And the Weather Is........

Yes, our stellar crew hard at work......the tribe at dinner night two...remnants of our canopy..here comes the sun, again.

Holy heck!  The weather is crazy! We left a gorgeous, sunny day in Seattle and traversed over the mountain to what we knew would be some hot weather, but after record rainfall on our side of the mountains for the month of June we were not prepared for a searing 105+ degrees.  Brutal is the word that describes it!  The tribe fared pretty well, but it was hot, hot, hot.  We had two crashes today, but nothing serious, thankfully!

The tribe shuttled up to the top of Stevens Pass, unloaded, geared up, then headed down the East side of the pass.  The water level in the Wenatchee River that they rode along was higher than I have ever seen it: more white water than you could imagine.  There are usually raft tours on the river, but we didn't see one.  The tribe rode through the quaint Bavarian town of Leavenworth, then rolled through the orchards of ripe cherries, peaches and apricots,  into Cashmere (home of the Applettes and Cottlettes) then down into Confluence State Park in Wenatchee.

We set up camp along the river: we were set up on the asphalt and I swear it was another 20 degrees hotter than on the grass.  We prepared a dinner of bleu cheese wedge salad, Greek lemon chicken, sprouted beans & basmati rice, fresh asparagus, corn on the cob, and home canned peaches from the Methow Valley with pound cake.  Plus, leftover pea and pasta salads.  It was a hungry bunch and I think they ate well.  So did the mosquitos:  After dinner we all played a game of dodge the mosquitos to get to your tent: this is the worst day for mosquitos!  The only other day that we have had this bad is in Montana.  The little buggers camp on the outside of your tent and wait for the perfect opportunity to invade.

At about midnight we all woke to the most outrageous thunderstorm!  It was like the clouds were fighting each other with thunderbolts!  The wind came up and ripped our canopy over the kitchen down.  Our chafer boxes were returned by tribe members this morning, about an acre away.  I high tailed to the front of the truck and wouldn't come out. Jack and Jim tried to salvage the canopy and threw all of our equipment that wasn't nailed down into the back of the truck.  (I also understand that Daryl and Kim ditched their tent and burrowed in the ACA van, not that I would tattle...)  Then all of us that figured there was no need for a rain fly scrambled to stay dry!  It was quite the storm.

The tribe was up and off early this morning, trying to beat the heat.  Today they will ride along the Columbia River (dodging forest fires) into the lake town of Chelan and then up and over to Alta Lake State Park.  It will be a hot ride, hopefully not too much smoke and no headwinds....we'll see!