Winthrop to Chelan

[T.Low]

Jen has a family vacation (including her parents, siblings, and one niece/nephew variety pack), every year. This year, its a week on Lake Chelan, a beautiful 55 mile long lake in the mountains of eastern Washington.

I, of course, have to work during the week, so the idea was for me to drive down Friday, hang all weekend, then bolt back over the pass west to Bellingham and go to work all week, then bolt back over the pass east next Friday nite for the remainder of the weekend, then drive her home. Its best that the in-laws only get small doses of me at a time.

The is not just in the "staying" but in the "travelling" too, as we all know. So...

The most scenic route over the pass in my opinion is Hwy 20, the northern most route that actually closes all winter due to snow fall. Jerry told me that if I go ahead and take Hwy 20 to Winthrop, we could take fire service roads south thru the mountains 100 miles to Chelan, and most of it unpaved.

Friday nite we arrived in Winthrop. After hours you can still use your credit card to fuel up at the Texaco. Ya gotta love these modern times we live in. We followed Jerry's directions into the night for a short while just to get out and away, until we found a nice little clearing off a 2 tracker, slid out the Guacho couch (and slept.

Saturday, we awoke to the morning bird chatter, cool mountain air, and sunshine trying to pry apart the forest canopy. Decided to make a B-Line for a scenic vista to make coffee and breaky.

The driving was great. A couple of extra curricular hill climbs,(I couldn't resist), but nothing too challenging for the van. Only saw 2 trucks and 2 different parties of dual sport motorcycles the entire hundred miles. Great views, perfect weather, and the scenery changed from evergreen forest to shrub steppe somewhere in between.

As we passed Nelson Butte, we hit a steep section with rocks and minor washouts. As we did only 10 mph down the hill, I hinted "I could ride down this twice as fast". Jen said, " Go ahead, I'll pick you up at the bottom". So I got my mountain bike off the back of the van and rode the last 25 miles into town. The steep section was pretty sweet, but soon got out of the forest and into the 90 degree sun, and it definitely wasn't all down hill. Jen finally caught me on the first real uphill, and I waved helplessly as my chic and my Astro van both got me with the Louisiana Move (Blew By You!)

Jen is still over in Chelan. She put pics on photo bucket for me. Here's an unedited slideshow if anyone wants to see, starting with a link to google maps showing the route. Winthrop to Manson was the (more) fun part.

This weekend, I'll drive strait to Chelan Friday nite, then Saturday morning meet up with Jerry and the PNBA gang to do another multi-rig day trip, Slide Ridge, approaching Lake Chelan from the southwest, as opposed to the northeast approach we did last weekend, solo.

There's a shot of the dual sports coming down a two-tracker hill with me salivating, uh, I mean watching them. Then a shot of the van comig down the hill. There is a video of the van climbing the hill, but said video is still in Chelan on Jen's laptop. (Man, those rain swills can really sneak up on a guy that doesn't have a low range yet, sheesh).

The route:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&g ... 5&t=p&z=11


The unedited slide show:

http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee25 ... =slideshow



Thanks again for the recommendation, Jerry. It was a great day. See y'all soon.

Tom L.

[Jerry]

Excellent trip report, Tom. I especially like the part where you mentioned my name, but the rest was good, too. Just kidding about the name business, it was a fun read. I enjoyed it.
Jerry