A recent dinner with the Stromings led to a plan to meet at Dave Verbois's cabin near Winthrop for the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Dave and Leslie were good with that. We were hoping for some flying at Goat Peak near Mazama but we'd settle for some river floating and visiting.
1 Sep, Sat - We thought we might get going Friday but I noticed a Labor Day sale at Lowes on a CU- recommended refrigerator and C.J. and I decided that we were tired of our still-running-but-rusty 1978 fridge so we bought a new, plain-vanilla, white top-freezer 20.6 cu ft refrigerator. No more repairing broken door handles! In addition to the sale price, I was eligible for the veteran's discount, so we did even better than we had hoped. [Later we got an additional 10% off when we noticed a dent in the top when the delivery guys were trying to get it in our too-narrow garage door.] Anyway, Saturday we hooked up the trailer and drove over to Twisp where I turned off the route we usually take and followed the directions of our GPS on what appeared to be a more direct route. It wasn't. There is no direct route from Twisp - we ended up driving near Pipestone Canyon and coming down the back side of Bowen Mountain, adding several more miles (and several pounds of dust) to our trip. Dave, Steve, and local pilot Seth along with Steve's son, Jeremy, were eager to get a flight in on Saturday so we headed back to Bowen and bushwhacked up to the launch
Unfortunately, the wind was too strong to fly and the direction was slightly off; fortunately, C.J. and I did not carry our wings up. Dinner was mostly provided by the Stromings who had asked the local butcher to cut some huge steaks from a hand-raised young cow. Delicious! C.J. had brought her berry-filled Queen Cake with whipped cream for dessert.
2 Sep, Sun - The pilots in the group were hoping for up-valley winds so we could fly Goat but it was not to be. Making the best of the beautiful, summer-like weather, we inflated a bunch of tubes and our Sevylor Tahiti and drove a couple of miles north of Twisp to a roadside pullout. It was pretty easy to get into the shallow, but cold Methow River there and paddle downstream. There were some really shallow places but the Tahiti floated through almost all of them getting hung up only in the very last rapid just before takeout near the Twisp public swimming pool and park. Some of the folks in the tubes got pretty chilled during the 2-mile float but when we stopped the sun warmed everyone up quickly. We all were ready for another hearty dinner and this time it was spaghetti with a big salad. Steve hiked up to the ridge above Dave's cabin and got a short flight, the only flight of the weekend.
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| Dave's front yard: Susan, Signe, G, C.J., Jeremy, Leslie, Dave, Steve |
3 Sep, Mon - Since it didn't look like it was going to be flyable, the party broke up and we decided to continue the loop by going over the North Cascades on US 20. We made a stop at the summit and walked the loop trail to great views of Liberty Bell and the Early Winter Spires. We got to Colonial Creek campground (USFS) early enough to get a site right on Thunder Arm of Diablo Lake and still have time to hike up Thunder Dome, a really nice four mile hike to a good view down the lake toward the dam.
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| C.J. at top of Thunder Knob, Diablo Lake |
4 Sep, Tue - Not being in any particular rush to get home, we packed up and then walked the mile or so up Thunder Creek trail to where the it crosses a bridge to the east bank of the creek. Back at camp we finished hitching up and then drove west stopping only for gas at Burlington Costco.
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