We hung around the house for a while and I asked Ben if they wanted to go with me to get two state park caches within 50 miles of here. They said sure but after the small burn pile Josh needed to do first. He had a bunch of stuff he had to burn up or Sam would get mad at him if he didn't. We ended up burning two bags of stuff while we visited and Ben and Josh went over potential interview questions.
I gathered everything we might need, we put socks and shoes on and headed out to the first one just a little north of Chelan in Pateros, Alta Lake State Park. But first we stopped by BC MacDonald's for some ice cream. It was tasty.
Alta Lake State Park, was named after a jeweler's daughter in 1900. The city of Pateros gave the property to the state to make it into a state park in 1951. In 2014 the Carlton Complex fire destroyed most of the park, which forced it to close for about five weeks. Cleaning it up is still on going. Last year's fire just prolonged the clean up efforts.
We followed the road up a hill and into a well manicured residential area and golf course. I totally thought this place would be more isolated than this. I guess not. We parked the Escape and got out. At this point we were already sun burned so we just went with it. I gave the GPS to Ben and we followed him down to the shore of the lake. There was a trail that followed the shoreline but we didn't realize the cache, WaStatePks100: Alta Lake (GC4B7G0) was over near the dock, a place that wasn't black and crispy. We had to tip toe over basically a river coming from a waterfall that probably isn't here most of the year, luckily there were rocks to hopscotch on. I got to the dock first while Ben and Josh came up from the rear with a small family.
When I arrived at the cache I had no idea where it was so I just started blindly looking in places. I checked the dock first and there it was, the search was short. I had it out of underneath the dock, opened, signed and my passport stamped all by the time the boys got there. I explained to Josh why this series was unique and showed him what exactly we do when we find a cache. The view from the dock of the lake was spectacular. I'd like to come back some day and camp here, granted that it hasn't burnt down all the way by the time we make it back.
We got back into the Escape and headed towards Bridgeport State Park just 20ish miles east of Pateros and Brewster along US 97 and Hwy 17. It felt like it took forever because it followed the bend in the Columbia River, people entertained themselves on their phones and these were long stretches of highway. I saw the Chief Joseph Dam and the sign welcoming us to Bridgeport State Park. We followed the Nuvi to the parking coords.
WaStatePks100: Bridgeport (GC4B4QN) gave us the run around. The GPS could not decide which "haystack" to direct us towards. It got frustrating and eventually we searched three of the rock formations until we found the cache. Again, we signed our names and stamped our passport and headed back to the Escape. We made our way back towards Chelan for dinner and it was going to take us about an hour to get back. In the meantime Bob started burgers on the grill.
We got back just in time to help Bob prepare food. We made beans, had potato chips and some of the veggies from the previous night along with the burgers. It was tasty. We relaxed a bit, got caught up with the TV, they were playing the entire Matrix trilogy that night and we caught the tail end of the second movie and started watching the third. Ben wanted to leave Chelan around 8. So I started packing up our stuff and putting it in the Escape. He lost track of time and we ended up staying way past 10:00 and it was a four hour drive and we still had to get gas.
We thanked Josh and Bob for letting us hang out with them for the weekend and said our goodbyes. We got gas at the Safeway before we left town. We had a few discussions about our upcoming schedules and our new jobs. Instead of being overwhelmed by the large trip we had ahead of us, I broke it down into smaller chunks, just to make it bearable since we were both tired. I didn't trust Ben driving at night since he has fallen asleep while I've been in the car with him before.
We stopped in Cashmere to see if any convenience stores were open to grab a 5 hour energy. I had forgotten most of these towns in Eastern Washington close after 5. We continued on until we got to Cle Elum again. One gas station was open so I sent Ben in with some money and he came back with a berry flavored 5 hour energy and a bottle of water. We diluted the liquid and both took a couple of sips. It helped.
The drive was pretty uneventful through I-90 to I-5 and the trip south.
We finally got to Rochester around 2:30 and I dropped Ben and his stuff off. I helped him bring it inside. We said our goodbyes and I headed home. I got home around 3 and brought some stuff in, brushed my teeth and went to bed. I was exhausted.
At least we got some sun!
The drive was pretty uneventful through I-90 to I-5 and the trip south.
We finally got to Rochester around 2:30 and I dropped Ben and his stuff off. I helped him bring it inside. We said our goodbyes and I headed home. I got home around 3 and brought some stuff in, brushed my teeth and went to bed. I was exhausted.
At least we got some sun!
No comments:
Post a Comment