Happily we did find what we were looking for, and LOTS of it. Once we were out of the Okanogan area, cruising into Brewster we hit sunshine until on our way back where we had around five minutes of sprinkling (which on a bike, does not feel gentle, more like needles, but thankfully it was short-lived).
Chelan was packed with tons of people for the long weekend, lots of boats, swimmers, jet skiers, etc.
This is the tree that dots the main drag in Chelan. And, I took this from the bike while we were driving down the street.
Heading through the Knapps Hill Tunnel!
Our ultimate destination was to head up the Entiat, though. In particular Entiat River Road towards Silver Falls.
I need to first take you back to Rick's birthday. I bought him a horse round-up from Leavenworth to Entiat in October.
I was blown away when Rick told me he had never been in the Entiat area. Considering he is forty-six now and lives just a jump away from the Entiat Valley, I was shocked.
We headed that way, found the Icicle Outfitters Pack Station, and then kept going up until we arrived at Silver Falls.
I love hiking to Silver Falls!
I should also take you FAR back to when my boys were young. We camped up the Entiat with my dad so many times that I cannot even remember how many! We have hiked the Silver Falls a gazillion times, too.
It was fun to show Rick exact places that we had been so many years ago.
I took pictures of the Falls, but we didn't hike them because we had other places we wanted to go, and since we had a late start, time was aburning! But, depending on the weather, I think we might head up there on Monday and take our little one for a picnic.
We did stop there and eat a picnic that Rick packed. He is soooo cute in that he packed a healthy lunch for us and picked lots of my favorites.
Entiat Falls in the background!
After lunch we journeyed on to as far as we could go up the road, which was not to road's end. We did go through and look at all of the campsites (many that we had camped at long ago).
We are definitely planning a camping trip in that area for this summer!
Once we turned around, we decided to head up a road we saw to see where it went. Well, off on Mad River Road we explored.
This was incredible! It turned out to be a paved, one-lane road that we went on FOREVER. We ended up on the top of the mountain. It was silent and there was no wind, no people, just beauty all around us! All of the wildflowers, all of the splashes of color, even the burnt areas looked gorgeous in their revival.
We parked and hiked around. It was cool because there are tons of roads up there, too. I found a road where we could walk between two valleys. On one end of the road was one valley, and the other end was a different one. One side was the Entiat/Chelan side, the other the Leavenworth side.Very cool! It truly felt like we were on top of the world! And, ironically on our cruiser motorcycle.
One of the pics from on high.
And, another.
Rick called his brothers and sent them pictures of where we were because it is the general area of where they will be riding in the fall. He was like a little kid, giddy with anticipation.
OH! On the way up the hill, he ran over a rattlesnake! I, of course, was FREAKED out!!!! We stopped and he grabbed the rattles. Yuck!
We were going to go untilt he road ended but were a little bit worried that it would end far away and then since we didn't pack any extra gas, we might run out on the return ride, so finally (begrudgingly) we headed back.
Side note: We did check it out when we came home, and Google Earth allows us to follow the road entirely, and the pavement does finally end a LONG ways down. So, it's a good thing we didn't go, this time. But, now we have the exploring bug for sure, and we want to find other cool backroads that nobody knows about.
On the way back we stopped at the Icicle Outfitters to take pics to send to Rick's brothers. Well, more story about this place now.
The donkeys all practically stampeded over to where I was standing taking pictures; they are SUPER friendly.
This was one of the friendly ones!
But, the bad thing was that one of the mules was not in the pen, and started heading out towards the road! Rick rounded him back up and headed him back in to where the others were, and it did not want to go, so it kicked him! Yikes! Rick got a bit of a bump on his leg, and I laughed at first (It really was funny looking.). THANKFULLY, he and the donkey were OK.
I went over to the owner's house after our little escapade, and they were not home. I called them later though, and it's just funny how connected we all are now!
For a day with no plans, WOW! I love riding on the bike because I think about all sorts of things. I think about my novel that I am writing. I think about our plans for this summer. I write poems in my mind. Ricky and I talk about all sorts of things, too. It's a great experience, always.
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