Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Wenatchee North

The road in to my north-of-Wenatchee parking spot. Probably best considered four-wheel-drive only, though I made it in my Nissan Versa Note. (Columbia River valley in background.)

The far (east) side of the valley.

To the north, it looks like people are living here, so there must be a better road in than the one I took from the east and south.

A better view of the road I took. (Ripples, holes, narrows, and other dodgy spots smoothed out by the distance of the view.)

Salad. Potential salad. Does it bite? I promised not to if it didn't.

Top of the road, where I came in. A sign there warns of the primitive road, in case someone has come in from the opposite direction, so there must be a better way, though it could take days to find it.

Ditto. Top-of-road, to the north, as seen during my evening walk.

My nighttime parking spot, well out of sight, down a spur road that looks like it's been unused, at least so far this year.

So, a little unexpectedly, I ended up in Wenatchee about a day earlier than expected, since I couldn't loiter and/or hike and loiter.

Visiting Wenatchee when the point of my trip was to see some of eastern Washington's Channeled Scablands didn't make sense, since it's outside the scabland area, but I just wanted to see Wenatchee again.

I had tried to find an apartment there in 2014, but was unable to, not in my price range. The options are limited, starting at $1000 per month (with little selection), and going up rapidly from there. If you're willing to rent something for $1800 to $2000 a month, you can get by, but on the other hand, what's the point of that?

It does have three state parks close by, one of them in town, so that's handy. But really, for a city sitting actually touching the Cascade Mountains, there is almost no access to hiking areas. Looking for a place to park overnight is rugged. There are few.

So, the next day was Sunday, and I was able to get to the library, which is one of the highlights of Wenatchee, being open seven days a week. Via email I got notice from my sister that a cousin had died, a year ago in February. I hadn't seen him for 50 years. Didn't recognize him in the obituary photo. My sister now says there are things she wants to do while she has the chance to. Same with me.

I pushed off on Monday.

More info:

Wenatchee, Washington (Wikipedia)