden finches were abundant, singing in the wild rose bushes.It was so satisfying laying in the tent at night, listening to the sounds of the birds, then the crickets, then the frogs. In the middle of the night the sounds of the frogs stopped when there was a loud cry from an owl. It woke me up, and I opened the tent flap to look at the sky - just a spectacular night-time sky, with the milky way and the stars so brilliant and clear.
This campground was so remote, there was just a fire-pit, no tables or water spigots. I prepared our meals over the fire, while sitting on our cooler.
I made fried eggs, toast, and potatoes for breakfast. And, coffee.
I went for a long walk along the lake, and video taped the wild geese nesting in the brush. Other campers were eyeing a bear up on the hillside. I couldn't see it, but used my zoom lens to get a look. I did manage to see a deer foraging up on the hills across the lake.
We went for a late afternoon paddle on Blue Lake, about 6 miles. Ideal temperatures, sun, and minimal wind made for a great paddle.
My video images had rich, deep color, swirling water patterns, and the constant back- ground sounds of birds and geese.
We also paddled Sugarloaf Lake, a little lake with birds nesting in old tree stumps along the shore line.
While George got the canoe ready, I waded out into the marshy edges and filmed the tadpoles. 
Thousands of them were swirling around in the warm edges of the water.On Sunday, we attemped to paddle some other lakes, but the wind was too strong. It can be too tedious and dangerous fighting the waves and wind. So, we explored, finding a lot of other remote lakes - Conconully, White Stone, Spectable, and Brown and Green.
No one seems to bother driving to these lakes, they are so remote, but they are a canoer's dream.We spent most of Sunday afternoon driving along the Similkameen River, the Oakanogan River, and the mighty Columbia.
This photo shows the dry vege- tation. Sage brush country, hot and dry.We drove through deep mountain canyons, along the plateaus of the Central Ferry Wildlife Refuge in Douglas County, which winds up on a long stretch of prairie that is vast and expansive in every direction.
It is almost unsettling, the absence of people, trees, and farm houses. Families just don't dot the prairie here. The distances are too vast.I didn't get any photos of the Dyer Hill country. We just wanted to 'get through it'. It has big boulders that dot the expansive prairie, where they dropped off of glaciers during the ice age. And, from there the McNeil Canyon Road drops down off the high plateau country into the Oakanogan country, with Lake Chelan in the distance.
We just kept going, until we hit the fruit orchards of the Wenatche valley, with miles of peach trees, cherries, apricots, and apple trees.
The orchards in the Wenatche valley had fruit stands selling Rainier cherries.We spent about eight hours exploring backroads. I video-taped the bucolic farmlands, the lakes, canyons, and vast areas of dry-land farming.
We stopped at a farm that had old machinery lined up in the grass by the side of the road. It was hard to drive back into town, Sunday evening....I wanted to stay at that campground, and look at stars at night, listen to the sounds of birds in the morning, and have morning coffee over the campfire. Sigh....I'm definitely not cut out for city living.
