Mazama Family Vacation – August 2013

We had our third annual Mazama family trip the week before Labor Day again this year, staying at the Steelhead Lodge on the Wilson Ranch.   We did the trip in 2011 and 2012 and decided to give it another year.   Little did we know that the third time would not be quite the charm we had anticipated.

Catherine had gotten a cold a few days before we left and the day before we took off I started getting the telltale sore throat that started the bug.  I joked that we’d all be in a plague house for five days and that turned out to sort of be the case.   For the first time in all our family trips we dealt with daily rain and thunderstorms and a virus that swept through all four generations of the family by the end of the trip.   Through it all though we managed to get out daily in the windows between the rains and had quite a bit of fun inside when we were house-bound.

Day 1 – Travel to Mazama

We needed to take three cars up so Marshall, Catherine and I took our fully loaded Outback over I-90 and I-97 stopping in Wenatchee for lunch before continuing north to Winthrop for groceries and finally onward to Mazama.  Kristen, Mom and Cadence opted for the Hwy 2 route and stopped in Leavenworth for lunch and to roam around before continuing on to Mazama arriving shortly after us.   Christian, Jenny and Nolan took I-5 to Hwy 20, the quick route and arrived later in the day.

As soon as we got unpacked and settled in the house Cade wanted to go fishing so we grabbed gear and headed down to the lake.  I set her up with her spin rod on a rock and set out to try my luck with tenkara in a lake for the first time.  I couldn’t even get started fishing, Cadence was catching trout within 5 minutes of casting.   Finally the action slowed down near her rock after a few nice rainbow trout and I managed to get a good rainbow and a tiger on tenkara before we had to stop and go make dinner.

We grilled fresh salmon and halibut, corn and asparagus for dinner then settled in for a cutthroat game of Apples to Apples.   About that time the rain started.

Day 2 – Horses and Cutthroat Lake

Our first full day looked decent in the morning with rain in the afternoon so we decided it was best to get out while we could.   The group was going to split up with half going into Sun Mountain for horseback riding and the rest going to Rainy Pass to hike to Lake Ann.   As we started up towards Washington Pass the temps kept dropping quickly as we gained elevation and the skies got darker and darker.   We decided that Rainy Pass was probably going to live up to its name and instead pulled out at the Cutthroat Lake/Pass trailhead figuring it was a safer hike.

Catherine, Christian, Nolan, Mom and I geared up at the trailhead and while everyone was getting ready I grabbed the bridge geocache quickly.   Cutthroat is a hike we almost always do either just to the lake or all the way to the pass and it never fails to please, even when the valley is socked in with clouds as it was today.   The hike up to the lake went pretty quickly.  The lake nearby peaks and the pass were in the clouds at the lake and the mosquitos were pretty thick so we didn’t hang out too long.  On the way back Nolan got out of the pack and hiked on his own – “hike with peepaw” as he would say.   He was so funny, he had to jump off of every single decent sized rock on the trail, planning his landing carefully.   At the big rock where we usually take photos (“the biggest rock around”) he climbed up the crack like a pro, this kid is going to end up a climbing bum at Camp 4 one day.

The weather at Sun Mountain was a bit better than up Hwy 20 so the horse people – Kristen, Cadence, Jenny and Marshall – enjoyed a nice ride around the beaver pond at Sun Mountain.

We hung out in the afternoon with on and off showers.  Cadence wanted to paint so I set up the easel for her and we got out to fish when we could between rains.   I got a few trout including a nice brown on tenkara, getting all the lake species now on the tenkara rod.  Cade lost a few nice fish just before dinner too.  That evening we had burger night with veggie patties, real burgers and bratwursts depending on where one fell on the vegan to carnivore spectrum.   Another game of Apples to Apples kept us going until bedtime.

Day 3 – Sun Mountain

The forecast called for things to improve but we awoke to drizzle anyway.   Catherine did her usual morning run/walk to the Mazama Store and the rest of us piled into a few cars and headed there for lattes and scones to start the day and figure out what to do.  We also finally grabbed the somewhat tricky Mazama Junction cache, I could see why we didn’t get this one the previous year as neophyte cachers, who would have thought that someone would create a cache that tricky, not evil but definitely crafty.  The skies looked dark up Hwy 20 but blue towards Winthrop so we opted to drive over to Sun Mountain to do some hiking on the trails there.  This turned out to be a very good call.

Our original plan was to hike the beaver pond loop but once I mentioned the cool driftwood fort on Lake Patterson it was clear that we were heading there, Cadence couldn’t wait to see it.   We hiked the several miles down the Chickadee, Cabin and Patterson Lake trails to the little beach where the fort was while the skies cleared up and it got very nice.  We took a long break at the beach, the kids playing in the fort and the bigger kids skipping stones to see who could get a quadruple or better skip, Marshall had one that did about 7 skips.

That afternoon we painted, played 9-hole golf, read, fished and basically got out when it wasn’t raining but stayed in or on the deck when it did rain.   I took off while people were napping to Robinson Creek to catch some small but beautiful cutthroat on my small stream tenkara rod.  Cadence caught a nice 18″ rainbow before dinner and Nolan did a bit of fishing on his own even.   Nolan caught the cold about now, the plague had started to spread.   After Mexican night for dinner we played games again until bedtime.

Day 4 – Random Outdoor Acts

Another day waking up to rain.  I started wondering how this could be, it rains a few days every summer in the valley and here it had rained 4 days straight and it didn’t look like it was going to let up much.

The group split up for activities today.  Catherine and I decided to set out from the cabin to do the long loop up the Jack’s and River Run trails along the river while others walked towards the store.    The weather was very iffy as we headed up the Methow Valley Trail and I thought for sure we’d be getting wet but as we continued on into our 7.5 mile hike the weather improved quite a bit until it was downright nice about 4 miles in.    By the time Catherine and I returned to the lodge in the afternoon Marshall, Kristen and Cadence were gearing up on bikes to head down towards Mazama to get some ice cream.

I took advantage of the break in the weather to hit the lake and the fish were going crazy finally cruising the shore and eating bugs like trout should.   In about 45 minutes of fishing I managed to land two rainbows and two browns from 18-22″ all on tenkara, one of the best  times I’ve had on this lake and proving to myself that tenkara can not only work in lakes but can work for pretty big fish too.

That afternoon we drove in a downpour to Winthrop to East 20 pizza and by the time we got to town the sun was out along with a rainbow.  We had our annual pizza feast and then drove into the junction to go to the bookstore and to get ice cream.  We also grabbed the somewhat well camoed Guy’s Cache in town.   By the time we got back to the cabin and setttled into play cards for the evening Marshall, Christian and Kristen were getting the sore throat and Cadence wasn’t feeling great either.

Day 5 – Heading home

The last morning was mostly about getting packed and getting the house in order to leave. We got out of the house a bit early for walks or fishing in the lake before breakfast and the cleanup process began.   After we were mostly ready to go we got outside for a quick family portrait while it wasn’t raining.  Within minutes of taking the photo a downpour began and we had to load up the cars in drenching rain.

Everyone took different routes home but we all hit pretty heavy weather.  At one point we were getting slammed with buckets of rain that seemed more like a Florida storm than a Washington one but this one had a twist, we were getting pelted by tumbleweeds at the same time.  It was kind of crazy but we were in Wenatchee so pulled over at Cafe RIo for a burrito and to let this thing blow over before continuing on.   We then had clear skies on Blewett Pass and rain again coming down Snoqualmie to home.  By the time we got home Mom was sick too.   In the end it turned out that only Cadence didn’t fully get sick, Jenny started getting it a few days after returning home.