Saturday, June 20, 2009
This is what it's all about - County Living at It's Best!
Acouple of weeks ago Hubby and I headed up to a lake back behind ourhouse. When the weather was really hot - we worked our butts off all day getting house work done and then when we finished up, we threw our gear in the boat, hooked up to the truck and took off for the lake.
It's called Horse Shoe Lake - of course because of it's shape. It's also a"no-wake lake", so you can't run your boat fast enough to create a wake behind it - or you could get a big fat ticket. So we take our little fishin boat. One of few things we've agreed not to sell to help pay bills.
This lake is fairly high in elevation and surrounded by steep hill and cliffs of granite. There aren't many cabins....but I'msure there will be soon. Seems like you can't have a lake any where that's not completely encircled by cabins anymore - one after another after another.
Thereis a waterfall where a creek enters the lake - although you can't see it from the boat launch you can hear it. It's a local secrete hang-out in the summer. You see, a lot folks in my small little community (although I work in town we do not live in the city) are poor. Not just broke like us, but really poor.
But don't tell them that - because they don't know they are. They have more fun, live more, laugh more and love more than most people who are well-off. And they are happy. Here at the falls, all you gotta do is swim or float in on something to get here and it's loads of fun - it's always aparty. Lots of kids, adults, and everyone between. You don't have to pay a dime to enjoy the lake or the waterfalls, so it's a popular place.
I will talk more about the falls later - but I just wanted to mention theadventure started here. We hit the mouth of the creek, then floated upstream to the falls, tied up the boat up, unloaded the beer, cracked afew open and sat in the water relaxing while soaking in the sun andheat. Our neighbor, Davon, was up there so we hung out with him shooting the breeze when pretty soon he got an idea to hike up stream to see the other falls (there are two additional sets of waterfalls upstream).
Me and Hubby have hiked upstream before but we didn'treally know what we were doing and the going was tough. Davon is a Native, born and raised in the area and knows all the cool trails ands pots so we jumped at the chance to go - just by luck did I have my camera with me. To get to the trail we have to climb to the top of the Waterfalls and go from there - but that is where the climbing just began.
Just a pretty shot of a tree and the sky - encase anyone was wondering...yes....there are PLENTY of trees left in Eastern Washington, there always has been.
Basically we had to climb to the top of one of those ridges surrounding the lake. The trail we were on disappeared once we started up the ridge. From then we were just following Davon.
Once we got up out of the thick brush we traversed across the side of this ridge, it became very hot and dry. 
Inoticed alot of little bones laying around and decided this must be an area where either an eagle or a large owls feeds. Of course it might also be near a coyote den which would also explain the bones.
Here are some bones I found on a rock - looked like a beaver. Check out the teeth.
A small cliff we climbed down (me with the help from hubby, the trip wasn't kind on my back) - we used a large crack in the rock for hand and feet holds. (Keep in mind we were all clad in swimming suits and freakin sandals - looking back I'm like "were we high?" but at the time while doing it -seemed like the most natural thing to do) none of us had any trouble and set a nice pace covering 3.5 miles rather quickly - under an hour.
After crossing the ridge we started to see all these caves and places were old glacial activity had stacked giant building sized boulders on top of each other and then you could see where at one time the creek ran through and washed the dirt out from underneath.
Old washed up stump - helps prove my theory.
A look inside one. Kind of unnerving - there are literally thousands of pounds of rock above you here.
Here is some more evidence of water erosion inside a different cave.
Hereis Davon - who crawled in one cave and came out another. He's been playing in these rocks since he was a boy and knows all the tunnels and caverns. They run for miles along this creek and the lake.
Then we came to the first waterfall - we actually passed by another one but it was almost covered by a rock slide long ago so you can only hear it roar under a pile of large bolders and rock - it's call Hidden Falls. This is Dovetail Falls. Isn't this beautiful?
Husband posing for a shot - should've had him take my picture. Doesn't lookreal big here but he's actually standing on a hill in front of the Falls so it makes them look smaller.
But they were plenty big and steep. Do you see thing in this picture? 
Look closer.
Closer.
That's right! There is a cave under the waterfalls - complete with a rock bench where you can just sit and watch the thousands of gallons of water spill over you making such a noise that your chest rattles with the thunder of the water and it fills almost your entire mind. In my mind knew I was safe - but my body thought I was going to drown - I had focus and work though that to make myself breathe. In a way it was very cleansing - sharpened every thought, all my senses - were tuned and alert and yet I was relaxed and at peace. I crawled back from our spot from under the falls feeling refreshed and new. 
Hereis Davon's friend Chris coming out of the waterfall. Sorry no pictures of inside the cave under the falls - it's not real super camera friendly.... Hubby went under the waterfalls too - and felt the sameway.
Hereis a little snake we flushed out of the cave under the falls - he wasnot happy we were in his cave. Honestly he didn't have to leave - the only one in our group afraid of snakes is my Hubby, Mr. Manly Man, go figure. I like snakes - they are amazing creatures.
Isn't this just beautiful? I mean - really, the light, the Falls, having Hubby by my side. I'll be darned if having him home and spending all the extra time with him isn't making me fall in love with him just alittle bit more. Seems like we are finding again what drew us together in the first place. 
Here is the view down stream from Dovetail Falls - the going get really super steep again.And then we arrived back at the bottom of the set of Falls that dumps into the lake. It's called Exley Falls.
Thisplace is named after and dedicated to Burrill Exley that loved this land and was kind enough to leave it to the Fish and Department who have kept it open and free to the public as that was Burrill's wishes.
You can climb on and access each of the 3 pools of water that marks each stage of this waterfall. You climb up there as I have many times, climb into a pool, shimmy up to the wall of water, lean back and let it run over your body. It's just awesome. And perfectly safe as long as no one knocks a rock loose from the big swimming hole directly above the falls.
Here some smaller wading pools below that the kids all love. Little baby trout, blue gill, and perch minnows like to swim and hide in these pools. The kids love chasing them around - making dams with the rocks and just being kids.ly neat spot. We try to make it up there as often as possible.
There are also these - do you know what this is?
Thisis a Dragon Fly Larvae - click to enlarge - you can see they make their homes out of little rock and glue them together. They stay in this form called a naiad (that is, nymph) - for several years, at least the bigger ones do anyways. Everyone around here calls them Periwinkles - like but not as in the snail. If they grab a hold of you they can pinch but don't bite.
On the trip back to the boat launch.
Davon and his other friend, notice their Redneck canoe paddles.
We hit the boat launch in time for me to do some last minute fishing while we were waiting our turn to load up. And I hooked this Blue Gill - they are pretty colored and taste good, but there is not much meat on these babies. They like the warmer water this lake offers.What perfect end to a great day!
