Wilderness Central

As you've read in these pages, the Owl Farm is located near Lake Wenatchee (above) at the junction of the Chiwawa and Wenatchee Rivers, just north of Plain, an unincorporated community about 14 miles north of the nearest town, which is Leavenworth, Washington.

Whenever I tell people that our family has property near Leavenworth, they sometimes ask, "why would you have a place in Kansas?"

"Well, Toto, it's because we're not in Kansas anymore," I reply. But we'll talk about Leavenworth -- the Bavarian Village -- later.

Back to the pastoral little commonwealth of Plain, Washington.

Plain can only be described as a quaint little valley in the heart of mountain country on the east side of the North Cascades. At the Owl Farm, we are virtually surrounded by wilderness.

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness lies to the south of Leavenworth, which originally was called "Icicle," until they decided to call the place Leavenworth after a former founder. Icicle Creek is a major tributary of the Wenatchee River, just like the Chiwawa River. Both streams begin at the base of massive glaciers in the Cascades of Washington. About 90 percent of the glaciers in the Lower 48 are in Washington.

If you're traveling to the Owl Farm, you have a number of ways to go. Here are the two most common.

From Seattle, take Washington State Highway 522 to Monroe, then U.S. Highway 2 over Stevens Pass to Washington State Highway 207 (the road to Lake Wenatchee) and follow the signs to Plain. If you're already on the east side of the Cascades, take U.S. Highway 97 to the junction of U.S. Highway 2 and follow the signs to Leavenworth. From Leavenworth, take Washington State Highway 209 to Plain.

Many thanks to The Seattle Times, my former employer when I contracted as a stringer covering North Central Washington, for the great graphic.