A Trip to Stehekin
This is a trip that's a little closer to home. One of the many advantages of living in Washington State is the wide variety of outings available. Since I live in the middle of the state, nothing seems to be too far away.
This past June, Randy (my husband) and I found ourselves with a three day weekend and nothing planned. Out came the Washington State guidebooks, and after reading through some possibilities in the books, as well as logging on to the internet, we decided to dust off our backpacks and travel to Stehekin, Washington.
Stehekin is a very interesting town located 51 miles north of Chelan. The name roughly translates into "the way through" since for centuries, the route up the Stehekin River to Cascade Pass provided a trading route for Native Americans. A great deal of its uniqueness is due to the fact that it can only be reached by boat, float plane, private aircraft, horseback or hiking.
Because it was still early in the season, we decided to take the Lady of the Lake ( a spacious passenger boat) up to Prince Creek Trail, and hike the remaining 17 miles into Stehekin. The Chelan Lakeshore Trail (Prince Creek to Stehekin) was reported to be the first trail in the area free of snow, due to its low elevation.
A friend told us that it was a fairly easy hike (only 1900-foot elevation gain) and being our first big outing of the season, we figured it would be perfect. I called the Stehekin Lodge and found a package that included the boat trip to Prince Creek, lodging for our second night, breakfast and dinner for our time at the lodge, and the boat trip home. We heard from others that one could hike the 17 miles in the first day, but since the boat doesn't drop you off until around 11 a.m., it might rush our trip too much to try and catch the boat departing at 1:00 the next day. Instead we decided to hike the ten or so miles into Moore Point Campground for the first night, and stay the second night at the lodge.
We departed on a beautiful June morning at 8:30. Settling our all too heavy packs at the bow of the boat, we sat outside to enjoy the passing surroundings. Most of the people on the boat either lived at one of the stops along the lake, or were taking the boat all the way to Stehekin for some sightseeing. A handful of people had asked to be let off at Prince Creek.
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