Friday morning (the 4th of July), Chuck, Chris, Charlie, Rafael, Clara, Vincent and Kayo packed our hiking gear and board games into two vehicles and drove east on US hwy 2. We drove for 3 hours until we arrived at the south east end of Lake Chelan--a 55 mile long glacier fed lake that is surrounded by the Cascade Mountains. Once there, we parked our cars and boarded the Lady Cat, a 55-mph catamaran ferry that was to take us to the opposite end of the lake. The boat bounced along through the slightly choppy waters for about 1-1/2 hours (makes a couple stops) before depositing us in the remote Stehekin Village.
Stehekin Village is home to about 66 residents, and is frequented by 200 hikers and campers per week during the summer months. Not connected to the outside world by highways, visitors arrive to Stehekin by boat, float-plane, or hike of 12 miles or more. We checked into our suite and proceeded on a 4 mile hike to work our appetites up for dinner. That night after an okay meal at the lodge's restaurant, we shared a bottle of wine, a wedge of cheese and played pictionary (except for Charlie--he's too young for pictionary) until the darkness fell. There were no fireworks and the evening was pleasantly quiet. Some of us fell asleep thinking of Vincent's offer to buy breakfast for anyone who was willing to brave a body-immersing morning swim in the 50 degree glacial waters.
Chuck would like to report that he was the only one who didn't chicken out of the Saturday morning swim. He'd like to report that, but he can't because he would be lying. None of us got the free breakfast. But we did wake up in time for showers and a ride to the trail head of the Coon Lake trail. On the way there we stopped at a bakery for cinnamon rolls and coffee. Moments later, back in the bus, alerted by Vincent Van Acker we spied a black bear roaming through the forests along the side of the road. The retired school bus from Flint Michigan chugged along to the trail head. At the Coon Lake trail-head our crew was joined on the hike by a helpful park-ranger Kerry Olsen who charged us nothing, but had us all sticking our noses in the cracks of ponderosa pine tree bark to smell the vanilla-like scent. She pointed out various species of plants, animal droppings, and had us tasting pine needles and hugging trees. After a mile and a half and only 500 feet of vertical gain we came to the end of the trail. We spent a half-hour alongside Coon Lake before we began the return via another route, which is where we spotted bear number 2 lumbering through the forest 20 feet away from the trail. Kerry reminded us that the mother would be near and that we should stop calling the baby bear names--lest we anger the mother. We heeded her wisdom.
We caught the bus back to Stehekin Village, which stopped at a waterfall and the bakery again, in time to catch the Lady of the Lake II. Five of us came ashore at Lucerne, WA, while Vincent and Kayo continued to Chelan and then on to Seattle. From Lucerne we rode another retired school bus (this one manufactured by Thomas) 12 miles up dozens of dusty switchbacks to the Lutheran Mecca of Holden, WA. A former copper mining town set amid beautiful surroundings that had been transferred to the religious group for retreats in 1957. The bus driver--still chewing the same toothpick he had in his mouth when he dove from the top of the bus into the waters along the dock--stopped the bus just outside of town to tell us "the rules". Shortly thereafter The Richter Family (which Holden had expanded to accomodate RaPHael and Clara) was informed by the shoeless German woman running the registration that there were no keys to our room, nor were there keys to any of the doors in Holden Village. We were to appear at the orientation session the next day (although we'd be long gone by then).
At 3:45pm on Saturday, we dropped our gear in the room and commenced eating ice-cream cones, which were only available until 4pm. This was important because we would have to wait until 5pm for the pizza feed (sporting meat and Vegan pizza). After gorging ourselves on pizza and fresh cherries, Chris, Rafael, Clara and Chuck with Charlie on his back proceeded on a 1-1/2 hour hike to see another waterfall. The handicap accessable hike featured an interpretive booklet and signs with numbers indicating such important sights as ponderosa pines, tailings dams, and rocks. Chuck commented at the beginning of the hike, "We'll never see a wheelchair making it up this path!" He was wrong.
Per the suggestion of some passing hikers, The Richter Family skipped vespers and proceeded to the abandoned mining facilities and the still functioning mining museum. Signs indicated the cyanide contamination generated by the leaching process which separated the important minerals from the ore. With all the rock samples, Charlie was inspired to ask the question, "Wasss That??" several times. Chuck took off his boots and scratched his feet and somehow came away with a skin blister. Chris thinks it might be the flesh-eating bacteria disease. Chuck reminded Chris that she studied Optometry. It could be a spider bite.
Returning to the village proper, we proceeded to the bowling alley where we engaged in the sport called--you guessed it-- Billiards. Bowling was off-limits because the floor above was hosting a comedy show and the noise of the crashing pins would be unacceptable. The bowling alley did not serve--you guessed it--beer. Why couldn't it have been a Catholic Village!? Some of us played Billiards, some didn't. Later, standing up for catholicism amid the dyed-in-the-wool Lutherans, we drank our boot-legged wine, said our prayers and then went to sleep.
After Sunday morning breakfast (even after all the schooling they've had) Clara and Chris were intrigued by the possibility of teaching themselves the art of basket-weaving, and the ever popular underwater-basket-weaving. So, while Chuck read a book and favored his still-burning ankle, the others did a bit of hiking and then weaved (Clara a useful basket, and Chris a decorative flat square). When the weaving was done, we ate lunch and caught the bus out of town. The bus returned us to the Lady of the Lake II affectionately known as the Slowest Boat in The World. Playing Taboo and drinking beer made the trip back to Chelan seem like it was only four hours, when in fact it was four hours and five minutes. Disembarking the boat, we retreived the Jeep and then began the 3 hour return home.
|
|
|
|
|