Blogs from Chelan, Washington, United States, North America

Today was essentially a boat day. There are only two boats a day going up the Lake - a fast one and a not so fast. One would only give an hour at the destination so we chose the fast one up and the slow one back to give us 3 hours in Stehekin which still isn't enough but the best option. The Lake is a long 90 kilometres so we opted to drive up to Fields Point and catch it there saving an hour of the journey. When I consider the steep sided lake, they have an amazingly good road to 25 miles up then nothing from there on. It is wide and paved and certainly an improvement on what we're used to around our national parks. At Fields Point we joined the boat which ... read more

We started our day with a trip into Chelan to view some of the history of the area at the Museum. It is a small museum, well presented, and documenting much of what we have experienced in the colonisation of New Zealand with mining, logging and horticulture development but also including the Indian and trapping history. The latter were the major differences for us. There were Indian clothes made of animal skins, furs and beading. A huge collection of arrow heads and implements showed their stone age development and their local history in the area. On the immigrant side the fur trapping, guns, lake history were the major differences. The later history around 1900 onwards showed the development of the fruit industry followed by wine. More later on this. When you want a real coffee as ... read more

We had a comfortable night in our lovely room looking out over the Leavenworth Valley along the Wenatchee River. After an excellent breakfast of lemon soufflé, nectarines, grapes, sausage, fruit juice and coffee we said farewell to our most hospitable hostess at the Rohrbach B&B and headed down to the town of Leavenworth for a good look around. Even though the town has been created specifically for the purpose of reviving it, it has a most authentic German theme and obviously brings in huge crowds for the various festivals it holds. Three times it was voted Christmas Town of the year for the US. We left around midday and headed off towards Wenatchee, a town of 32000 along the Columbia River. We were surprised to find that along the entire route were vineyards and orchards of ... read more

Driving along the Columbia River staring at the white-capped peaks of the Cascade mountains was a beautiful way to start the morning. I met Joe at the launch by 6:30 and we were fishing by 7. It was a slow start for the first 2 hours, but I enjoyed taking in the scenery, learning how Lake Chelan was formed, and hearing Joe's story. Nearly 2 hours into our trip, we finally got a bite and I landed what ended up being the biggest fish of the day - 7 1/2 lbs. We caught a total of 9 and kept 7. I gave one to Joe, packed up 4 to take with me to Holden, and Joe will smoke the other 2 and have them ready for me to pick up on Memorial Day. After the adrenaline ... read more