Cammy, Gerry, Reed and Spring: To Stehekin

In early July, we took an amazing sailboat trip from the family cabin on Lake Chelan all the way to Stehekin! The day we arrived at the lake, we started prepping the boat for the trip. Gerry arranged beds for R and S on the boat. At that point we weren't sure whether we were going to try to sleep in the boat or in our tent. Here's Spring in her little bed.

And here's Reed in his bed. As it turned out, we didn't wind up sleeping in the boat, but it was nice for each kid to have their own little place to hang out and play.

There was LOTS of excitement the night before we left. And if I'm honest, I have to say, there were some nerves too. The kids don't always like to stay above deck on the sailboat, and I was dreading spending the entire trip below deck. I think Gerry was probably nervous too. He really wanted to make sure we all enjoyed ourselves!

But soon, we were on our way. It didn't take Reed long to discover that peeking out the hatch was his favorite way to take in the view.

We stopped to take a little walk along the way. We saw tons of butterflies on this trip, they were especially thick here. Somebody had spilled something sweet by the dock and there were dozens of butterflies attracted to it. By the time we were back from our little walk, most of the butterflies had gone.

And after about eight hours of motoring, we found our home for the night. R and S were definitely ready to get off the boat and play. There was just enough beach there for them to be able to throw rocks. :)

And we had a gorgeous view!

Reed found a pile of ash left from somebody cleaning out the firepits. That kid LOVES kicking dust around and making "smoke". It looked cool, but we had to tell him to stop, it was getting everywhere!

The next morning, we went and checked out the creek (Prince Creek?) that was a short walk from our campsite. It had very obviously jumped channels recently. There were large trees that were now in the middle of the fast flowing creek and a dry creek bed just a short distance away.

And then, we were on our way again. One of the fun things we did on the boat was watch for waterfalls and we saw a lot of them. It was a pretty short boat ride (2 hours?) till we reached Weaver Point where we would camp for the night. We motored again as there was not a breath of wind. If you know much about Lake Chelan, then you'll know that's pretty unusual.

I love this picture! Spring had passed out for a late afternoon nap in my arms and I love that you can see Reed in the background fishing. We had seen some little fish (juvenile trout?) swimming around the dock and he was determined to catch one. Someday we'll tell him that he was fishing with an open swivel instead of a hook. We just didn't have the means to prepare a fish and didn't have any barbless hooks to catch and release. Anyway, he just looks so focused.

R and S had lots of fun playing on the beach.

You can tell by their clothes that it wasn't super warm there. Partly we were in the shade in the afternoon, but it also wasn't all that hot for most of the trip. Quite pleasant. :)

Then as early as we could get out the next day, we went over to Stehekin and tied up at the marina there.

Then, we rented two bikes and a trailer and headed off. Our first stop was the old Stehekin school house. Seeing all the pictures of previous classes in there kind of made me want to move to Stehekin.

Then we went up to Rainbow Falls. Apparently this was way more water than it usually has. It's hard to capture the full extent of the falls in a picture, but it was beautiful! And cold! Reed and Spring didn't want to stay there long!

Then, we biked a little further to Harlequin camp along the Stehekin River, a lovely grove of cedars.

By the time we left, it was starting to get hot and I was glad for every bit of hurrying we had done in the morning to get over to Stehekin. I think we went so far as to get the kids dressed and feed them breakfast on the ride over. You can't do that in a moving car!

We stopped at the famous Stehe.kin bake.ry for lunch on our way back. Not sure why I didn't take any pictures of it, but it definitely lived up to its reputation!!

When we got back to camp in the afternoon, it was hot and I had gotten cranky about something or other, so I decided to do something I never do, I jumped in the lake! I'm normally an ease in and hoot and holler kind of gal, but I knew I needed to do something big to change my mood and that easing in was not going to do it. It changed my mood instantly! I went in cranky and seconds later I was gasping and laughing!! I didn't tell G what I was doing because I was afraid if I talked about it, I would chicken out, so he was quick to have gotten this picture! And can I just mention how much colder the lake water is so close to the source? BRRR!

The plan for the next day was to get about halfway back to the cabin and camp again. We motored to Lucerne to visit a friend of Gerry's uncle and take a break. As we were there though, the wind started picking up. We made a bee-line for the boat so that we could actually SAIL in the sailboat! Everybody was having a great time and we were making good time, so we didn't bother to check out the first camps we passed. Then, as we started looking for places to stop, all the campgrounds were full, or only had hot, dusty spots available. At a certain point, we just decided to go all the way home! The kids got a bit tired of being on the boat, especially because it was rocking pretty hard in the wind and waves. I wound up letting them watch movies for a few hours in the ip.ad. It meant that I spent quite a bit of time below deck, but mercifully, I could see the hills out the small cabin windows so that I didn't get seasick.

It made for a long day (9 hours?) in the boat, but I think we were all glad to be back to the cabin. And coming home early meant that we got to be there for an extra day which was really nice. I think we would have been exhausted if we had come back from the sailing trip one day and packed up and driven home the next.