Lake Chelan Poker Run Tips
 

We are excited to be going to the Lake Chelan Poker run for the first time this weekend. Does anybody have any good tips for this event?

I hope you got some help , was going to the street party tonight but the weather is a little iffy for an hour and a half drive, and buddies gal has to work early. Hope to be up in the morning to see the boats.

Sorry we're going to miss it. Only thing I can offer is to watch for floating wood. We were there last week and there were some patches of wood that you needed to make sure you kept an eye out for. Overall, have a great time. Good people!

We went up and there were some amazing boats !

I'm going to reply to my own thread now that I've been a couple of times.

1st- Don't travel Friday and go home Monday like I have had to do twice now. Travel Thursday and go home Sunday. There is a nice raft up party Friday followed by the Street Party. And in the 2 years I've been there nobody sticks around Sunday.

2nd- Don't take the steep grade into Chelan unless you have a huge truck or huge balls. I did last year to save time. It's a 12% grade for 5 miles and I think that is average because there are places it seems straight down. I was in first gear 5-10 mph the whole way and my brakes were still smoking. The whole time I was looking for places to plow into the bank in case the brakes failed.

3nd- Pay the boat launch! We camp in our boat out of the water at the Manson Boat Launch. I don't feel good about the docks ... might try it this year in the water but have always been scared. Parking is $10 per day and make sure you pay it correctly. They give out lots of tickets and they are way more expensive. I'm considering calling ahead and getting an annual pass for $45 just so I don't have to worry about it.

4rd- Be safe around the logs. There are places where they are thick. Slow way down through them. I've had people fly by me at speed through them and I've seen people lose drives.

5th- There's a Tow Boat at check point 2. If you break just plan on calling for a tow. It's a big lake. Last year I was going to tow a friends broken boat from the top of the lake. After about 2 miles I realized it was something like 15 or 20 miles to the next boat launch. I wouldn't have made it half way before I'd have been out of gas. We tied up the boat and blasted down the lake and found a tow boat to go get it. And I missed most of the Saturday raft up party in Chelan.

Do you remember the road name or number mentioned in tip 2?
I'll be going for my first time this year. I couldn't get the time off work to leave Thursday so I'll be over in the early afternoon Friday.