The Rimrock Lake Pouchers

One of my favorite memories of spending summers with Grandma and Grandpa Plank were our trips to Rimrock Lake in the Naches National

Forest not far from Mt. Ranier, Washington.

The rustic cabin they owned had one bedroom and us kids slept in the loft above. A cozy fireplace was in the combination front room and kitchen.

In the kitchen were two stoves. A wood burning stove with a plate warmer on one end and an electric stove. Grandma preferred cooking on the wood burning one and her meals were marvelous. She said cooking on the word burning stove remineded her of her childhood.

During the day my sisters and me would feed the Pouchers. What is a Poucher you ask? It’s actually a Golden Mantel Ground Squirrel but looks more like a large chipmunk. You will be able to tell the differences in the photos below.  

So why are these squirrels called Pouchers? Because their cheeks bulge when filled with food like peanuts and catalope. When they can’t cram anymore food into their mouths they then run to their burrows, empty their pouches, and come running back to us for more goodies.

The chipmunks are smaller than the Golden Mantel Squirrels and their noses are more pointed. There are other differences that you will see when you compare the pictures.

Not able to fill their cheeks as fully as the Pouchers can the chipmunks grab one half of a peanut and scurry away. They also weren’t as tame as the Pouchers so wouldn’t climb onto our laps or shoulders like you see in Mary’s photo and mine. Oh, Mary’s photo was taken in June of 1961 and mine in June of 1962 and I was so thrilled to find them among a box of old family photos that my daughter Katie wound up with.

Warning!

When feeding little critters like these do not hold out a single peanut with you fingers. The tips of our fingers look like a peanut to them and they would have no problem biting down on the tenderest part of our fingers.

I made that mistake feeding a grey squirrel at Walter Reed Hospital

and had to have a tetanus shot. 

This is a photo of the Golden Mantle Ground Squirrel.

Both the Poucher and the chipmunk have the white stripes bordered by black fur.   

And here is a chipmunk. They are very similar looking but the Poucher is often twice as large. Where I see a difference is the striping along the chipmunks cheeks and behind its eye. There are no stipes on the Poucher’s face. The top of the Poucher’s ears are more rounded it seems.

The photo below shows Mary, my twin and older sister (by 8 minutes), with Poucher on her thigh. See how big his cheeks are? The little fellow and my sister have been at this for a while, it seems.

No doubt other campers and visitors to Rimrock Lake fed these little guys and made them tame enough to hop onto us, sit on our shoulders, and come begging for the treats we had for them.

 This Poucher wouldn’t take the peanut from my mouth this time. But it wasn’t long before he cooperated.

Grandpa’s Surprise

A year or so before these photos were taken by Grandma Plank the three of us kids made our first trip to the lake and their cabin. What a beautiful area of Washington State.

We played outside until it was getting on toward dusk and suddenly out of the cabin come Grandma and Grandpa with jackets on and jackets and sweaters for us. The lake’s altitude is around 2500 feet so it did get cool at night.

“I have a surprise for you kids,” Grandpa said. “Hop in the car and I’ll show you.”

Well, who doesn’t like surprises? So in the car we go and Grandpa drives out of the Yakima Boat Club area and turns right onto the gravel road. Now I remembered that we had come up that same road from the opposite direction so I had no idea where he was taking all of us.

We drove for a little while and I could no longer stand the suspense so I asked Grandpa, “Where are we going, Grandpa? All I see are trees.”

“I’m taking you guys to the dump,” he answered.

What! Now I knew that we hadn’t seen either of them put sacks of garbage in the trunk of the car so why would anyone take three kids to a garbage dump.

“Just be patient all of you. You’ll see and we are almost there now,” Grandpa added.

Turning right again onto a one lane dirt road Grandpa stopped the car. “OK, from here we are going to creep in with no lights on. Everyone be quiet but keep your eyes straight ahead,” he directed.

Why would Grandpa do this? Can you guess?

So the car is just barely moving forward and we are all straining our eyes into what has now become night time. Oooh, it really got dark fast.

Then he stops the car and again whispers to us not to make any sounds. And then Grandpa turns on the headlights.

Oh my goodness! There are wild animals all around a huge mound of garbage all seeking out their dinner.

The three of us are bumping shoulders trying to see between the two adults up front. (There were no seat belts in our cars back in the early 1960’s.) I see a black bear off to the left and we see porcupines and skunks and deer. Oh, there goes a fox! A deer turns its head to look at us and then goes back to searching for food.

Georgia, the youngest sister, is so excited she is bouncing on the seat and really having a hard time staying quiet. OK, we all are, I’m sure.

So this smorgasboard of stinking garbage is a windfall to these forest animals. And they search out food probably every night and irregardless of the larger animals who are probably higher on the food chain then they are.

This was truly an amazing site to see. We sat there just amazed for a good 20 to 30 minutes and then Grandpa slowly backed out and took us back to the cabin. He was grinning ear to ear and loving our reactions to “his surprise”.  And so was Grandma. She said that every year they come out here to see what the animals are up to and how many different kinds they can identify.

Now we could talk and boy did we. Did you see the Bobcat? No. Where? It was on top of the garbage up on the right side. And on and on we went sharing what we saw with each other. What was that animal with the furry tail and squat body? Grandpa said it could have been a badger but since it was facing the garbage we couldn’t see its face.

We all loved Grandpa’s surprise. And we loved staying at the cabin watching the Blue Jays and Robber Jays pecking at the cantalope and watermelon rinds that Grandma put out for them. We loved watching deer saunter down to the lake in the evenings from the back deck and how the wind sang through the trees. And we especially loved feeding the Pouchers.