Our "Weekend" is Wednesday/Thursday

Our days off are Wednesday and Thursday.  Tuesday evening, a camper came by around 8 pm to say his 16 year old son and a friend had left at 3 pm in a rubber raft to play in the water.  They hadn't returned and the dad was getting worried.   The boys only had on swim trunks and didn't know about the river.  The rangers weren't available and have instructed us to call 911 if there is an emergency which this was rapidly becoming with darkness coming on.  The dad said his phone didn't get reception so he used our phone till he tried his again and realized he DID have signal.  He asked us questions about the river and we told him where folks usually paddle and take out. He headed off again in his car hoping to find them along the road. In the end, he put 60 miles on his car. He came back and made calls to his home phone, his wife and others. There was a garbled message on his home phone which turned out to be his son saying they were lost.  The dad finally called 911 and was giving descriptions when the two boys walked into camp with their raft around 9:30 pm. They had found a family along the river with a phone and who delivered the boys back to the camp store. Dad was some relieved to have them return.  When I asked how they got back, the boys said they paddled back up the river to the boat launch.  That would have been an amazing feat-the river, even as low as it is, has a strong current. Nobody paddles back! They didn't know how far down the river they had gone.  The next day, I asked the Dad how the story ended and he explained how they found the family on the shore. Phew!  Glad this story had a happy ending.

Wednesday morning, we had a nice breakfast at the Leavenworth Golf course before heading off to the Lake Chelan area. I had heard about a blueberry farm and we were hoping we could still pick berries. Along the way, we stopped at Lake Chelan State Park to talk with the Park hosts about their assignment.  The Park staff let us into the campground for only 15 minutes since we foolishly forgot to take our Discover Pass. The Wolverine Forest Fire is burning about 15 miles west of the park so there was smoke hanging in the air. The wind was keeping smoke out of downtown Chelan, about 5 miles away.  We found the blueberry farm and quickly filled a bucket of giant berries. Our next stop was Starbucks in Chelan for coffee and snack before turning back towards Wenatchee. We made another stop at Lincoln Rock State Park to call on a family from church who were camped there.  That park is all grass-no raking for them like we do. Mowing maybe and liter patrol. Grocery shopping in Leavenworth and back to camp in early evening.

Thursday, we lounged at our campsite reading and walking, an usually quiet day. Full house in the campground on Friday and Saturday with several large groups excited to be here.  The noise always ramps up on Friday night so we do a walk about and make several stops at sites to play housemother reminding campers that it is WAY after 10 pm Quiet Time.  Saturday nights, after a day at the beach or hiking, the noise settles before 10 pm.

Lake Chelan State Park has boat camping!  This shot was taken from the
road looking down towards a tent site and dock.  There are only a small
handful of sites which get booked pretty quickly, I imagine.

Open camping area at Lake Chelan for RVs. Not much in the
way of shade.

The camp store.

The beach is tiered down to the water which is crystal clear.  Lake Chelan is
the third deepest in the US at 1300', I read. The Wolverine Fire is off to the
left making the hills hazy.

Old apple label mural

Blueberry Hill Farm and restaurant

There were so many berries! It was heaven.

We filled this bucket in no time. 6#s

The bushes were over our heads.  Someday, maybe my
bushes will be this high and producing.

It was hard not to eat while picking.  There were rules about
"grazing in the rows"- you would be kicked out!

I couldn't count how many rows there were.