Lake Wenatchee

Last year, I was invited to come camping with a few people from my teaching program up at Lake Wenatchee. I had never been to the lake before, and we went in August, during our summer break. A handful of us from the cohort made the trip up last year and we had a blast.

This year, I was the only person from the cohort besides Caroline and her family (who invited us out last year). I motorcycled out again this year, and the ride was great except for the five mile stretch of grooved pavement between Monroe and Sultan. I have very little control over the bike on grooved pavement, and it was like going over a wet grated bridge for five miles.

Once in Sultan, I stopped at my favorite bakery to shake off the grooved pavement blues and eat a huge breakfast sandwich. I finished the entire thing, and staved off my food coma until I made it to Lake Wenatchee, then promptly passed out on the beach. The mosquitoes were a lot worse this year, which must be due to coming earlier in the season. I kept my sweatshirt and sweatpants on the entire time, even though it was 80 degrees--just to keep the bugs from biting.

I decided to only bring a tent and sleeping mat this year, no sleeping bag. This was a mistake. I froze my tush off at night, and tried to cocoon myself in my sweats and motorcycle gear, to no avail. As soon as the sun rose, I hopped on the motorcycle to get out of the forest and find some sun to warm up. I rode the back way to Leavenworth, which is an incredibly fun road to ride. I hadn't checked my phone for the time, but I knew it was early because of the sunrise and the fact that Leavenworth was a ghost town.





I explored the town a bit, trying to find a place for hot chocolate and breakfast. Sandy's opened up an hour after I arrived... at 7am. I felt guilty just ordering a hot chocolate, so I ate a big breakfast and had my second food coma of the trip. I elected to siesta in the Leavenworth park, in the sun, before riding back to the Lake Wenatchee campsite. I got a bit of reading in down by the lake, then rode back to Seattle.

On the way back to Seattle, I stopped at two spots. First, Deception Falls, which is just a waterfall right near highway 2. It was a nice spot to stretch my legs and snap a few pictures.



Second, I stopped at the Lake Serene trailhead, which I intended to hike this past Monday until finding out one of the other hikers hiked that trail last week.