October, 2021
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving Day.
Now let’s get back to the last day or two of my camping trip to Ike Kinswa State Park near Mossyrock, WA.
Almost my last morning here, this was such a simple, quiet morning. I slept in and then didn’t do much at all. All I did this morning after a late breakfast was go for a little walk near my campsite, on a trail through the trees, then through another part of the campground, and then along the shoreline of Mayfield Lake, just a brief little walk to see the forest and the lake and the sky, nothing spectacular (although the country side hereabouts is spectacular, especially this autumn).
When the trail through the woods (above) ended, I walked out into an open area and found this (below) inside another part of the campground … more picnic/day-use areas and more campsites.
I stood there for a bit so I could enjoy it … and then I noticed the two people who were in that green grassy field above …
The one on the left was checking me out, but she soon lowered her head and continued eating. The one on the right was a bit nervous but eventually decided I was no threat.
I continued with my walk, walking through this other part of the campground and found some wonderful campsites right on the lake. Here are my favorites.
#14 (below) and its view (2nd photo below) of the lake. You can see its picnic table near the lake.
#16 (below) and its view of the lake … right on the lakeshore!
#18 (below) and its view of the lake.
Every one of these campsites was “pull-through” … no backing in, just pull through onto a small side road, level the trailer, plug into electricity, unhitch the trailer from the truck, and you’re home!
So I made note of these favorites for a future visit. And then I continued on my walk and came upon a perfect trail. It took me through more woods and then along the very edge of the lake.
I wanted to climb down onto that small piece of beach above, but the plants and logs (and an old, damaged wood ladder) made me change my mind. So I started to walk on by, but I kept hearing “huffing” and small water-splashing noises. I was in no hurry. I stopped and turned and looked around on the beach and in the bushes for some mammal or bird. I also looked out onto the lake … nothing but logs and stumps out there (below).
Wait a minute!! There is one stump out there in the photo above, but the other “spots” weren’t stumps. They were otters, river otters. And they were having fun!
There were four or five of them (they kept diving so it was hard to count them). For 28 years of my adult life, I’d been around river otters when I was on one or the other of my boats, especially when I anchored in small coves around the edges of Puget Sound (yes river otters live in salt water too). So, as during other encounters, here on the shore of Mayfield Lake, I started to “huff!” right along with them. “Huff!” I would say. And they would “huff!” back at me, and then they came closer to shore to look at me.
They swam in circles and played around each other, and watched me and huffed at me, coming yet closer to the beach and the trail where I stood.
Look at the otter on the right in the photo above. I loved how its body and tail swirled in the water. So I enlarged the photo and it is here below, maybe a little out of focus, but you can clearly see the long body with all that hair and then the narrow tail swirling around behind as this otter swims and spins and huffs and plays with me.
I stayed there, moving back and forth just a few feet on the path, huffing any time one of them surfaced. They had a ball, they had a blast with me. They swam in circles, dove, resurfaced, I huffed, they huffed back, they dove and resurfaced somewhere else, then they huffed and I huffed back. I also tilted my head back just like they did, and then they started lifting themselves part way up out of the water when they huffed at me.
We kept at this for many minutes … maybe 15 minutes? or more? Finally, two of them climbed up onto an old dead log that was stuck on a rock, about 20 feet away from me. They both stayed there quite a while, not loudly huffing now, but softly snuffling, and so I did that back to them too.
Ah but eventually, when they realized I was not going to go swimming with them (brrrr!), they swam slowly off. I waited until they were out of sight and then I walked away along the trail.
I headed back to Towhee the Trailer for a bite of lunch. On my walk back to my campsite and my trailer, I wondered if humans ever do swim with river otters. It sure seems like it would be a fun thing to do. I hope I see these folks again.
Seeing and interacting with those otters was a highlight of this camping trip. When I started my walk this morning, I never would have guessed that I would see otters, much less have such a personal interaction with them. One can’t always know how a walk or an entire camping trip or anything else in life will turn out. A book I read recently had a boy and a horse talking with each other as they stood on a hill looking a long, long way away at a far distant horizon. The boy said “how do I get to where I’m going? it’s so far away.” The horse said, “Just step out … don’t worry about the horizon, it will take care of itself.” This morning there were otters on my horizon!