Park closed for season. This would be the third try, the third state park, in our attempt to find a camp site for the night. Our plan was to back pack into Pete Lake Saturday. This was a hike that Leigh had wanted to do for some time and that part of the plan was pretty much set. The decision to get close and car camp was more of a ‘game day decision’ and as we were punching into October, we figured we didn’t need a reservation.
We were about 90 minutes or so from sunset with no campsite
last Friday. In my younger years my angst
would have started to rise, but taking stock of the situation, we were getting
into national forest land, we had a tent (2 actually) and food and water. All we needed was a flat piece of
ground. Sure enough, just beyond Cle Elum
State park, there was a small road that jagged left and over a bridge we could
see a couple of trailers. Why not take a
look?
The camping regulations were posted and the trailers looked
like they were used by hunters. It was
quiet and plenty of open camp sites. Primitive,
no facilities, but perfect. We pitched
our car camping tent, brought out our car camping chairs, the fire ring and the
only thing that was missing was a table.
Star link, now frozen in the ‘flat mode’ worked perfectly as
an ad hoc table.
Happy hour, dinner, great conversation and then to bed in
the car camping tent, a katabatic tent designed for use on Mt Everest. To us, the tent is palace-like. It’s huge when compared to our backpacking
tent, plenty of pockets for stuff and while you can’t stand up in it, it
becomes a home away from home. Not as
comfy as the trailer, but for tent camping, it’s pretty nice.
Saturday morning the gears shift and the gear
simplifies. Everything we need for the
night into 2 packpacks, each less than 25 pounds.
The Pete Lake Trail is 4 miles and as it was pretty dry, the
stream crossings were easy. 400 feet of
elevation gain made the walking easy.
A few other hikers, not many, but all friendly. Including the group of 6 or 7 first year UW students who hailed from all over the US and were taking their first, in what I hope will be many, little adventures. Which included lugging an inflatable standup paddle board into Pete Lake. Possibly a first.
Leigh allows 2 luxury items when backpacking. A chair and a magazine. Her magazine of choice on this trip was an AARP magazine. On a backpacking trip. Possibly another first.
The weekend was great and as rain is moving in on Monday, this could be the last weekend of good weather. We think we made the most of it.
The view from Pete Lake
