We spent four days canoeing, hiking, and camping at Coffee Pot Lake in eastern Washington.
We camped here before, a year or two ago, and enjoyed that trip so much we vowed to return. 
We packed a lunch and a propane burner for coffee.
It took five hours to paddle 9 or 10 miles.
Simply a wonderful, gorgeous afternoon. 
The wildlife was abundant here, just so many geese, birds - Canada geese, pelicans, cormorants, golden-eyes, red-winged blackbirds protecting their nests, and a coyote watched us from the top of a bluff. 
One of the nests had fallen down onto the reeds, so we paddled over and I examined it, stuck my finger into the small entrance hole - no eggs, but very soft inside. 
Cliff swallows were actively feeding their young in nests on the cliffs - I enjoy watching them! 
We drove over to Twin Lakes and spent an afternoon hiking there - perfect weather, sunshine, but a bit of breeze. 
This year we hiked a different route, to bluffs overlooking the lakes.
We tried climbing the bluffs across from our campground, but George was apprehensive about going up to the top. 
We stopped here - just too steep, with precarious footholds.
We had to build a log jam across a little creek, in order to ford the stream, but after we got across we removed the debris. It is a spawning stream. There are only five camping spots available at Coffee Pot Lake, so it was a group of people who quickly got to know one another.
Very warm, friendly people, good conversations - and quiet at night. The fishing here is fly fishing, single barbless hook, so it attracts only a certain type of fisherman, generally paddling in a little boat.
I had to set up my cook station between the car and tent the first evening - it was too windy to use the picnic table.
We enjoyed several salads for a quick first meal - beet/red onion salad; broccoli salad, the best ever... and I forgot how I made it! We had fried soba noodles with veggies for dinner one night; another night I served fried paneer on top of a turnip/rutabaga curry over crusty bread. Sleeping was great - cool at night, but cold in the morning. The hardest part of the trip is getting out of warm bedding, getting dressed in cold clothing, and then trying to make coffee with cold hands.
But, once that coffee is ready, it is the best moment of the day! George took so many photos, it will take weeks to process all of them into our Flickr account.
