Yakima Washington

“Anybody out there near this place? I'm not in Korea anymore! I'm trying to find my way around this area. Can't backpack cause I don't have any gear but I would like to fly fish.

Thanks”

“Nope, but I'm in Portland. :D”

“I've been in the region, pretty nice. Mostly up around Packwood near Rainer NP. We fished in a place called La Wis Wis. Never caught any, but it was a beautiful place.”

“sarbar, dicentra, RatPacker and I are in the Seattle area, but none of us fish... Try the NWHikers.net forum. I'm sure someone there has info.
last edited: 7/25/05 10:50:39 PM”

“Back in the 70s when I was at WSU, a group of us went over to Baker Lake(?) near Mt. Baker for some fishing. No luck fishing but we got drenched with the rain!”

“Baker Lake is a bit far from Yakima. And it doesn't rain as much in Yakima. He should probably stay over there on the eastside. LOL!”

“Forget fishing and go to Selah for cherries. Most cherries in Costco come from Yakima and Wenatchee. Buy them by the flat. Why do we pay $3.99 per pound for cherries in a state that grows them?”

“I have family in Yakima,I haven't been there to visit in 15 years but the Naches River along Hwy 410 west has fly fishing only sections, I used to fish the streams and beaver ponds just east of Chinook Pass.

Check with the Naches District FS office, I'm sure they can give you some leads.”

“Ah ... the Yakima desert ... good times ...”

“Spend some time at the Firing Range Sarge?”

“yup - Love that dirt.”

“lipstick, why do we eat last year's apples that have been sitting in cold storage? It's stupid if you ask me. I ate an apple I picked off a tree in Peshastin, near Leavenworth and couldn't believe the difference. dumb dumb dumb.

ormarine can hit a fruit stand on his way to the Naches river. ; )”

“I hope to retire back up there in a few years, I have an interest in a Nat'l Forest summer home along the American River on Hwy 410.”

“I hope to retire back up there in a few years

Must be a lot more to it than the desert. That's all I got to see when there, and certainly wouldn't pick it as a vacation spot based on that. Washington is a beautiful state.”

“All we can buy in food stores in the east is Washington apples even though they were extensively raised here not too long ago. There are still a few producing orchards here, but you have to scout around to buy their produce.”

“Sarge,

Head west up into the mountains, anything east of Yakima sucks till you hit Idaho.”

“pixie, geo, I visited friends in CA (Salenas) that almost live in the middle of a lettuce field, yet they can't get good lettuce. I think produce producing states may send out the best produce to other states???

My mom can get cherries at $1. per pound (in NY) on sale and sometimes we can too, but usually they are higher than that on sale at $3.99 here. Costco sells the 4 pound containers for $2.99 per pound and they come from Yakima or Wenatchee and I saw our same cherries in Costco in NY a few weeks ago for the same price. Costco should cut us WA people a break since they are not shipping our to us.

You don't even want to look at the price of Rainier cherries. They are good when they are sweet, but they are juicier and contain less fiber. I still tend to prefer what I grew up with, huge bing cherries which I have still yet to see here in the 7+ years I live here.

When I went out to Yakima to a cherry farm, they give you a small bag to pick some, then sell you a whole flat and that cost me about $1. per pound a few years ago. When they gave me the bag, I made sure to pick the Rainier ones since they are more expensive and I do like them every so often. The flat was of Bings or who knows what they were. There are many types of red cherries that produce at different times of the month from the summer.

I laughed when I was doing the CA coast one year and stopped by a farm side stand. They were selling hot house tomatoes from British Columbia. The only real vegetable I've gotten from road side stands that were from the area was corn at the end of the summer.”

“Sometimes I think they're all subsidizing the trucking industry. I have seen loaded lumber trucks driving into and out of West Virginia at the same time. Why would they be driving Virginia trees into West Virginia and West Virginia trees into Virginia? Or are they the same trees being driven in loops?

So everybody scratches their head and asks, "Why is the cost so high?"

Free enterprise ain't free! That's why.

Oh yeah, the rest of us get to follow them over the mountains. One potato, two potato, three potato ...”

“lipstick: CostCo are even more scoundrels for being based out of Issaquah! Poops.”

“Geobeet,

When I worked for a paper mill I saw log trucks passing each other all the time. Why? Because each company hauls their trees from their land to their mills. Their range extends about a hundred miles. Obviously they want to buy land close to the mills but have to buy what's available. Yeup, it's inefficient.”

“Forget the cherries! Go the the Yakima wineries!! :)”

“dicentra, I've been around the state camping and hiking alot and I am kind of suprised I never got into the wineries (or let the wine(ries) get into me:)

There's that one up north of Seattle I think, and they also may have summer concerts there too. I forget the name. Chateau....something...Chateau Michelle!

I did a lot of wine country touring when I went to Napa and Sonoma in CA, so I guess I got wined out on tours etc.

The cherry season is so short, I feel compelled to hit it hard and fast before they are gone. I have never seen as beautiful large hard cherries as I have in NY.”

“Chateau St Michelle in Woodinville. There are actually a bunch of wineries in that area. Lots of little guys and Columbia winery. I've gone wine tasting a few times there. Tons of fun.”

