Fire is in sight

Today, campers were slow to get going.  By 10:30 AM, we had only cleaned 1 campsite, put out the Reserved signs and sold wood bundles as it was a chilly morning. I raked pine needles off the roadway for a while and Sonny had more coffee to kill time waiting for a campsite to open up. At 11:00 AM, the Ranger came and told us the the Governor had declared a burn ban on state property.  We went back to the campers who bought wood and bought back what we had sold them!  Around 12:30, we took our break and went over to the South side camp store for lunch.  While we were there, a girl came in to report seeing smoke at the north end of the lake. Sure enough, we went outside and were able to see evidence of a fire in the mountains.

We drove North on Lake Wenatchee Highway to the end of the lake where we could see this new fire.



The Ranger thinks this fire was probably smoldering from last Saturday's lightening storm and with the wind change today, it kicked into flames which we could see from here.  3 smoke jumpers were being dropped in this evening and the helicopter was flying around.

 

We stopped to say goodby to the South Park host, Barb, since she is moving back to Marysville tomorrow.  She and Laura were helpful in our orientation to being new hosts.

We liked the sign on their rig.



Barb had a few tame squirrels and chipmunks who have grown fat on daily rations of peanuts.



Back at the North Park, we made rounds to check with the campers who weren't around during the day to get the burn ban message. We met a family from Bothell whose children had spent a long time playing on the gravel tent pad.  With their cars and trucks, they had created a huge "campground".


There were many sites at the
campground.

 


Sam and Matt, the campground builders

 




This is an alligator car driving in the campground.


Another camper and her dad had built an "office" in the bushes.  She didn't want to be in the picture but said she had a vase with flowers on her desk. (It was a beer can with leaves).

Another little girl was making an artistic face in a mound of dirt. Wish you could have seen the little girl's face after playing in the dirt!  I had to look at it twice but she pointed out to me the mouth ( rubber band) and eyes (the two rocks). She did mention that the eyes were sideways to the mouth.  I'm not sure about what the green branch represents.

After dinner, we walked the two loops picking up litter since we weren't selling firewood from the GEM.  We found two campsites who hadn't gotten the burn ban message and filled them in.  It was hard in some cases since the ban doesn't apply to propane fire rings which are allowed.  At our campsite, we balled up the pinecone lights and sat around them for a "campfire".  We were just putting things away for the evening when a couple came to report their neighbors had a fire going and they were frightened. We got the GEM and located the campsite.  Their neighbors had the propane ring so they thought their fire was okay.  They said they would put the fire out before bed but we said the Ranger told us to put it out or he would come to put it out bringing along a fine. I began to empty my bucket while some of the family members were giving me specific directions of where to pour the water so that their chairs wouldn't get ash on them because apparently, they couldn't move the chairs?? 

The clouds and smoke bank to the East were a beautiful pink at sunset.  This picture doesn't do them justice-can't see the pink.  We could see the orange sunset through the trees to the West.