Amazing Little Isolated Community of Stehekin on Lake Chelan, Washington

Jul 3, 1984 Tue0

In the early 80's I traveled to a few places and kept a travel diary. I thought my sons would some day enjoy reading my diary so I have decided to put it in my blog. I will enter my diary here as I wrote it years ago when I was a much younger man. I was 24 years old in 1984. At this time in my life I was traveling to Toronto Canada every week and I got bumped from a flight. Delta gave me a free ticket to any place they flew in the 48 states. I looked at their route map and the farthest I could fly was Seattle, Washington. So I packed my bags, tent and sleeping bag and headed West. I drove around the North West for a week.

2:20PM Cruising back down Lake Chelan on the Lady of the Lake, a 350 passenger boat.

I covered a lot of ground yesterday. The North Cascades were great. I nearly stuck the car in a snow drift. Washington Pass was a good stop. The terrain can change so quick here. An hour later I was in dry barren sage brush country. Spent 4-5 hours at Grand Coulee Dam. Gave Mom a call from Chelan at 8:00PM (11:00PM her time).

Jul 2, 1984 Mon
Washington Pass area.

Yesterday afternoon was great. The terrain kept changing, weather crystal clear and little traffic. I bought 2 1/2 pounds of fresh cherries and I had a ball cruising down a long, straight and lonely road at 80 MPH on cruise control, radio on loud, dressed in shorts only, eating cherries and spitting the pits up through the open sun roof while driving west of Grand Coulee in the late day golden sunlight.

Jul 2, 1984 Mon
Grand Coulee Dam, Washington

Jul 2, 1984 Mon
Cruising around the lake near Grand Coulee Dam, spitting cherry pits out the sun roof.

Jul 2, 1984 Mon
Old school house on US2 in central Washington

Jul 2, 1984 Mon
Central Washington, late in the day.

Camped finally at 25 Mile Campground above Chelan on Lake Chelan. I was lucky. I got their last site. Got there at 10:30 PM so I slept in the car. I slept until 4:30AM then the wine wore off from the wine and cheese dinner I had at 11:00PM the night before so I got very little sleep.

Got on this boat at Field's Point at 9:45 this morning. It cruises at 16 MPH and the view is terrific. Met a 25 year old 6th grade teacher, Carla, who was going to Holden Village for a month. We talked for about half an hour until she got off the boat at Lucerne. It is a 12 mile bus ride from there to Holden. Holden seems to be a Lutheran retreat. She volunteered to work as faculty free. I met another lady who once lived in Chapel Hill.

Jul 3, 1984 Tue
Boat ride up Lake Chelan to the town of Stehekin. I met this girl on the boat. She was going to work at a summer church camp at another community 12 miles up a valley from the edge of the lake.
Bobby

Jul 3, 1984 Tue
Unloading supplies for the community of Holden 12 miles up a valley from the edge of Lake Chelan.

Jul 3, 1984 Tue
Stehekin, WA. This year round community of about 70 people can only be reached by boat, float plane or a couple of days hiking. This is a beautiful place. I returned twice more in later years.

Lake Chelan is a beautiful place. The boat ride was to Stehekin at the far end of the lake. Stehekin is only accessible by boat, plane or hiking. There is no phone service and there were less than 100 people that lived there year round. I liked it so much I returned a couple of years later.