Last week we had our first visitors from San Francisco. Our friends Eddie and Noreen are avid birders and naturalists and had flown to Seattle and rented a car to drive to Wapato Point at Lake Chelan. We were lucky that their route took them right by our house so we had a really nice visit with them at the beginning of their trip. Today Jim and I drove over to Manson, on the east side of Lake Chelan, to visit them on their last day before heading on over the North Cascades Highway, and then back to San Francisco in a few more days.
We had a lovely day for it - partly sunny and not too cold. The trip started out well when we saw this only a few miles up highway 97 from Cle Elum:
Of course I had to stop and take a photo. Then, only a few miles farther on, the car in front of us slowed, then stopped on the highway. There was a family of White Tailed Deer ambling across the road. My photo is not great, but you get the idea.
It was fun to go over Blewett Pass again and relive other trips from the past. It's amazing how much drier it is once over that pass - pine trees with little undergrowth. Here in Cle Elum we have lots of firs and cedars, as well as low undergrowth. The rest of our trip was uneventful and we arrived in the town of Manson in time to have a wonderful home made Chantrelle soup with Eddie and Noreen at their condo.
After lunch they drove us up to Antilon Lake which was deserted except for the four of us. This is why I love the Northwest...a spot as gorgeous as this and no one there.
It was so quiet that we could hear quite a few different birds which Eddie and Noreen were able to identify by their songs. We only caught glimpses of some of them but that was ok because the scenery was so stunning already.
Here's Noreen capturing the beauty of the place
Eddie stalking the wildlife
and Jim contemplating the solitude.
Although we didn't see the birds we came for we did have exciting (to me) animal finds. Noreen found several deer hides and this somewhat dessicated coyote with really nice teeth. Having hauled home a coyote road kill in the past I decided to leave him returning to nature.
Later Noreen also found a bunch of what she thought were pheasant wings but I think we concluded they were actually grouse. And who would have thought that on the first of November ANYTHING would be blooming in the Northwest?
This reminded us all of apple blossoms but we don't really know what it was. The bush it was on also had leaves budding out. That was one confused bush and it will be sorry in a few days when a heavy frost hits.
Good friends
Good times
Good views
Grand Day Out.
Audrey
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