Twisp of Fate

Friends Chris & Tom came over from The Coast to spend 2 nights with us over this MLK weekend.  The night before they arrived, we had a lovely sunset:

This was taken from our bedroom window.  This building was already here when we bought the place, although we have added a shop extension, carport and covered walkways to it.   I always think they built it “backwards”, in that the best views out to the mountains are from the two bedrooms.  Apparently he intended to have the upstairs serve as an office, and he wanted the views from his office.  Go figure.

But I digress.  Chris and Tom came over for the weekend.  Saturday night we went up to Local 98856 for dinner, joining some other friends who are, well, local.  “The Local” is mainly a breakfast/lunch/deli type of place, but they have occasional themed dinners and special evening events.  The owner, Tess, is a strong promoter of eating locally grown, fresh organic produce and meats.  This past Saturday was one of her “Farm-to-Table” dinners, with a guest chef.  They set it up as open, family style seating at big tables, and overall it is a very relaxed, convivial atmosphere.  Our dinner stretched out over several hours and a good time was had by all!

Yesterday started out quite foggy – we have had a lot of freezing fog over here lately, which coats the trees with ice in a beautiful way, but is a bit dismal since we are used to having our sunshine over here, after all.  We were planning to snowshoe and selected an area that hopefully would get us above the valley fog.

We drove up north on the Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road, turning up Bear Creek Road to the Campbell Lake Rd turnoff.  Met some other folks there, so we had a party of eight and started out with the sun trying to break through.  This road allows snowmobiles so was quite packed down – we initially walked and carried our snowshoes. (But fortunately, not a single snowmobile was seen or heard during our hike.)

That’s my friend Chris on the left, we have been buddies since the 7th grade.  On the right, Marlene and Nora.

Gradually the North Cascade mountains to the west emerged into sunshine:

Mt Gardiner from Campbell Lake Rd

Eventually we struck out cross-country from the road, and climbed up into the hills to get even better views.  The snow was so condensed and crusty that you could easily walk just about anywhere.  It was a really fun day, which ended with a nice cold beer at the Twisp River Pub before heading home for hot showers and a delicious dinner (Chris cooked, not me, so this isn’t bragging….)

View west from hills near Campbell Lake