Stehekin is a tiny town located at the top of Lake Chelan, and you can't get there by car, only by ferry, float plane, or hike. Sky's dad and stepmom have a house they have built up there, and we love to visit every chance we get. Peregrine made his first visit for about a week when he was 3 weeks old, with Grandma Biddy and ourselves. We thought we'd take advantage of the long weekend to get away for a bit, and were joined by our friends Sarah and Eric and Scout, with whom we went to the Methow Valley last winter.
We left Friday afternoon to head over Steven's Pass on Highway 2 to Chelan, WA, located the bottom end of Lake Chelan. The ferry only goes up-lake in the morning, but we also can't rely on having a non-stop three-hour car ride with a one-year-old in a car seat, so we went over Friday and camped that night at 25-Mile Creek State Park, which is a nice little campground on the shore of Lake Chelan. Setting up in the dark was not terribly fun, but it was better than the alternative.
We were in Stehekin from Saturday through Tuesday, and had a great time. I don't think I have a long enough nap time for Peregrine to recap the whole thing, so I'll grab the highlights:
- Wow, there were a lot of mosquitoes. I have never seen so many mosquitoes in Washington State, much less Stehekin. They were ferocious. That was an unpleasant surprise. I came home looking like I had been used as a pincushion. It was astounding.
- We (and by "we" I mean Eric and Sky) cleaned out the flue for the wood stove. This was perhaps a messier proposition than they were prepared for. Ultimately, it went well, but it resulted in creosote all over lots of things all weekend. Including babies. Creosote is also quite sticky. This was fun!
- Quite a bit of hiking and walking around in the valley. Since the babies have to endure sitting in their packs on the trail, we tried to keep it to manageable journeys but still managed to do about 7 miles of the Rainbow Loop trail which goes up from the valley floor, as well as quick hike to Rainbow Falls and also a short ways up Agnes Creek. Lots of beautiful hiking up there, you can pretty much get to whatever you might want to see, and some of the views are just stupendous.
- Enjoyed lots of good food which we packed in with us for minimal prep in the cabin (cooking resources being somewhat at a premium). Duck ragu, asian hoisin-garlic pulled pork, tasty cheeses and olives...let me tell you, if you're going to head into the woods, it's a good idea to go with other foodies. We did not lack for delicious eating.
- It took Peregrine a couple meals to learn how to defend his plate from Scout, but by the end of the weekend he was picking off her olive pieces when she wasn't paying close enough attention.
- Peregrine and Scout both think very highly of not having to ride in a carseat, even at only 15-20 mph, and Peregrine loves to stick his head out the window like a dog. Very cute. Not having a carseat makes momma's job a lot more complicated, though, and both moms began to recognize some of the virtue of having something else to hold a squirming one year old as you're driving along.
- There are bears up there, both black and supposedly grizz. We saw signs of them in both tree markings and scat. Right by the cabin. That had us a little worried, but we never saw any bears.
- Neither baby burned themselves on the wood stove! Both of them understood it was hot and managed to avoid it.
- We had two "cutest-ever" moments this trip. They both took place at Stehekin Ranch, where we had our last dinner (they have a restaurant-type meal every night). The first was the sweetest hug you ever did see, where Peregrine walked up to Scout with arms wide open and they leaned in for a hug. Pip even did his little pat pat motion and they had a little kiss. It was so sweet it made your teeth hurt! They repeated this a few minutes later. I can't even begin to describe how cute this was.
This was after Scout had tried to hug Peregrine earlier that day only to be rebuffed by a hand waving and "no" from him. (Saying "no" is something he learned just last week, we think from day care, and he managed to teach Scout over the weekend.)
Later that same evening we were walking around the Ranch looking at the horses and ponies after dinner. There was some laundry drying on the line next to the field, and Peregrine and Scout thought it was the BEST THING EVER to chase each other around and tackle the laundry. I don't think we've ever seen Peregrine play like that, and Eric and Sarah said the same thing about Scout. They just ran and ran and laughed and laughed and flopped through the laundry over and over. They were clearly playing with each-other in and around the wash, which was also a first from our perspective. They also would have been perfectly happy to continue for an hour or more, except they were getting tired and falling down more and more often, so we unfortunately had to cut them short a bit. But, I tell you, they were in absolute bliss, and it cracked up the parents just to watch.
All told it was a great weekend of fun and relaxing. It wasn't until the last day that we were all feeling that we were beginning to acclimate to the slowed-down pace of Stehekin and we wished we could have stayed for a full week, but, well, them's the breaks, I suppose. We very much enjoyed what we had and look forward to more in the future!
