[Paddlewise] Lake Chelan trip report (long)

The idea for this trip came while reading about backpacking trips, where the
guide book described the Lake Chelan "Lakeshore trail" as amongst the finest
hikes in the country.  The thought quickly came to me - as much fun as
lugging a 50 pound pack on my back for 4-5 days sounded :-), why not kayak
it instead?  Doing a search on the web for kayaking on Lake Chelan turned up
only this link http://www.nwsource.com/travel/scr/tf_story.cfm?st=15178

For those of you who are not familiar with this area, Lake Chelan is a 55
mile long, and roughly 1 mile wide, lake in the eastern portion of
Washington state in the U.S.  It passes through a gorge that they describe
as the deepest in the country, if you measure from the top of the highest
peak to the bottom of the lake immediately below (roughly 8,000 feet).

After asking other paddlers and even posting a question on Paddlewise, I
could find no one who had ever done this trip before, other than the author
of the article linked above.  I initially had up to 4 other paddlers
recruited to do the trip with me, but one-at-a-time they each had conflicts
arise which prevented their participation.  Undaunted, I decided to do it
myself.  After all, I thought, even though it has a reputation for being
windy, the information I was able to find showed that the water temperatures
in September were typically in the mid 60's and the average high air
temperature this time of year was in the mid to upper 80's.  Plus, there's
no swells, I'm a fairly decent paddler, so how tough can it be?

Well, my first day out revealed my ignorance.  I knew there were fires in
the area earlier in the season, so I asked in the marina about any camp
closures, and was told they were all open.  I launched from Twenty five mile
creek campground around 2pm in the afternoon with the usual beautiful blue
skies and warm temperatures that are common to this area. Even though there
was no wind, I noticed the water immediately offshore was oddly agitated.  I
figured it was probably just all the power boat traffic, since the launch
site is from a boat anchorage.  About ten minutes after launching, destined
for a camp ("Deer Point") on the other side of the lake only about 2.8 miles
away, I paddled out of the wind-protected area and with almost no
intermediate transition, the weather went from totally calm to maybe 20 knot
winds.  At the same time, the water went from calm to very choppy.  The wind
was blowing almost directly at me, if I were to head to the camp on a
diagonal course "as the crow flies".  I would have preferred paddling
straight across the lake to get to the other side as quickly as possible,
but it would have meant putting up with a 45 degree wind so I decided to
split the difference between the two.  

As I continued along, the wind grew stronger, waves were frequently
splashing over my bow and every minute or two I'd get one splashing my face.
I tighten the fit of my baseball cap and trudge on.  Maybe ten minutes
later, the wind has grown stronger still.  Waves are getting higher, and
even more water is crashing over my deck and splashing my face.  Afraid of
losing it, I decide to take my cap off and stash it under my deck bungies.
Even though the Current Designs Solstice GT I'm paddling has a nice upswept
bow that generally handles rough water well, and my weight seemed to be
evenly distributed fore and aft, the bow is frequently diving into the waves
now.  I try to angle towards shore a little more directly, but angled wind
and wind-waves make that difficult, so I continue on my diagonal course.

Finally, after nearly two hours of paddling, I make it to the camp. FYI,
there are about a dozen camps on Lake Chelan, most of which include a dock,
picnic tables and nice clean outhouses.  At first--except for the
docks--this was sounding a little like car camping :-( , but after arriving
and seeing them, I decide that I can get along with these amenities this
just fine!  There was a group of power boaters there, one of whom graciously
offered to help lift my fully loaded kayak out of the water.  Then, as I
flounder try to erect my tent in the ever-increasing winds (perhaps now 30
knots), another boater has pity on me and offers to help.  Then maybe an
hour later, as they see me by myself setting up the wind screen around my
Whisperlite to heat my dinner, they ask if I'd like to join them for a
wonderful Mexican-themed potluck dinner.  Maybe these power boaters aren't
such bad folks after all!!

For all you ocean-frequenting kayakers reading this, you are probably
familiar with the typical pattern (or at least in the Pacific Northwest)
where the winds are generally light in the morning, increasing towards the
afternoon, then usually subsiding in the evening, right?  Well, no such
pattern seemed to exist here.  As evening comes on, the winds are even
stronger, so I lash every available tent tie-on to a tree or spikes hammered
deeply into the ground (I'm really glad I routinely take a stash of spikes
for this purpose) to anchor it.

