Last full day in Stehekin

Today was our last full day and we tried to make the most of it, although the day started out rainy. We decided to go try and fish Rainbow Falls. That was a no-go, because there was so much water flowing over the falls! We couldn't get near enough to even try to cast into the upper or lower pools.

 It was fun getting out there, though. Soon the clouds cleared a bit and we rode bikes down to the Landing (first stopping at the Bakery, of course).

We had been renting bikes from Ron at Discovery Bikes and it was sooooo great to have them and tool around the valley!
In the late afternoon, Will, Rhodri and I went for a "fishing run". This is where you wear running clothes and shoes and carry a fishing pole, then run up a trail (in this case, the Rainbow Loop trail) until you get to a creek, then go fishing, then run back home.

Us 3 at the Loop trail overlook

Me fishing

The fishing runners

We got back to G-Buck's house around 6:30pm, went for plunges in Rainbow Creek, and then we were all set for dinner.

Horse riding lessons

Rhiannon had a horse riding lesson today with Nancy up at the Ranch. It was actually quite a crazy day because this morning there were mudslides in several places near the Ranch, and one of the mudslides went straight through the horse corral! It was so mudded out that we had to get a lift in a bulldozer in order to get to the lesson!

We got there in the end, and Rhiannon was a very happy girl.

  

  

 

Fishing

We've done plenty of fishing too this trip, though not much catching while we were out on the lake in Dave's boat! Yeah, Dave had invited us to come out and do some trawling on his semi-new boat so we took him up on the offer this morning.

Me, Dave, and Will

 We got totally skunked, but it was great to catch up with Dave. He always has interesting opinions and thoughts about current events and life in general, so it was great to hear the latest.

Dave and Rio

I got to drive while the boys messed around with lures

 Later in the afternoon, we went fishing out on the river and were more successful. Will and Rhodri both caught good sized trout.

Will and Rhodri

More family arrive!

Today Aunt Hobbie joined the crowd at Grandma Bucky's house. Even with all the people coming and going, the main living space has retained a calm and pleasant atmosphere with lots of reading going on, some puzzle-doing, some games, and some chatting. Perfect!

Dinner at the Ranch

It is always a treat to have dinner at the Ranch, and tonight was no different. We got there just as they were opening for the evening and we sat at the table we always seem to sit at. Rhiannon was great at looking after Phoebe (of course!).

Post-dinner relaxing at the Ranch

Rhiannon and Phoebe

 I should have taken a group photo of all of us sitting at the table, but we were too busy eating and enjoying ourselves! And when I say "we", I mean Grandma Bucky, Grandma Debi/ Mom, Will, Rebecca, Phoebe, and us 4.

Grandma Bucky and me

The Emerald Pool

This morning we took the canoes out again to visit Dave. Rhodri had left his backpack there so we had to get over and fetch it. We took the kids, Will, Laura and Lili along also! It was a lovely, calm, hazy morning (hazy from the forest fires burning nearby) and again was such a treat to be out on the water.  We got the backpack, paddled back, stopped at the Bakery for treats, and then said goodbye to Laura, Lili, Jo and Phil who left on the slow boat around 2pm.

By this time, the day was really hot - perfect conditions to make a trip up to the Emerald Pool, which is a hike and then several hundred meters of wading upstream until you reach the big fallen tree and the boulder at the entrance to Boulder Falls.

Tryfan with Lisl and Rhiannon in the background

The Emerald Pool

The Fam

The view back downstream from the Emerald Pool boulder

 It was about 10 degrees cooler once we got near the water and that felt so wonderful. There was still quite a bit of water coming down so you had to choose safe places to wade through the creek, but it was fine. Once we got up to the pool though, the waterfall was so loud and relentless that it was quite unnerving! Rhodri jumped in the water, but he said he could feel a current pulling down so that freaked the rest of us out although the kids got in a little bit with Rhods' help.

Beautiful afternoon light and Tryfan looking weird

We got back down and rode our bikes back to the house so that we could get ready for dinner up at the Ranch.

Evening on the lake

This evening the kids and Rhodri and I went over to the Nielsen's house and we all went out on their canoes to visit Dave Wilson who was camping over at Weaver's point.

Bob, Rhiannon, Maya, Eli and Tryfan

Land ahoy!

It was fun making our way over there, but actually there were quite a lot of other people visiting Dave that night too!

Dave's favorite camping spot at Weaver Point

We didn't stay for too long, but while we were there, Tryfan had a go on a paddle board. He just got on and paddle himself way out into the lake! We were keeping an eye on him and ready to dive in and help if he needed it, but he was just fine.

Tryfan on a paddleboard in the middle of Lake Chelan

 Then on our way back, the kids got to play on Bob's sailboat.

Kids and Bob on the sailboat

We got back just as it was time to start using flashlights and headlamps because it was pretty dark by then! It was a really great evening - so wonderful to be out in the middle of the water paddling around with friends.

The pesky squirrel

There is this pesky squirrel living in one of the pine trees next to Grandma Bucky's cabin, and he had been harassing the kids for the past few days by throwing pine cones down at them as they were passing underneath! He also (I say "he" because surely a female squirrel wouldn't be this mean) made a lot of loud squirrelly noises at moments when we were wishing that he wasn't quite so loud (like when Phoebe was trying to sleep). But the final straw was this morning when Rhodri found that the wool boxer shorts that he had left outside to dry had been chewed to bits by Mr. Squirrel!

Just after he found his boxers, the squirrel happened to run down his pine tree to taunt us. Rhodri threw a pine cone and it got close enough to the squirrel to give him a little fright, which made him run up the tree... but  he ran back down to a little stub of a branch that was jutting out! Rhodri threw more and more pine cones and the little dude didn't even flinch. Eventually he must have gotten bored of waiting for Rhods to hit him and he sauntered back up the tree out of sight. It was very funny though!

