Fields Spring, Anatone is so remote most Washingtonians have never heard of it. Wilderness solitude came to an end after five nights at Tamarack Cabin and we drove 441km back west across WA to Orondo and the Daroga State Park on the Colombia River at Lake Entiat.
Daroga State Park is an oasis of green lawn surrounded by the desert 'scablands' of the Columbia Basin. The name Daroga comes from the first letters in the first names of the three Auvil brothers, David, Robert and Grady who founded an orchard at the park site in 1928. They developed a new type of peach and called it the Daroga Peach.
Oasis of green lawn it certainly is - with a tightly timetabled automated irrigation system (as in water sprinklers) jumping into action each day. Pitch 3's timeslot was 10:45am and regular as clockwork the cold showers came on and soaked the whole pitch for 45 minutes every day. Pablo had a lovely wash - and on the first day so did most of our Camping Gear - we sprinted to the vacant Pitch 5 and shook ourselves dry.
Didn't eat any local fruit, but we did see a very peachy coloured sky on our second afternoon. Started peachy, but as the wind picked up turned more sandy brown! Convinced there was a sandstorm a comin we battened down the hatches and watched the sky. Locals told us it was smoke from a Forest Wildfire - but not to worry - at least 20 miles away. Twenty miles! That doesn't sound far!!!
www.inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6053/ told us this was the:
Cougar Creek Wildfire
Total Firefighting Personnel: 458
Fire Size: 41,376 Acres
Percent of Perimeter Contained: 45%
Estimated Containment Date: Saturday September 15th, 2018 approx. 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved: Heavy logging slash, brush (2 feet), short grass (one foot)
Significant Events: Expect minimal fire behavior. Pockets of heavy fuels may still continue to burn. Otherwise, expect primarily smoldering with some creep possible. Expect rollouts on steeper slopes.
Fortyone Thousand Three Hundred and Seventysix Acres of fire sounds HUGE! That's over half the size of Greater London! And 458 Firefighters won't extinguish the flames until Saturday 15th September - that's six weeks away!!
At 7:00pm as we were mid BBQ (Yes! Campfires still permitted despite surrounding Forest Wildfires) sudden storm force winds hit the Campground. Our Sun Canopy yanked out the two Tentpegs holding its Guyropes down and we wrestled for ten minutes to pack it away - luckily no damage - which was more than could be said for our fellow tent campers. The RV & Trailer Brigade hid in their oversize metal boxes, oblivious to the canvas carnage being wreaked on us proper Campers!
Fortunately our Roof Tent stood firm against the onslaught, helped by the fact we'd parked close to several trees - more for shade than windbreak. Most of the other Tents on the site were flattened, suffering broken poles and ripped panels.
We offered help to two nearby families, lending them a hand plus metal bars, ropes and spare pegs to get them back up and firmly secured.
Then as suddenly as it came, the strong wind disappeared, the uncaring RV & Trailer Brigade emerged from their oversize metal boxes and we returned to Pitch 3 for our now rather sandy BBQ Dinner!
Next morning before leaving, we checked the Osprey Family atop their nesting pole - convinced the fledgling chicks would have suffered an early flying lesson - Mum & Dad Osprey must have gripped them tight as all was well up there. Scary night on the nesting pole though - RV parked below peppered with poop!!
