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Thread: How I spent my Labor Day 2012 - part 2

  1. #1
    Senior Member randylervold's Avatar
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    Default How I spent my Labor Day 2012 - part 2

    Continued...

    The lake ends about two miles north of the Stehekin landing, then you fly another two miles up the river valley to the airport. I had heard stories that the strip was rough with embedded rocks and that you needed a real "bush plane" to get in. Nah, there were a couple of Cessnas there with their wheelpants still on, no big thing even with small tires.

    Turns out the rumor was true, there are "courtesy bikes" there, we managed to find two with air in the tires and we were off...
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    To orient you, it's about four miles from the airport to the Stehekin landing with the Bakery about half way, of course we didn't know any of this (I guess that's what makes it and "adventure", right?), we just headed down the road. Here's the shuttle if you want to travel that way...
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    And here's The Bakery...
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    I was hoping we'd find a decent lunch along the way and I was not disappointed. Lunch was absolutely fantastic, there are so many good things on the menu I'll need to go back many times just to try them all. They even have really good coffee, something I've become particular about.

    With lunch behind us we thought about riding to the landing, then backtracking to the airport, but decided instead to head back toward the airport with a detour to Rainbow Falls that'd passed along the way. Wow, what a place to be on a hot day, the natural beauty is simply breathtaking, pictures simply cannot do it justice.
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    With the bikes back at the airport and a thank you note left in the guest log it was time to head home. As you can see the runway is no big thing...
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    I decided to take a low/slow tour of the Chelan shore on the way home so I throttled back to about 2150 rpm, leaned it out, and flew just off the shoreline to see all the neat coves and desolate shoreline...
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    Then down the Columbia toward Wenatchee...
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    Final thoughts
    All told the whole Stehekin area is a lot more developed than I expected, in fact quite developed for someplace that is landlocked. The buildings all seemed to have power, I have no idea where they get it. If you'd like to consider going you can drive to Chelan, take the "Lady of the Lake" up to Stehekin, spend the night and return. Or, you can take advantage of being an aviatior and fly up like we did and make a day trip of it. To those who live in the NW and haven't been there, you need to get over there! To those from out of the area who might be in the NW, this is just one of a long list of places in the NW that are unique and worth visiting. While the dirt strip at my brother's place does require the unique attributes of the Carbon Cub, Stehekin turned out to be not especially challenging though the Carbon Cub sure made it enjoyable and without any concern of getting in/out whatsoever. Truth be told, I really enjoyed getting lower and slower as we did on the way home, it's just more interesting and enjoyable. Bottom line: I need to get out like this more often!!
    Randy Lervold

  2. #2
    Member Norm's Avatar
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    Default Re: How I spent my Labor Day 2012 - part 2

    Beautiful pics. Stehekin certainly is one of the jewels of E Washington. Thanks for posting.

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