“pixie, you twisted my arm, lol. I will go on wine tours. Actually, it is a good way to find some more wines that you like.

In wine country in CA, they have limo services that specialize in taking people around to wine tours so they don't have to drive.

Right now I'm into Fetzer Chardonnay. I'm strickly a white wine drinker.”

“lipstick, the Burke Gilman trail runs through the winery area. I've always wanted to bike out there from Seattle and cruise around to the different wine tastings. I'd just have to be careful not to taste too many wines and crash my bike! LOL!”

“I thought I had posted something here that I don't see which was that I rode from a party in my neighborhood in NY many years ago on my bicyle and fell right over in front of a bus stop full of people. What a sight that must have been. People offered to help me, but I was fine, yeah right, lol:)

If you read the "stitches" thread, sometimes I think I'm indestructable. There is that phrase or saying about not leaving this world in a perfect body and living life to it's fullest, but how do you know what the fine line is between living life to it's fullest and nearly killing yourself???”

“Ask Pixie about the bike/beer run! That was the best trip report ever! lol.


How about cherry wine then!? :)”

“You mean the Tour De Bar di? That was such a blast. Sadly it is the same weekend as the BC camping trip in the San Juans. I'm sad I can't do both. :(

For those who are interested. Here is my TR from last summers Tour:
Tour De Bar 2004

Just read that thread. Wonder what ever happened to ww. He was fun. I talked to him last in December, I think...”

“The Blue Mountains of SE Washington have some fine backcountry without big crowds, I worked 2 summers in the town of Dayton, WA with the wildlands just 10 minutes up the Touchet River valley.”

“I finally got to get outta YAKIMA, I got up in the Wenatchee area, American river, Natches, and Little Natches. Didn't want to go back to Yakima, it was 77 degrees and gorgous on the mountain top and 102 degrees in Yakima... I'll get out and explore more if I could get the crew I work with to go anyplace with me. All they want to do is party on the weekend, nothing wrong with that if thats what they want to do but I want to get out and explore, since I can read the signs here( Ain't in Korea anymore thanks you very much) Isn't safe to be out in strange territory by yourself and no one familiar with the area either to tell where you will be at.

Hey lonesurveyor what part of North Carolina are you from?? I'm orginally from Sylva,but bought bought a house near Canton.”

“Ole, they don't grow cherries and other things in Yakima and Wenatchee for nothin. It gets HOT there.

I planned an overnighter in a Wenatchee hotel about 2 months ago. It was about 75 degrees. As the week progressed, so did the degrees in temperature until it reached what would be 90 degree for the day I would be there, so I cancelled. I've been there before and was just going to the Ohme Gardens out there and for walking the long waterway.”

“Sarge: I'm not in Yakima anymore, but I used to live there, and also Wenatchee and Chelan for about 20 years. There are some great places for you to see in that area, such as the Goat Rocks area, Mt. Rainier, Mt Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Ingalls Lake, Rampart Ridge, Spectacle Lake, lakes off Chinook and Snoqualmie passes, Stuart Lake, Eight Mile Lake, and an incredible range of wild mountains north of Lake Wenathchee I couldn't even start to describe.

One totally incredible place to see, but hard to get a permit for camping, is the Enchantments. Some recent (last weekend) photos of the Enchantments are here: (sorry, don't know how to set up a link here)

http://patentpending.blogs.com/

Here are some photos from a friend of mine in Wenatchee WA of a late season hike (last weekend) into an alpine area called the Enchantments. The big lake is Colchuch lake, and looking back over it you see Mt. Cashmere across a big valley. The gulley is Asgard pass, which has a rough trail into the plateau above. This area is near Stuart Peak, and Dragontail Peak. Marc and I once went into here in the winter, skied across Colchuck Lake, climbed the peaks around the basin, and skied down Asgard Pass, in another life when we were invinceable. Some other photos in other emails follow that I thought each of you would enjoy. I hope your email boxes don't reject them.”

“Is Sarge coming to WA?”

“oops,I left a scrap of text in from a cut and paste from an email. Disregard the last paragraph of my post.

pixaxe, he said he was moving to Yakima, and was in need of hiking information.”

“Oh.
Well good suggestions. Couldn't have said it better myself and I live in WA. ; )”

“Might have been somebody else Idaho. I've been there, but don't plan to move there.”

“This might help:

http://www.cascadians.org/”

“Sarge: oops,my mistake. It was oleretiredmarine who started the post,but maybe hasn't checked back in awhile. The Mounaineers are another group that does trips in the Cascades. They are Seattle based, but being so numerous have trips more frequently. Bob”

“the PNWH posse (aka Sarbar, dicentra,I and others around WA)
If o.r.m. sees this, we'd be happy to help with ideas on places to go and if he'd like to join us on trips.

(We are way nicer than those Mountaineers people. LOL!)”

“LOL!”

“Some of us (not me!) ARE those Mountaineers people! LOL.”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean di. Especially the stories that Sea Coyote told us about the Everett group.”

“I know. I just thought it was funny!

We'll hike with ANYBODY! Our history proves that... LOL!!! We've had some very interesting people along on some of our trips.”

“Ain't that the truth.”

“LOL!”