VANCOUVER B.C., ORONDO WA, LINCOLN ROCK SP

I have been dithering about how and what to do for my next post — this one. I have done some riding near home, solo and with a few friends, and we (Susan & I) have done some camping outings. And — I am getting a little behind in posting! So I dithered it down to making the outings a post, and my nearby rides for a different post. That way I will catch up for this month of June ;’-).

But here is a photo that did not get to us in time for our last outing and post ;’-). From our time at LL Stub.

After that trip we took off for a Pleasure Way (manufacturers of our RV) rally on Vancouver Island. We “camped” in Vancouver so to take the ferry over to the island the following morning.

What you see, is what we got. This is our entire site, and almost encroaches on the next door neighbor’s site, where Susan is standing with her bike.

Well, it IS in Vancouver, a rather large metropolis! Once settled in, we got on our bikes to The Village at Park Royal for some marketing and to find a lunch place. This took us across the Capilano River.

What you see here are not only rocks, there are birds everywhere and on many of the rocks.

Susan is remorseful for not getting a photo of ALL the groceries we (she) purchased, and how we fit it all into our panniers for the ride back to camp!

We found a perfect place for lunch on the patio, and discovered there is a time capsule buried out front.

After that epic 2 mile round trip ride we were back at camp amongst all the other campers that were crowded in like sardines.

We were on the 8:30 a.m. ferry, a reason to have stayed nearby for the night, to Vancouver Island and Salmon Point Resort campground. There was more space, and less like tinned sardines here than in Voucouver, but too many RVs to have a nice plot to ourselves. The parking was helter skelter at best, and every RV is situated very close to your neighbor!

There was not much in the way of riding routes, but we did take ourselves for a bit of a ride. Along the main road out from camp we spotted the “Fungus Farm” and couldn’t resist a stop.

The owner/proprietor gave us a ‘tour’! Meaning he showed us the refrigerators full of mushrooms.

Moving on down the road was a wooden skeleton lounging on the fence that caught my eye.

It was getting hot, I had not dressed for a bike ride that I did not think we would do, and I needed a light shirt! We pulled into the Storey Creek Golf Club and lo, there was a sale rack that had just the thing I needed.

After the shirt purchase (maybe a photo to come at a later time), we needed to wet our whistles. Lemonade was great.

Our last stop for our ride was to smell and appreciate the zinnias at the roadside flower stand.

Not much more to say about the Pleasure Way outing, except that Susan won first prize for matching the most people with their baby picture! We returned home in Mukilteo for about a week(!) and then drove to Orondo Washington — a town (or maybe an outpost!) about half an hour east of Wenatchee. You will read more about Wenatchee further into this post.

Beebe campground is on the Columbia River, and again does not lend itself to much in the way of a bike ride. We could probably have ridden (along the highway) to Chelan but chose to not do that. We were at least in the saddle for a brief meander through the camp.

I grew up on the east coast and was a real ‘tomboy’ who loved watching Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, and any other western I could find. I usually pretended I was Dale Evans, and I sang along with the cowboy songs and loved “the tumbling tumble weeds”. We did not have tumble weed on the east coast, so I had to use my imagination. Until I moved to the west coast and periodically saw some of those weeds tumbling along the roads and highways, entangled in range fences, or blowing across the road in front of me. I learned that these “weeds” are prickly with sharp thorns.

These weeds tumble in the western part of Washington, and one of them tumbled past me as I sat outside on the lawn.

Take that cowboys of my past!

This was a relatively small gathering of sisters — 12 to start and one had to cancel. There was a craft thing, but neither Susan nor I wanted a cork trivet so we passed on that. We joined together for the first and second night’s potluck dinner, had morning coffee and treats, and loaded up two vehicles for a drive to lunch. Some did get an item or three from the thrift shop before getting to lunch. During that stop I mainly strolled around outside, and could not resist this gate that, to me, looks a bit like a harp. Anything to busy myself from shopping for thrifts.

On to the Lone Pine, a diamond in the rough! Many of us had not been here, and were glad that JaVon, who lives fairly nearby, knew about it.

It is a true delight, and if I lived nearby this would be my place. I would frequent it often either by car of by bike.

In case you want to water your pet, they provide the appropriate bowl.

There is a pond of Koi, that Joy says do NOT look underfed.

The ‘Flintstone car‘ is here, tucked under the trees.

Here we are, nine of the 11 sisters (I am behind the camera, Corll chose to not drive with us for this little tour.

Back at camp, relaxing for a moment and regrouping, “Happy Salmon” appeared for a round of laughter.

Soon it was time for our final night’s dinner and some early “goodbyes and see you around the campfires” til next time. Another fun and good time was had with these fine women. And for Susan and me, the next morning meant moving on to our next event!

Lincoln Rock State park was our next destination to meet our cycling group 😉. The two of us planned to scout the route since we were told about a detour. We determined that the time was noon to open the Rocky Ridge Trail that would take us to the Wenatchee Capital Apple Trail.

We preplanned to meet up with Ally, Craig and Morticia at Confluence Park where they were camped, and they would join us for the scouting mission. I missed getting a photo of Craig … but here’s Morticia.

Morticia especially was ready for a sunny day. She wanted all sides taken — profile, straight on and from above.

And here’s Ally. I missed getting a photo of Craig but we surely enjoyed him scouting out the route with us.

Our final photo of our bike event is the first one I will post here.

The Rocky Reach Trail leaves directly from camp to join the Apple Capital Trail through part of Wenatchee which loops around the Wenatchee river.

Here we go…

Susan was leading this one and I was the ‘Sweep’. Not long after getting on the trail, Susan stopped us to look at the osprey nest.

Stop everyone…

There is an osprey up there…

After oohing an aching a bit, we carried on and came upon Raymond Cook, a nature photographer, focusing on the eagle’s nest above us.

We chatted with Raymond for a bit, and he shared his photo album with us.

Needless to say, we ALL needed a photo with him ;’-).

Time to move now, and connect with the Apple Capital Trail.

As we approached town, we encountered a few statues and sculptures that made for some fun stops. Or, rather, we made them fun stops.

As we approached our lunch destination there was one more statue that needed posing on. What a fun loving group!

After lunch at the market we would weave through the detour on roads with only a little traffic and in 1-2 miles rejoining the trail on the other side of the Columbia river to complete the loop. Susan did an outstanding job of leading us, and we were so thankful that we had tested this route the previous day! Normally there is a pedestrian/bike bridge that crosses seamlessly, but is it closed for some renovation and it is unclear when it will open again.

But, about that first photo here… it did not happen automatically. We sized up the old barn, dithered about positioning, captured a nice passerby and THEN got the photo — which I post again here.