Skip navigation

Lost Lake

Lost Lake is in the Okanogan Highlands, northeast of Tonasket and north of Bonaparte Lake. It is in the forest at nearly 4000′ elevation; a little colder than Chopaka Lake. There is a lovely wetland, home to many birds, on the south end. On the north end, there is a Forest Service campground, first established by the CCC in the 1940’s. It still has an old fashioned feeling about it that I like. There are also a few cabins around the lake and two private camps. The Okanogan Highlands Alliance bought much of the marsh and some of the uplands on the south side to protect these important habitats.

I have been visiting this place for at least fifteen years and I never tire of it. It’s hard to put my finger on one thing and say ‘this is why I like it’. Maybe it’s the historic nature of the place, the slower pace, the lack of development. Or maybe it’s the loons. Common Loons nest on Lost Lake and few other lakes in Washington – mostly in Ferry County to the east. I will have another post just about the loons at Lost Lake.

Ken caught lots of brook trout while we were there and we did not go hungry. We even had fish to share with others and we had one dinner party at our campsite and another with our neighbors! I enjoyed early morning paddles on the lake watching the loons and other birds and frogs and turtles too.

Fairyslipper, Calypso orchid. Lots of these in the campground.
Fairyslipper, Calypso orchid
Snail. I wonder if it’s native or introduced. It is a bit longer than an inch.
Homemade chocolate chip cookie and a smooth lake. Great way to start a day.
Two men have worked on refurbishing this cabin for years.
Ring-necked Ducks. The first time I’ve seen them at Lost Lake.
Play
Music in camp
Good friends
Luna likes music
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Old hydrant
Waterlillies
Common Loon pair
Painted turtle
Flycatcher. Maybe Willow? I am not good at identifying Empidonax flycatchers
He caught one!
nice stringer
Evening
Another!
Hooded Merganser female
Hooded Merganser female
Song Sparrow
Wild geranium with a fly
Geum sp, old man’s beard
Geum sp, old man’s beard

Chopaka Lake

Ken and I and the dogs were camping last week. It was good to get away from computers and electronic communication and enjoy time spent in nature. We kayaked, Ken fished, the dogs swam and jumped in lakes and we hiked and looked at wildflowers and birds. We enjoyed food cooked in the campfire, drank good wine and had a fine time!

Chopaka Lake is nearly to Canada in Okanogan County and sits at about 3000′ elevation. The landscape around it varies from riparian to shrub-steppe to forest and 7000′ Chopaka Mountain rises steeply behind it. The road to Chopaka is relatively steep and it seems daunting to some folks but we had no trouble pulling our little camping trailer up the grade. There are two small adjacent campgrounds – one run by the state DNR and the other by the federal BLM; both free. We were surprised and dismayed on Sunday afternoon to find every site full and we lucked out when two fellows left a site right on the lake! We laid claim to it immediately.

Chopaka is fly fishing only with a limit of one fish per day and it could easily have been a setting for a Cabela’s catalog photo shoot! Anglers had all the cool gear and clothes for the occasion. We probably stood out in the crowd (such as it was) with our own renditions of outdoor stuff. There was a great selection of boats also – some handmade. The dogs were delighted to have a lake in our front yard. Despite the campgrounds being full, it was a very quiet place. Folks were resptful of others and friendly too.

Looking back at Loomis as we drove to Chopaka Lake
And the view of Palmer Lake as we drove to Chopaka
Lakefront campsite
Light rain falling
The tiny marina in front of our campsite
Intrepid anglers stay out in the rain
Old man’s bear or Geum sp
Old man’s bear or Geum sp
Death camas
Lush green this month
A handmade boat on Chopaka Lake
A camper next to us brought us this wine saying that his group had drank quite a bit of during their stay and now it was time to go and did we want it. Heck yes. It was very good. Turns out, it is his winery. Good wine. Thanks Dave.
male Redhead
male Redhead
Four males pursue one female Redhead
Spotted Sandpipers were everywhere
Barrow’s Goldeneye male
Barrow’s Goldeneye male
Ruddy Duck males
Ruddy Duck
Ruddy Ducks are cute!
The view back to camp
Potentilla?
Barrow’s Goldeneye family
Bitterroot
Tent caterpillars
Hiking above the lake
Buckwheat sp
Another potentilla?
Chopaka Lake is pretty large – over 5000 acres.
Thompson’s paintbrush
Ken and Sky talk about sticks
Luna in the lush green grass
How many times did she do this?
Luna has her own style
Shake
Morning on the lake
These two Barrow’s Goldeneyes seem to be taking their time.
A pair of Barn Swallows attempted to build a nest under our canopy despite our attempts to discourage them.
This looks like a Bald Eagle nest and there were eagles in that vicinity but I never saw them on the nest
Great goldeneye habitat! They nest in tree cavities.
Where else would you be at that time of day?
Taking a break from the nest.
Penstemon hanging in great bunches from rocks over the lake.
babies
Got her ducks in a row.
And in a bunch.