The tent-anchoring seemed to hold well enough and I get a semi-decent
night's sleep.  In the morning, I suddenly realize that I forgot my water
filter back in the car!!  ARGGGHHHH!!!  (If this wasn't a family-oriented
discussion list, I might have used a different expletive...).  But, the
winds are merely "breezy" (maybe 10-15 knots), so I decide to make a quick
run back to the launch site.  To my pleasant surprise, the winds gradually
diminish, then virtually die out, and I manage to make the complete trip
there and back (around 5 1/2 miles) averaging a full 4 knots.  Cool!

However, after I return, I find that the nearly dead winds have resurrected
themselves, so rather than break camp and move on to the next one, I decide
to chill for the rest of the day.  As I found out the next day, this was a
very good decision!

I break camp next morning, despite continuing winds.  Again, I found that
the winds seem to be at their minimum around mid-day, so I make very good
time.  And it's a good thing I did, since the next five(!) of those camps
(i.e., Safety Harbor, Big Creek, Corral Creek, Graham Harbor, and Graham
Creek) I asked about before leaving and were told were all open were CLOSED
due to the risk of smoldering fires arising.  I finally flag down a ranger
in her boat and was told the next open camp was on the north side about 3-4
miles further down (around 20 miles from my previous camp).  Fortunately,
the winds were still mild, despite the fact it was nearly 3pm, so I
continued on finally arriving at Prince Creek, where I find a couple sitting
on the dock in their deck chairs next to their boat drinking cocktails.
Apparently it's happy hour!  As I pull up and climb out of the kayak, my
luck continued to hold as the male asks if I'd like a hand getting my kayak
out of the water!  We quickly got to know each other and before long we're
sharing appetizers and wine.  They warn me about the yellow jackets that
were in abundance, which I found was all too true as I set up my tent on
land.  The evening winds again kick up, but doesn't seem to faze the yellow
jackets.

The next day, the winds are much less. I launch in the morning, hoping to
make it all the way to Stehekin at the end of the lake.  The fire damage was
much less in this part of the lake, and all the camps I found were open.  So
I make a pretty leisurely trip out of it, stopping to visit each of the
camps [Domke falls, Refrigerator harbor (nice large camp), Lucerne, and
Moore point], which are all open and quite nice.  Shortly after passing
Moore point, the lake takes a turn and phoosh! -- very abruptly the
_at_#$$##%&!! winds start up again.  This time, the wind catches my hat and
blows it backwards off my head (although I couldn't bear to let it go, so I
loop back to retrieve it).  By the time I make it to Flick Creek camp (only
a few miles from the end of the lake), it's too windy to continue, so I pull
out and find more friendly boaters to help lift my kayak onto the dock.

By the way, remember my comment above about the water temperatures in the
mid-60's?  Wellllll, that's true on the southern end of the lake (near the
town of Chelan), but as you travel toward the northern end, the water
temperature drops 15 degrees to the point where it's nearly ocean
temperature (around 53 degrees)!  Dipping my hand in the water quickly
confirms this.

Anyway, the friendly boaters and I become quickly acquainted, and enjoy a
pleasant evening talking about everything from kayaking to democrat vs
republican vs "the real republicans" vs libertarian philosophies to
you-name-it.  

Unfortunately, the next morning, I reluctantly face the fact that I'd run
out of time for continuing my original goal of reaching the end of the lake
(AND SO CLOSE!!), so I decide to head back.

The return trip was fairly uneventful, except fewer people.  In fact, I
finally ran into the challenge of -- how do you get a kayak up on the dock
all by yourself?  (Note that the shores are almost all rocky and steep, with
little hope of landing).  Finally, I see a maybe 12 foot long log, about 5
inches thick, laying on the shore, so I grab that and tie it perpendicular
to the dock so the end of the log extended out over the dock by about 3
feet.  I then grabbed the lift handle of my bow and pulled the front end of
my kayak (which is parallel to the dock) onto the log where it extended over
the water.  I then steadied the kayak (since the V shaped hull wanted to
turn onto one side of the V or the other) as I made my way to the stern,
where I lifted the other end out of the water and onto the dock.  That
worked pretty well!  >>>IDEA:  Next time I do something like this, I plan to
bring something like a piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting -- rubberized on
one side and smooth on the other -- to use to reduce the friction from
dragging the boat over the wooden dock.<<<

All in all, despite the wind, I found the scenery beautiful, the warm but
not hot September weather very pleasant, the twilight time on the lake
nearly magical, and all of the people very pleasant.  I was also told that,
despite the fact that wind is not uncommon on this lake (especially running
through a gorge as deep as this one is), nevertheless, this was much windier
than usual.  I intend to go back again!

Evan Dallas
Woodinville, Washington
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