Leavenworth

What do you do when you have an unexpected free day? Why, drive to a Bavarian mountain town of course! We had been told Leavenworth was something of a Bavarian Disney land nestled in the mountains. The lure of beer and brats was too much. The weather was good, it was going to be warmer over the other side of the cascades, it wasn't snowing so the mountain passes were easily accessible. So we packed the ham sandwiches and trail mix and headed off in the car.
We decided to take the Snoqualamie Pass route there. It's good to see that even in the mountains, refrigerator recycling is top of the list.
It was 21C outside, but at 3,4ooft there was still snow.
Coming round a corner you come across this lake. I think it was a reservoir judging by the walling, but you never know. The circles in the window are Tony's note book. He was designing logos for his new bikes as we drove.

You come out of the mountains and drop into another world with beech trees galore, apple orchards, wineries and goats in fields. It was funny to us to think that we could go somewhere like this on a day trip when we'd seen it in brochures and thought of it as a spot too expensive for even a long holiday.

We arrived at Leavenworth and were not disappointed...

It was Mother's Day so the town had a German festival organised with Oom-pa band, may pole, folk dancers, horse rides and all manner of free food to taste!
The dancers were accompanied by a man with an accordion. They made a beautiful sight in the town square.

Although the majority of the men involved were far on the the other side of 50, they certainly still had some spring in their step!

We brought our hiking boots with the idea of taking a gentle, flat stroll along a vista point somewhere.

We are the Corkes. We cannot do flat straight routes. What were we thinking? So another 5.3 mile 4000ft elevation change trek it was.
We chose the 4th of July trail about 10 miles up Icicle Road. We saw may be 3 other people? It was fascinating walking through a section of forest that had recently had a fire. The scorch marks were clearly visible. The ground was laden with ash. Stones and rocks were showing a beautiful toasted red shade. I collected 7 different kinds of rock on the walk. All different colors.
After about 1hr 30 minutes and having nearly exhausted our single water bottle (what was it I wrote about being prepared for a mountain hike a while ago?) we decided to turn back. This is what we saw at our highest point.


We skipped merrily back down the slopes, dodging branches, crossing streams, stopping to look at more rocks, wondering longingly if the water we were crossing was drinkable and headed back to the car. Thankfully the ranger hadn't been checking tickets. We left our card at home (always be prepared). The drive back to Leavenworth was haunted by the smell of German goodness...


The Muenchen Haus surpassed any expectations we had. The mountain air and piped Volksmusik combined to create Himmel auf Erden.
And they drove home tired, but happy, over the Stevens Pass to dream of chipmunks, sausage and mountain passes.