And that’s just the first two days of our camping trip!

Wildflower Walk

Here are a few, maybe a few too many, wildflower images from a dog walk last week.

Clematis?
White shooting stars!
paintbrush
strawberry
Fairy slippers
I don’t know
late serviceberry
douglas sunflower
More paintbrush
Geum?
previous day’s raindrop on lupine leaves
larkspu
wild geranium
Forgot this one too.
Impressive ponderosa pine snag
phacelia
pentemon
I don’t know. White forget me nots?
Patterson Lake
False solomon’s seal?
Rock cress gone to seed?
Balsamroot along the trail
chokecherry
A cocoon? Maybe tent caterpillars? It’s very big.
Trying to get 3 dogs lined up on the trail

Bees, Bees and More Bees

I am seriously getting behind on photo editing. I will probably never catch up. So tonight I am combining two days of honeybee images into one blog post. Ken is the beekeeper, not me. I just really enjoy watching the process as it unfolds and I have to tell you, beekeeping is FULL of drama. There is always some new question and the answer is invariably ‘Well we don’t really know. What do you think?’

Last Monday, Memorial Day, Ken had enough time to open up all five of his hives to see how they were doing. A friend said the honey flow is early this year so a person needs to be ready to add supers to the hives and to watch out for swarms. Of the five hives only one is kind of behind and that is the one that was a swarm late last summer so its stocks were low and it was lucky just to get through the winter. If it survives this winter, it should do well next year. Of the other four, three are going along alright, not yet needing a new super but one of them was nearly full so he moved around some of the frames and put the new super (another box for the bees to store honey) on it and was pleased but still concerned that the bees could swarm. He had one extra hive so he set that up just in case.

Two days later while I was in town, he was playing ball with the dogs. At one point Luna refused to retrieve the ball so he went to see why and sure enough, there was a swarm of bees right above the ball. Smart Luna. She’s been stung and has a healthy respect for bees. So he suited up again, cut the pine branch full of bees, put it into the empty hive and closed it up. The next day he had to go on a road trip so before he left he wanted to get the branch out of there and replace it with frames for the bees to use for building comb. Suited up again, he picked up the branch and brushed the bees into the box with frames. If all went as planned and if the new queen was in there, the bees would stick around start making brood and gathering honey. I checked yesterday and the bees are still in there! Now he has six hives.

Perfect day for this kind of work
Sky keeps busy with her stick
A small gob of wax attracts bees to the honey
Firing up the smoker again
Smoking the bees makes them retreat into the hive and eat honey and leave the beekeeper alone. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.
The swarm of bees are all gathered around the queen on this pine branch
Ken brushes the bees into the hive
Going in and out is a good sign.

Fairy Slippers

I came across these two beautiful fairy slipper orchids (Calypso bulbosa) yesterday on a mosquito driven dog walk in the woods, not far from here. The skeeters were enough to keep us moving along and I did not spend very much time with these beautiful little orchids and my photos suffered.

According to the website, Native Orchids of Washington, there is only one species in the genus Calypso and within that species, there are four subspecies. I think this one is Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis – Pacific or western fairy slipper. I wonder what is the tiny green caterpillar on the flower on the right?

Can you imagine the little forest spirits wearing these slippers as they move about in the woods, slipping unnoticed among the trees and casually leaving the tiny footwear behind when people appear?

 

May232014_0006

 

 

May232014_0010