Mushrooms are coming up everywhere

During the week, we only have 3 or 4 campers now.  The weather has turned cooler and wet though on Saturday, there was sunshine and blue sky for the Calvary Hikers to visit for a 7 mile trek around the park.  

The vine maples are slowly beginning to change color

Mushrooms are popping up everywhere.  I don't know the names but
they have interesting shapes and sizes.  These looked like little snowballs
in the dirt.

And these looked like pancakes.

Some look upside down and they split

They work pretty hard pushing up through the undergrowth.

These have smooth round tops

Before the hikers came, I scouted out the Nason Ridge Trail Head.  The
path took me through areas of trees that fell during the bad
storm last December.  If the tops didn't snap off the trees, they
fell over from the weight of the frozen snow.

This tree had some unusual growth at some
point in its life. Was it trying to sit down?
Did another tree fall into it? Hmmmmm.

Red topped mushrooms

These look like their tops were flipped out.

These two were perfectly round with  treads!

It is amazing to me how they can push up through the dirt.

One day last week, we had our coffee break at Plain Hardware Store, about
5 miles from the park.  These two bikes stopped for gas and oil.  They were
a couple from Ferndale who had been traveling for 5 days through WA, ID
Montana.  They had been over 500 miles of dirt roads through the
back country.  There were recording their travels on a helmet camera.
What an amazing trip!

After coffee break, we drove up Merry Canyon again, looking for
Sugarloaf Lookout.  This time, we made the right turns and got to a sign for
Sugarloaf but at the next T, there wasn't any sign so we guessed.  We got up
to nearly 4000' for a peek a boo view of the mountain peaks.  We met some
hunters who gave directions that involved turning around.  The road improved
so we kept going to Eagle Creek Canyon.  Our drive made a U shape into
one canyon and out on another.  Still no Sugarloaf.

Earlier this summer, the Eagle Creek fire burned 1200 acres and a few buildings.
This is what the hillsides near the road looked like.  After the fire, we had a
deluge of rain that washed mud and ash over the road for half a mile.

Since Eagle Creek is near Leavenworth, we drove in to the Farmer's
Market looking for sweet Quincy corn.  None was to be had but there
was this colorful selection of peppers.  On Sunday, campers in #6 kindly
gave us 8 ears of tasty Quincy corn before they left. Yum!

On Saturday, my friends, the Calvary Hikers,
came over from Seattle.  We walked along
the Wenatchee River past a giant rock on
our 7+ mile trek. Here's Paul on the rock.

We stopped for lunch near the North campground play area.  The wind was
blowing impressively but still warm.  After our walk, we drove into
Leavenworth for dinner at Andreas Keller.  Here are, Betty, Boots, Marian,
Paul and Carrol.

Sunday morning, the lake was calmer but the sky was steel gray,
promising rain.

The camp store is only open on the weekends, now, so we must go have
coffee break elsewhere during the week.  On Saturday, the balloon man came
by and made these items for display at the store. .(Kitty on a flower stem; basket
of flowers; poodle and a motorcycle)

Today, we worked in the rain.  We still had sites to rake from the weekend
campers.  We often find tables with a rock left behind.  This one was
most interesting since it looks like a giant Oreo cookie.

This rock has no particular significance but why do folks leave them?

This creation was beneath a tree in one campsite.

  

Now that Fall is here, the large dumpsters are being moved to storage for
the winter and replaced with smaller cans. This is Roger waving on the tractor.
We finished our chores and went to do laundry in Plain.  Hoping for a
dryer day tomorrow so we can prune the maples on Mosquito Row.