Summer in Stehekin: Day 6-10

Welcome Back! The past week or so has been crazy hectic! And super exciting! So without further ado, Days 6 - 10

Saturday, June 20, 2015 = Welcome Home
Today was my first official day in my new position. Kayak Girl! Sounds like a superhero name (Looking back on it now, I guess that's pretty accurate). So what does a kayak girl do? Well, let me explain. I'm still working for the lodge. Actually this is the job I was initially hired to do. So I'm still in retail, periodically working in the store to cover days off and the such, but the rest of the time I'm done at the kiosk, renting kayaks. I guess hiring someone to run the kiosk stemmed from some safety issues from last year. So here I am!

The kiosk is a little shack that was originally located closer to the landing but was moved down here to be able to lock up the kayaking gear. So it's an understatement to say that it needed to be cleaned out and organized. So, day one at the kiosk = cleaning, inventory, maintenance, and reorganizing. I hung all the PFDs from a line I hung on the wall. I collected all the old light fixtures since there isn't electricity into the building anymore. I cleaned the cobwebs, washed the windows, and swept the floors. Now it actually looks acceptable for business.

Part of my job entailed rewriting (or writing, for the first time) safety and standard operating protocols. As I assisted eight paddlers today, I started mentally putting together a list of rules and methods that we would need to post in the kiosk and have ready in case of an emergency. This process is going to be more work than the cleaning.

My New Office

Sunday, June 21, 2015 = Black Caps and Making Rules

Another exciting day at the kiosk! It was a bit windy and slow for the rentals, but it enabled me to type up all the documents we would need for the kiosk. So I brought my computer down to the hut with me, settle into a comfy kayak and set to work, the mountains as my screensaver. Perfection.

Part way through the day, I had a young woman come to kayak. Emily Lester is a photographer from Seattle and is an amazing artist. We connected later on Instagram and it will be exciting to follow her in her pursuits.

Stephanie swung by the store today. In case I haven't introduced this new character, she is a bakery worker who is about the most wonderful human being ever. She's kind, compassionate, and friendly. We became instant friends and its always a joy to see her smiling face around Stehekin. Strolling into the store bearing the battle scars of a lengthy day bush-whacking for black cap raspberries, she offered me some of the fruit to my delight. They truly are delicious! Hope we can go on an adventure together...

Mary approved all of my documents and she will print and laminate them for me to hang tomorrow. Very important, because tomorrow is our inspection by the NPS (I think its NPS…)

Working Hard...

Black Caps!

Monday, June 22, 2015 = New Waters

Boy, today was busy! Eleven kayakers and two guided trips. That's right folks. I lead trips! How exciting! While Mary was stressing out about the inspection and running around like crazy, I was on the water helping two families. The first was Jun and her son, Shuyang and her mother, Guiyiang. They had never kayaked before, so I offered to go with them. They were overjoyed. And while I assumed Jun and Shuyang would be the gung-ho ones, 70 year old Guiyiang was the one eager to go faster and out paddle her daughter and grandson. It was wonderfully amusing and amazing. She was so confident for someone who'd never paddled before. They were so grateful I went with them, they tipped my $10. My first guide tips!

The second trip I did was with another family. Filipina, her daughter Yeline, and her husband James. It was originally just going to be mother and daughter, but once they got on the water, the father couldn't be left out. I put him in a boat and we went to see the pictographs (I'll explain in just a bit). When we got back and I took them up to the store to pay, they really wanted to tip me, but didn't have any cash. Bummer! But then again, I love my job, so the smiles are worth more than any amount of money. Renting kayaks is one thing. But when I'm actually with the people I'm putting on the lake, there's a sense of accomplishment that doesn't come from anything else. This must be what it feels like to be a teacher.

I met Emily, the inspector, who told me that the kayak kiosk looked amazing. Mary had wanted me to be around in case she had any questions, but she had none! She said everything looked great and organized and that every requirement she'd set had been met and outdone! I think Mary's happy with me ;)

Trip One: Couldn't ask for a better day!

Cascade Magic

 Tuesday, June 23, 2015 = First Day Off!

Wow is it windy. I guess I should mention the weather here. For the most part it's beautiful. Most days we have no clouds in the skies, which is amazing. It's warm, sometimes hot, but not unbearable. The mornings are my favorite time. There is no wind and the water is like glass. The sunlight streams over the mountains, lighting up the water like little jewels. Not to mention illuminating the deep blue of the lake. The one downfall to my job is the afternoon winds. Sometimes as early as 10am, but most days around 2-4pm, we get very high down-lake winds that sweep through the valley. Like today. Early winds preventing any kayaking. But actually I'm okay with that. That means I get a day off. My very first!

So what's a girl to do on her day off? Go slacklining in the park (though I'm having trouble finding good trees). Meet up with coworkers and go swimming. My first time in Lake Chelan was shocking. Literally. With temperatures barely entering the 60's in late August, the glacially fed waters of Chelan are a great way to cool off and instill a thrill in your heart. So Chloe, Else, Carly, Amanda (bakery) and I jumped into the lake. Chloe is an amateur documentary filmmaker and she filmed the plunge. And apparently she wants to interview me this summer about slacklining and being vegan in a remote location. She's doing a film about alternate lifestyles. Very cool!

After our swimming adventures, we changed and headed up to the local baseball game. Most nights there is something going on somewhere on the 'island.' Tuesday's is baseball night. There were a lot of people there, most of them I didn't know, obviously. Mostly locals, the seasonal workers, and the WCC (Washington Conservation Corps).

I met Ron, who is the owner of Discovery Bike Rentals. He's also the local school teacher, principal, superintendent, ect. Let me clarify. Stehekin has a year-round population of 83 people. Some of them have children, so naturally there is a school here. The school teaches children from kindergarten through eighth grade. This fall's attendance is four children (which is the minimum they can have to keep the school open). So what happens after eighth grade (or if there are less than four kids)? They have to go to school in Chelan or elsewhere, staying with friends or family. But here's the cool thing. Every kid that has left the Stehekin school has gone on to place in the top five of their graduating class. Many of them end up as valedictorian. Wow! With a personalized schooling system like Stehekin, you really do get an amazing education.

Breezy Morning!

Valley B-Ball



Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Not much to say on Wednesday. Guided a young woman, Rachel from London, across the lake. Her boyfriend wasn't feeling well and she didn't want to go by herself. So I took her to see the pictographs. I guess since I don't have much to say about the day, I'll tell you about the pictographs.

Across the lake are a series of paintings, called pictographs (petro glyphs are carvings), that we call the Painted Rocks. Original, right? They have been examined by archaeologists and have been dated around 5,000-8,000 years old. They lie right about the water line, a mile from the landing. Here's the puzzle. Two hundred years ago when white settlers first came up-lake, Lake Chelan was 22 feet lower than it is today (due to the Chelan Dam construction that raised the lake level). So how did the paintings get onto the rock, 22 feet about the water line? To answer that, we have to remember that the mountains and gorge here were carved by glaciers. So thousands of years ago, there was still receding glacial ice on the lake. So the current theory is that the people, who used the Cascade Pass as a trade corridor (Stehekin actually means 'the way through') walked across the glacial ice and documented their passing. Pretty cool huh? I'll put some photos below.
 

Ignore the 1946 graffiti

So amazing!