Changing families, still a party

Will, Rebecca, and Phoebe arrived today on the fast boat (10:30) although we weren't expecting them till tomorrow. I think that was my fault though, because I think I talked Will into coming up on Sunday even though there would be loads of people there. But when Grandma Bucky said they weren't coming til Monday, I believed her and didn't tell her otherwise. Anyway, it was a bit of a kerfuffle but ended up just fine. More is merrier!

Living room scene at dinner time (kids table)

Phil, Libby, and Ruby left today on the fast boat (at 12 noon) and we got to hang out with just Lili, Laura, Jo and Phil as well as with Will, Rebecca and Phoebe. Lili and Rhiannon and Tryfan have been all playing together really well and Lili has been so kind to them, especially since she is a few years older and wiser!

Brucie Bonus

It is so nice to see Bruce "Brucie Bonus" the truck again. It is even better to ride around in the back of Bruce, as we can do while we are in Stehekin. Big up to G-Buck for upcycling the canvas wrap of her old tipi into the couch cover on the back of Bruce!

Typical view from the back of Bruce

PS. He is called Brucie Bonus because of all his bonus features.. like the magnetic roof, the radio and CD player (both gone now), the sliding window through to the bed, the bumper full of faded and/or ripped bumper stickers, the tail gate that usually works, and the 2 doors that can be opened from inside or outside! (Most cars and trucks in Stehekin do not have this feature, by the way.)

A perfect day, part 2

When we got back from our Bridge Creek canyon adventure, we all got showered and cleaned up, then had dinner together. Dinner was especially early tonight because it happened to be the day of the 1st Annual (at least in a long time) Buckner Orchard Square Dance! The whole thing was organized by the BHHF (Buckner Homestead Heritage Foundation), which means that Jo and Herb were the main ones doing everything, and it was really well attended with over 160 people!

It was a really fun night with a good mix of tourists and locals and it was all free and very wholesome. The live band was called "The Chelanigans" and they were very good, as was the caller.  

Lily and Rhiannon had a great time dancing together

Moon rise during the dance

We did have one very funny moment when Grandma Bucky got so annoyed watching Libby and I as partners mess up our square dancing that she came over and gave us a telling off! She didn't realize that the trouble was with Doug who was going on by me rather than doing an alaman left (where you go all the way around and then go the opposite direction). Anyway, we did laugh about it later!
Thanks to Nancy Barnhart for taking most of these lovely photos!

A perfect day, Part 1

Phil and Libby had kindly waited until Rhodri and I arrived before they set off on a big day up Bridge Creek Canyon. This is a famous and much-loved fishing spot in my family, and it has been many years since I've been up there. We used to be able to drive to Bridge Creek campground and leave the truck there for the day while we did just a little hike before thrashing through the brush down a very steep slope to get to the spot. But now the road has washed out and not been rerouted, we had a bigger hike to do. That was fine with me, especially since we have done a lot of sitting-type traveling the past few days.

We were delighted to see that this year's crop of huckleberries was marvelous with big, fat, juicy berries waiting for us to come along!

We finally got down to the creek and fished for a few short hours before heading back. The trout in this part of the creek seemed to be quite hungry and it was really fun to catch them while wading in the cool water. We put most of them back, but kept 5 to take home for breakfast the next day.  This day was particularly smoky and hot, but there wasn't anything we could do about that.

The other exciting thing that happened is that some of us saw a mother black bear and her 2 cubs! Rhodri spotted her and the cubs directly across from the creek to where Phil was fishing (though he hadn't noticed yet!). She didn't seem too bothered about Rhodri or Phil, and Libby was already up the hill picking berries again while I was still fishing lower down the creek, so neither of us saw the bears anyway. But it was pretty exciting!

Phil's fishing spot directly across from the bears

 In the end, we had hiked 13 miles, caught loads of fish, picked enough berries to make something yummy, and also were able to spend the hiking and berry picking hours having good conversations and generally catching up with each other's lives. Like I said, a perfect day! But this day was not yet over...

Destination: Stehekin

This morning we got up nice and early so that we could take advantage of the hotel breakfast and get to the boat on time. We had a few tense moments as we were scanning the local dumpsters looking for a cardboard box to put our groceries in, and then there was some confusion about where to park, but we got there in the end! We had a leisurely trip uplake playing card games, reading, and having snacks from the snack bar (always a treat on this 4 hour trip up to Stehekin).

We staked our favorite spot in the bow of the Lady II

It was a beautiful, warm day and we were so glad to be finally getting up to Stehekin. I always love the point in the journey when the brown, chunky hills merge into the taller, greener, more dramatic mountains.

Making the final approach to Stehekin

We saw my good friend Robbie and also Grandma Bucky sitting at the Landing waiting for the boat to arrive. Rhiannon ran off the boat and gave Robbie a big hug first (she was closer) and so did I, while the rest of us went straight over to Grandma Bucky. We would have loaded all the stuff into "Bruce" (the truck), but because there were so many of us, we didn't think we would all fit and so we put the luggage into "The Meth Lab" (the van which Christine was driving) and then we all went straight to the Bakery for lunch. This is exactly what is supposed to happen when one arrives into Stehekin.

There was a great crowd at Grandma Bucky's cabin: Jo, Phil, Laura and Lily Reiter; Phil, Libby and Ruby Gans; Grandma Bucky; and now us five! We spent the afternoon playing Boggle on the back deck (Laura beat us all hands down!) and enjoying beverages before having a lovely dinner.