Wrapping Up

The rain was off and on the last few days.  We pruned bushes along the campground roads, campsites and trails in between the heavier wet episodes. Only one camper in the park and a lost dog. We had seen the dog at least twice but she was too skiddish to come very close.  The owner returned to the park a few days later and managed to get the dog leashed.  On Monday evening, we visited with the couple who ran the camp store, Adrianna and William.  They are ambitious folks who have had many adventures from team truck  driving cross country for 3 years to guiding snow mobile and dog team tours, winter plowing and grooming of trails, maintaining equipment at Steven's Pass, back country camping, living in a 1968 converted bus and a host of other activities.  We liked listening to their stories. Tuesday, we had coffee in Plain and then visited with Jim and Janice who own property there.  Jim worked at Boeing with Sonny several years ago. They have a nice cabin and a huge garage for their stuff.  They hope to build there eventually but for now, it's their weekend place.  The weather cleared and we could see the valley and snow capped mountains around.  I would like to go there on a warm evening for star gazing. We all went to a last dinner at the Headwaters Tavern.

On Wednesday morning, we finished packing, met with the Ranger for our Exit Interview  and got on the road by 11 AM.  It was a little dicey getting out of the park on the rough, narrow roads but Sonny made it. I stopped to buy fresh fruit one last time and caught up with Sonny on Snoqualmie Pass for a coffee break. Rush hour through Tacoma wasn't hampered by any accidents so the traffic was rolling. After unpacking the 5th wheel, we watched all the missed episodes of "Breaking Bad" and had a sauna.  Ahhhhhh.....

We had  good time volunteering and now have many fond memories to hold in our hearts till August 2014 when we return.

Adrianna, William and Sonny.  We stayed up pretty late....

Tuesday morning on the lake.  Would have been a good kayaking day
but cold.  We took one last walk around the beach and boat launch picking
up liter.

Looking down the Wenatchee River towards the Rt 207 bridge.  Snow
level was about the 3200' level.

Pretty quiet on the beach after the clouds broke up later in the day.

The valley in Plain from Jim and Janice's place.

The peanut treat bag was about half full so Sonny dumped out the contents
which made the squirrels happy.  Now, if they can only remember where
they stored all the peanuts.

I followed Sonny out of the park in the Jeep.

The weather improved by the time we got to Leavenworth.  Autumn Leaf
Festival began the weekend before.  The trees were beginning to show
their colors along Rt 2.

The greeter at Prey's Fruit Stand.  I liked
their tasty produce.

I-90 before Snoqualmie Pass

Sonny is turning into our driveway on Westbrook Drive SW

We had a good time but we're glad to be home again!

Getting Near Time to Move Home

It's our last week in the park.  There have only been a handful of campers in the last 5 days. One night, we were the only ones here. Peaceful and quiet, just the trees whispering in the breeze. The weather has turned very wet and cold enough to snow on the peaks around the lake,  at about the 3500' level and above.  Today, when we drove by a horse ranch in Plain, every tree had a horse under it trying to stay dry.  There is a dog on the run here in the park.  It is a timid German Shepard and its owner has left it behind.  He only had it a couple of months when it managed to chew the leash in two and escape while the owners were camped here over the weekend.  It's been a couple of days and she is hungry but not willing to get close enough to us to catch.  The Ranger put out some food so we'll see if she will come near again though if we caught her, we're not sure what would happen next.

We'll be trying to finish our chores tomorrow.  There is one more trail along the river that needs pruning so if the rain lets up enough, we'll get to that in the morning and start packing up for the trip to Port Orchard on Wednesday.  We have enjoyed living here in the pine grove for 2 months and look forward to next August when we will return.

I'll make one final post later this week.

More mushrooms that look like sea urchins

It was Sonny's turn on the leaf blower to move pine needles in the parking lots

Another rock left on the picnic table. What is with that??

Even at the local coffee shop, rocks get left on the tables!

Last week, Sonny played golf and I went to explore Cashmere.  This is
the basement of an old apple packing plant that is now a junk shop.  There
was an amazing amount of stuff here.  The family has owned the shop
for nearly 40 years.  Now almost 90, the owner plans to move up to
his family retreat near the Canadian border but needs to get rid of all this
stuff.  I did find a few treasures for my garden art.

I was checking out the basement walls and
sump  pump attachments. 

It's pumpkin time at Smallwoods Farm on Rt 2.

Pumpkins on display

Mini pumpkins

These are called "swan gourds"

Colors are beginning to show on the vine maples though much later than last
September. Until recently, the nights haven't been cold enough.

Our music, motorcycle riding friends from Texas, Bill and Patricia, stopped
by for a visit on Thursday while on their road trip around WA.  We had lunch
and hugged up to the campfire to keep warm.

The Ranger asked us to remove the pink tree tags from the wood cutting
operation last winter.  In some cases, we had to stretch to reach the tags.
I was lucky there was a stump nearby to stand on.

Our camp squirrels and chipmunks are pretty tame and always wanting
a treat.  This one is looking in Sonny's pocket for another
peanut.  They know when we get up and when we are back from
chores. The squirrel would like to get into the 5th wheel where the
peanut bag is.

More fall colors

With so few campers in the wet weather, we were able to do some pruning
of the vine maples which are aggressive growers.  We have a big brush pile after
2 days of cutting. This is one of many trips we made to the pile.

My music friend, Bev, was camped nearby in Plain for a weekend of horseback
riding.  The weather was quite uncooperative but Bev bravely rode in the
rain.  She raises chickens and brought us a few fresh eggs from her coop.

Sonny made me an egg muffin sandwich for breakfast with Bev's eggs.

Bev rides the John Wayne Trail in the Spring and designed this jacket
 logofor the members.

Her horse, Sedona, grazing after a ride marking trails for the next day's event.

Last Saturday, I drove over to Seattle to catch the ferry to Bainbridge
Island to attend a wedding celebration.  View from the ferry window looking
at Seattle's Great Wheel.  The party was family fun with so much
tasty food.  There were 4 Weber grills going at once. The home was right on the beach
with views of  the weather's rainy squalls, one after another.  The power did go out
 around 4 PM. Afterwards, I drove on to Port Orchard to check on our house.
The grass and weeds are knocking themselves out to see who gets taller first.

Sunday morning, I headed back over Steven's Pass.  Though the clouds look
pretty mean here, the trip back was easier than the day before.

The peaks around the pass had snow on them.

The Head Ranger, (arms crossed in green) invited  the park staff and volunteers

to lunch on Sunday which is why I headed back to Lake Wenatchee quickly.

Didn't want to miss any treats!  We are lucky to have great leadership in the

Park.  The staff have had an unusually stressed year with the December storm

havoc and clean up lasting months, staff health issues, 2 earthquakes,

 (though small, could be foretelling of a tsunami or the lake draining all together??), 3 weekends of fishing 

season with boaters lined up at 4:30 AM for the boat launch, campers throwing knives and jumping

off the picnic tables sustaining  broken legs!  What next?  The staff took it all in stride and are still smiling.

After a big lunch, we helped to plant new trees in the day use area. 

Hard to see it here, but those long drips are actually wet snow flakes
that fell this morning.  Camping season is winding down fast.

The rain poured all night.  There was a break so we got
out to walk about picking up litter.  This is the beach looking at
Dirty Face Mountain with snow on it.

Sonny braves the cold wind to pick up litter.

The sun was in and out for a few hours.  Here, it was out which created
interesting shades of gray in the clouds behind Emerald Island.