The Property

In case you hadn't heard, Eric and I have bought some vacation property in Eastern Washington. We purchased the property with my brother Tony and his wife Susan. It is out past Wenatchee, on the Eniat River.

The property is a part of 24 lots. It is the only privately owned property on that side of the river in the area. The entire lot is bordered by the National Forest on 3 sides. The other side is the Eniat River. There are a couple of houses on the other side of the river. The previous owner of this land put in a really nice bridge across the river, and paved the road to the top of each lot. There is already power and water to each lot (we just have to access it). There is nothing on the land at the moment. We have only gone as far as to clear out a space near the river to put a couple of tents.

We do have a little bit of river front property. It varies with the level of the water. The first time we were there in May, there was a little bit of a bank you could walk along. But now when we went back there in July and the water level has dropped, we have a nice little sandy beach. We spent this last trip trying to clean up the water front so it was a little bit easier to access. Eric and Tony did a good job.

Even though we don't have a sandy beach all year long, there is a section of unbuildable wetlands that has been designated as a community park. It has a sandy beach, the river runs pretty calm there, and it even has a swimming hole. So everybody just goes and hangs out there. After working all day we would go up there and jump in the river. The river is pretty cold. It is glacier fed. But the weather is really hot over there so it felt good. We have actually floated downstream from the park to our property an number of times. The first time we tried it, the water was pretty swift and we didn't have anything to float on. We found out really quickly where the swift parts of the river where, and where all the big rocks are. This last time we went, the water was running pretty slow. We floated down on some tubes, and it was great. We even took my little brother Wes down the river with us.

One thing about the property, there is a lot of wildlife. On the path down to the park you can see the beaver dam, and you might even find a rattle snake. We have only seen one so far. Eric said that if he finds another one that he is going to eat it. We have also heard there are deer, elk, and even a bear in the area. And of course there are a lot of mosquitoes. Our property is not as bad as some because we do not have any standing water, but I still came back from our first trip with at least 25 mosquito bites. We are still working on a solution for that, but for the time being we purchased a couple of those mosquito tennis racquets, that you swat them with and it zaps them. The are really cheap, but kind of fun.

I think one of the things that really sold us on this property is the rocks. It is seriously like a quarry there. There are plenty of river rocks, we have some great rocks on our property, and the national forest the borders us is like a huge rock slide coming off the mountain. We just back the truck up to it and fill it up with rocks. The coolest rock we have so far is our "Table Rock". On this trip to the side of the mountain, Eric and Tony only got one rock. The managed to get it in the back of the truck, and then took it to our property and put it on top of a stump.

Speaking of the mountain, let me tell you that it is a lot bigger that it seems. This last trip we made to the property, Eric decided he wanted to hike up the mountain. So the rest of us decided we would go with him. If only I had known what I was getting myself into. As we headed up the mountain, it started to get steeper and steeper. There was no path, so we often ran into obstacles, such as bushes and fallen trees. But when it really started to get scary was when we started to climb up unstable rock slides. You couldn't tell which rocks were going to stay, and which were going to go. And these rocks weren't nice to fall on, they basically had broken off the mountain side and they were sharp.

Finally after two and a half hours of climbing straight up, we made it to the top. It was beautiful up there. You could almost see the entire Eniat River from up there. We were so high up that I could not even pick out where our cars were located. But by then I was tired and just wanted to get back to the camp site. If only I had know that the trip down the mountain would be tougher than the way up. We decided to go down the mountain on the other side. It was so scary going down. The ground was unstable, and I was constantly sliding. There was a few times that I wasn't sure if I was going to go sliding right off a cliff. But the worst part came when when we ran right into a rock face, and the only way to get down was to hold on, and move across. I think this happened three times. Each time I wasn't sure if I would live through it. The scarriestone was when I was standing on a ledge which was on tha tiny ledge. There was a cliff below me, and a rock face above me. Eric was standing above me telling me to grab hold of his walking stick and pull myself up this rock face that was at least twice as tall as me. All I could think of was, what if I trusted all of my weight on this stick, and then it broke, and I went tumbling down the mountainside. Well, I waited till Tony came and pushed my feet up the rock face. We were thirsty, dirty as hell, our feet were blistered, our muscles ached, and our legs were all scraped up, but finally after another two and a half hours we made it back to the camp site. I can say for sure, that I will not be going up that mountain ever again.

Regardless, we have really enjoyed the time that we have spent at the property. So far, only Tony, Susan, Eric, and I have stayed up there. My parents did get a chance to stop by and check things out, but they did not get to stay long. Once, we have the placed cleared out a little, and make room for more tents, we would love to have people come up and camp. We'll keep you posted.

Chainsaw Massacre

Here is Eric with his chainsaw. We did so much cleaning and burning while we were there. Eric was loving it.

Work! Work! Work!

Here is Susan raking up dead branches in our campsite.

Campfire

We found plenty of rocks on the edge of the mountain to make our first camfire. We have already used it quite a bit.

Big Rock

Here is Susan standing next to the biggest rock we have found on our property. This is the top of the property, looking from the road.

Table Rock

Here is Eric placing the Table Rock on its stump.

Before

This is what our beachfront looked like before we did any work on it.

Cut 'er Down

Eric and tony cut down all of the crappy trees off the bank. Of course we left the cedar trees. Here is Eric taking a break after all of that cutting.

Burn, Baby Burn!

This is what it looked like after Eric burned, and burned, and burned. You can see the huge ash pile there, and he is still in the background raking crap up to through on the fire.

Dam It!

We wanted to clean up the actual beach. There were a lot of log jams. They were helping to make our beach sandy, but they didn't exactly look great. So we took out the log jams, and put some big rocks there. It worked pretty well. You can see Eric and Tony strategizing here.

Steps

When they finished, it looked really good. We even added steps up to the bank. You can sort of see it here. Look closely, the rocks are the same color as the sand. I found those rocks in the river.

After

After we were finished, this is what it looked like. Now we have a great place to go hand out at the river. We still have to put steps in down the bank to get there, but it's a work in progress.

Sittin' on the River

Tony enjoying the view from our big rock on the river bank.

Down Stream

Here is the view looking down the river from us.

Taking a Break

Susan, Tony and Eric on our hike up the mountain. We're taking a break here. When this picture was taken, we had only been hiking for half an hour. You can see how steep the hill was already.

Water Please!

Here is Eric after an hour and a half into the hike. You can see that he is already ou of water. I was so damn thirsty when we got back to the camp site.

I'm Frickin' Hot

On our way up, you could see the comunity park. It is that sandy area along the river. The whole time we were up there I just kept thinking, "I'm frickin' hot. All I want to do is jump in that river."

Gandalf Staff

Here is Eric with his walking stick. He left this one at the top of the mountain, wedged in some rocks. He calls it his Gandalf Staff.

View of the River

View of the river on the way up.

Rock On!

Here's Eric, climbing up more rock. We are still only about 1 hour and 40 minutes into the hike at this point. You can see the terrain is getting a little tougher.

Top of the Mountain

Here we are at the top. Finally! It took 2 and a half hours. 

Tony and Susan

Here is Tony and Susan at the top. You can see Tony's walking stick forks at the end. That was in case we ran into a rattle snake. We did hear one, but it decided not to show itself. Tony still has his stick at the campsite, it made it the whole trip.

View from the Top

Well, here is the view from the top. You can only imagine what it was like getting back down. I don't have any of those pictures. I was too busy trying to stay alive.