Fishtrap Lake or Deliverance?

Ahhh, Spring Break!! Last year I went to Mexico. It was wonderful but alas this year I am stuck in Spokaloo with no money. Oh, well. So this week I decided that Walter and I needed to go camping. I wanted somewhere close where there was no snow. I am pretty much done with winter. I decided on Fishtrap Lake. It is 30 miles from Spokane, has a bunch of BLM land around it, and is pretty empty before fishing season starts. Perfect.

Yesterday Walter and I packed up our backpacks with our luxury items and about 25 pounds of water (the lake has a lot of agricultural runoff in it so I have no desire to drink it even if it is filtered). We only had to walk about a mile and a half then took off from the main trail down to where an old wagon road goes down along the cliffs to the lake. There is really no trail to the wagon road and you sort of have to know it is there to find it. We picked a lovely spot up from the lake sort of sheltered by trees. I put up the tent and expecting rain, hooked up a tarp between a couple of trees. It was wonderful. There was not a boat on the lake and we could not hear another soul. After we ate dinner we were just kind of hanging out when the mosquitoes started swarming. It was too early to go into the tent so I decided to take a walk up on the scabland area around the lake. We walked about a mile or so and then slowly started to make our way back. For the first time in weeks I felt totally relaxed. We watched some ducks in a small pond, saw lots of birds, looked around for various blooming plants, took some pictures, etc. It was just really nice.

On the way back down the wagon road, Walter started acting all goofy and high strung. I just shrugged it off thinking he was just being weird. Why don't I ever listen to him???? Anyway, we got back down to where we were camped and I looked under the tarp and my stuff had been moved around. Then I looked over at the tent and my backpack was sort of hanging out under the vestibule and the zipper was not done up all the way. That was not how I left it. I was just sitting there trying to figure this puzzle out when Walter started barking and growling and I looked over and there was this guy about 70 yards away from me. He did not look over at me or anything and just kept walking and it was just so weird. No, "Hey, you camping here?" or anything that folks would normally do. Everything was just too weird.

So I sat there for about a half an hour and every episode of Law and Order and CSI started going through my head. Then I would think, but if the dude wanted to do me harm, he would have already done it but I kept returning back to the fact that the guy had gone through my stuff! It was so strange. I started feeling more and more weirded out by the whole thing. I looked at my watch and it was almost 6:30pm. I figured I had about a half hour of light left, so I packed my shit up in ten minutes and got the hell out. I was so pissed and wanted to stay, but my rational mind was telling me that this was just not cool. I have only had one experience where I felt nervous about other people being around. One time Morgan and I backpacked up to this little lake in North Idaho. On the way up there was a horrific storm that lasted all of about twenty minutes, but it was pretty intense. We got up to the lake and there was this guy camping there by himself. He came over and started talking to us and was just really acting nervous. I could tell that Morgan was a bit bothered. But then as he started talking and telling us about the storm, I realized he was trying to get some kind of comfort from us. The storm had really freaked him out and after I told him that it was all clear to the west he seemed to relax a bit, but he was out of there by first light the next morning.

Walter and I came home early. It was a drag, but I will be going back at some point. It was gently suggested to me that perhaps I should take Walter and his mother Ruby with me next time. The two of them together would be quite a formidable pair.

I have the next week off and will probably be taking some day trips if not an overnight. As it turned out, it rained all last night and all day today so it would not have been quite as much fun. I might call around and see how the snow is at Priest Lake. If it is gone, maybe we will head up there for a night or two. Except for the last hour, it was a great six hour camping trip!

Pictures: Me and Walter, cute Walter watching ducks, our perfect short term camping spot, various pictures around the lake and above it, and a nasty camping place we found along the lake that we were going to clean up before we left. I guess we will just have to go back and do that.