Cle Elum

We arrived here yesterday in time to set up, get in and turn up the air. The 90's in mid afternoon are really hotter than we have become accustomed to.

Today we hit the path early. We were on our bikes about 8:30 for a ride on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail. Our park is a short drive through the neighborhood and a stair climb (Russell carried my bike up for me!) to the Rails-To-Trails path. This one follows the Yakima River, just south but out of sight of I-90. The trail itself is not paved, but hard packed dirt and gravel. We really had to watch the road to avoid deep loose gravel and larger rocks. The route to Cle Elum is pretty with lots of trees lining the way. We got to the train depot - really - and took the surface roads to town for a cup of coffee. We found a great local place and met Red Dog, a very nice local who gave us a lot of good info and insights. We got back home for a total of about 10 miles, ready for lunch.

This afternoon we drove to the nearest Walmart in Wenatchee. Several people told us that it is a pretty trip across the pass through the Cascade Mts. We headed back east and then north on a very busy mostly 2-lane state highway to the Apple Capital of the USA, if not the world. The Wenatchee area really reminded us of California; arid hillsides, lush orchards with irrigation. We enjoyed a stop at a local fruit stand. You could see most of the food growing within sight of the stand, except the onions which are from Walla Walla.

The drive back was not as busy, but just as pretty. As we neared flat farm land Russell noticed a smoke cloud obscuring an otherwise blue sky. As we got closer, the flames were evident on the south side of the ridge just south of the freeway. This appears to be a large fire, but we have no reports as yet. It does look like our park is well west of the affected area and will remain out of range.