Colchuck Lake

47-year-old Richard Lee was last seen on September 9th, 2004, when he left his home in King County for a two-day hiking trip in the Wenatchee-Okanogan National Forest in Washington State.

Richard was an experienced hiker in the wilderness and planned to explore the Colchuck Lake area, part of the Cascades.

The area was rugged, but the weather was perfect when Richard set out.

During the two days, he phoned his brother using his cellphone to tell him all was well.

On September 11th, 2004, Richard failed to return to his home in King County, and the authorities were eventually informed of his disappearance on Saturday the 15th by his wife, who wasn't initially concerned when he didn't return home on the 11th.

Searchers quickly set up a 70-square-mile search area focusing on Lake Stuart, Colchuck Lake, and the Enchantment Lakes to the southwest of Leavenworth.

Unfortunately, up to eight inches of snow fell in the area at the same time, making the efforts of the search and rescue teams more difficult.

Three planes from the State Department of Transportation were used, and Chelan County Mountain Rescue crews were assisted by volunteers from King, Yakima, and Kittitas Counties.

Yeah

... a really lovely piece of art sitting above my piano that is of Colchuck Lake in the Cascade Mountains, and that was where my husband and I had our first date, when we went hiking on this, to this, um, lake.

And so that is the, the tie to story that I'm talking about, where it is not in your face in a way, but there's just those little connections.

And you could come over, Monica, to my home, and you might not know what those things are.

47-year-old Richard Lee was last seen on September 9th, 2004, when he left his home in King County for a two-day hiking trip in the Wenatchee-Okanogan National Forest in Washington state.

Richard was an experienced hiker in the wilderness and planned to explore the Colchuck Lake area, part of the Cascades.

The area was rugged, but the weather was perfect when Richard set out.

During the two days, he phoned his brother using his cellphone to tell him all was well.

On September 11th, 2004, Richard failed to return to his home in King County, and the authorities were eventually informed of his disappearance on Saturday the 15th by his wife, who wasn't initially concerned when he didn't return home on the 11th.

Searchers quickly set up a 70-square mile search area focusing on Lake Stuart, Colchuck Lake, and the Enchantment Lakes to the southwest of Leavenworth.

Unfortunately, up to eight inches of snow fell in the area at the same time, making the efforts of the search and rescue teams more difficult.

Three planes from the State Department of Transportation were used, and Chelan County Mountain Rescue crews were assisted by volunteers from King, Yakima, and Kittitas Counties.

Drum roll please.

Is Colchuck Lake over-rated?

Yes.

I've seen a million-

World.

It's not.

You see some larches there, and you, if you go be- I'm talking about Colchuck Lake.

I'm not talking about the whole Enchantment-

You can have a conifer that is deciduous and western larch is one of those examples.

So it is losing all of its needles every year and growing a whole new crop of needles and that's why we get the spectacular fall color in the Cascades and places where Western Larch predominates, the classic being the Colchuck Lake area over by Leavenworth that everyone rightfully wants to see at that time.

Where do you recommend people go to see some really great fall colors?

When we're thinking of Washington, which as a mountain climber, a photographer, and an arborist, some of my most amazing days in this state have been... experiencing foliage both in Seattle and in the Cascade Mountains.

like long stops we had one longer stop and that was when we got to colchuk lake which we'll talk about where that's located on the trail in a little bit but we spent probably about 45 minutes at colchuk just taking it in because it was just after sunrise so It's really pretty, capturing some photos, capturing some video content.

A lot of our friends, this was their first time coming up to Kolchak Lake.

So we spent a little longer there than anywhere else.

Elsewhere, we just had little mini breaks to refuel, rehydrate, let our legs recover just a touch before continuing on.

It's just you may have to end up walking a little bit to get to the start of the trail if you are there later in the morning or later in the day.

Yeah.

And that's particularly if you're doing like a day hike to Colchuck Lake and back, you know, or just a shorter hike that isn't going to do like if you're not doing the whole traverse essentially that you can still potentially park here.

It just might be a little bit further away from the trailhead, like you said.