Ally Abroad

Stehekin, WA is officially my favorite trail town. Tied with Sierra City, CA. It has the three key elements: A laid back small town with an awesome porch and an even better cinnamon roll. Plus the town is super hiker friendly. It’s  small enough to get around on foot, has excellent swimming, free camping, long, hot showers for a quarter and our friends Jackass and Molasses, who had to get off trail, and ended up cooking in the lodge kitchen (Which has excellent food. Don’t believe the Yogi book!).

Stehekin is the ultimate small town. It has all of 75 permanent residents. Situated at the north end of Lake Chelan, the road to Stehekin washed out a few years ago, so the only way into town is by boat or floatplane. The phone lines are all satellite. There are dairys and orchards. People use wells and solar power. There’s a one room school. There are actually barn raisings. It creates this super-cool small town sense of community, of mutual aid and rugged individualism. Some Stehekin residents take it a bit too far, being John Birch Society-style ideologues, but most of the residents just love the small town life and being surrounded by the outdoors.

But without a doubt the best part of Stehekin was the baking company. They have the most incredible pastries, a goat dairy and an amazing kitchen garden. It may have been the best cinnamon roll on the trail. The bakery is only open a few days a week in the late season, but they put day old baked goods out in their gazebo, where hikers can buy them on the honor system. Still, ABear and I decided to stay until the bakery opened, so ABear could do his entire resupply there. He ate nothing but cinnamon rolls, scones, muffins, twists, coffeecake and homemade bread for three days straight, and enjoyed every minute of it. I was a little envious myself.

Stehekin also has a strong nostalgia element for me because as a child my family always vacationed in Chelan, at the south end of the lake. It really doesn’t feel like summer has started until I’ve swum in the lake. Next up, on trail tie-dying and Scrabble tournaments.