A Run for the Money and Three for the Show

I may have inadvertently found my way to an addiction that is going to take a 12-Step Program to cure. It is riding my bicycle down to Lake Chelan.

Gail Johnson (bookkeeper) and Debi Gustafson (assistant to the registrar) and I took off yesterday morning on our bikes and headed down the big hill to the lake. Now I must admit from the outset that we did not ride the dreaded switchbacks. Prior to leaving, we had heard some (many) graphic horror stories of bicycle accidents on the switchbacks and we elected to ride our bikes down to the top of the switchbacks and wait for the bus to pick us up and take us the rest of the way down. For those of you unfamiliar with Holden the steepest part of the ascent to the Village comes at the beginning of the journey up from the lake. A series of switchbacks allows the traveler to gain a fair amount of altitude in a short distance. From there, the incline is more gradual but always up, up, up until you reach Holden. If you are headed in the opposite direction, you are always going down, down, down...and if you can control yourself and your need for speed, control the inherent danger or going TOO fast and applying brakes too quickly, and if you can keep yourself focused on the exact path of your front tire, watching every rock and stone and soft spot and loose gravel...then you will arrive exhilarated at the top of the switchbacks about 8 miles down the road. It was quite a ride.

We had packed a sandwich and once at the bottom rode our bikes on over to Refrigerator Harbor and ate our lunch. We then investigated a cave that years ago had been blasted out of the rocks and was used for the mining company to store their explosives. We visited with the llamas at the Forest Service headquarters...the llamas are being used to haul equipment and supplies into the forest for trail clearing and clean-up. They did not seem to be too fond of having visitors. We came back to the Lucerne dock to await the arrival of the afternoon boat and our ride back up the mountain.

While waiting, I had removed my backpack and bike helmet and left them by my bicycle. When it was time to go, I picked up my backpack and was about to put it on when there issued from within it a whole lot of movement. A chipmunk, smelling the remains of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich had made himself at home in the pack.

It was a great ride down. It was especially interesting to get down to the level of the fire zones of last year and see everything destroyed and the colors all brown, and black, and gray...but on the floor of the forest, green shooting up everywhere. I was also amazed at the dogwood blooms at lower elevations...the flowers were huge...about the size of a standard saucer. Quite beautiful. There are major differences in the vegetation you see at the level of the lake as compared with the vegetation you find at Holden. There were many wildflowers blooming and they were beautiful as well.

A great day.