On Vacation

Oct 26, 2005 by Naomi.

There comes a time when a person needs to get away from all things routine and I decided it was yesterday, October 20, Ashton Elizabeth Sherer’s fifteenth birthday. And the day of immediate decisions. I would leave for Judy’s cabin on Tieton Reservoir shore near White Pass. It had been over two years since I had been there and I wasn’t sure if it was vacant or even whether it had been sold in the interim since Judy had found employment in Alaska. As I turned left off US Highway 12 on Tieton Road pointing toward Tieton Helipad, I was alarmed at the amount of smoke coming up through the pines and firs ahead of me. Within two miles the source of the smoke was visible in flames at the base of trees and in clumps of detrious on the forest floor. It didn’t bode well for a restful day at the cabin.

More alarming and surprising was the scene at the Lake. There was literally
no lake. I could only see small streams among the hills on the lake bottom.
Lines of previous water levels were vivid showing the level of water had
receded as much as 20 feet or more. We’re not talking shrinking of 20
feet in a hundred acre area of water but in hundreds of acres of water
surface in a lake that reaches in the Tieton river bed for over 10 miles.
Big time water deficit. I took pictures of the outlet of a large stream
that fed into the lake where Alex had waded into when we visited ten years
ago. Scary is the depth of the gorge leading under the bridge where young
people were jumping feet first into the then very high water. Luckily
the water was so icy coming down from the snow in the surrounding hills
that Alex opted not to immerse himself beyond his knees. And only for
a matter of very few minutes although he felt some excitement in the divers
downstream 50 yards or so. The stream is now only a 3 to 5 foot wide trickle
feeding into the Tieton Reservoir.

From this point which is beyond Judy’s cabin I saw no sign of smoke and wondered if the fires had been put out. It looked as if the cabin was in no danger. If it had been I would have driven away and proceeded northward. I was ready for a night in the forest - no telephone, no television, no radio. After dark to see the stars beyond the trees I walked a short way up the road. Not only did I see clearly the big dipper but every star in the handle of the little dipper which were not visible from the Clear Lake campgroud in Oregon with Tim a month ago. That was thrilling. Simple minded me.

What else I saw were lights of several other cabins where inhabitants were settling in for a peaceful night, not apparently concerned with forest fires. I went to bed confident.

But in the morning with fingertips tingling from cold, I felt guilty using wood I had not helped to harvest as I had in past visits and did not heat the cabin for further habitation. I decided to head north for centralized heating still within the scope of vacation.

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