We woke up late in Okanogan. We really needed the rest after the backpacking in Glacier. My injuries felt a lot better. Even my face has begun to return to it’s usual appearance. We loaded up the car and decided to grab a hot meal before leaving.
We finally got on the road and went towards North Cascades. We drove through a couple of small towns, including one that’s a town devoted to being as Western-esque as possible and it’s entirely a tourist trap.
The plains of Eastern Washington rolled on until a sudden entrance into the Cascade range. The view of Liberty Bell on WA-20 is striking when you first see it. Fortunately, the US Forest Service has created a great view point off the highway to allow one to acclimate themselves to the scenery that will envelop them for the next few hours.
The drive continued in to the Ross Lake National Recreation Area and North Cascades National Park Complex. The views continued to be awe inspiring. The peaks were like those of Glacier, but wholly different. I suspect that we saw more glaciers on the road than they have in Glacier National Park.
We stopped in the North Cascade Visitor Center to grab a map, get the National Park Passport stamp, and find out about what hikes might be good (especially given our…broken condition). We were directed towards the Cascade Pass hike, a 7.4 mile, 1800ft ascent, moderate hike. We decided that we’d tackle it tomorrow, and camp somewhere for the night.
While we were at the visitor center, we were able to get some cell service. This meant that we were able to be in touch with the real world. For Lara, this meant issues with the movers, some family matters, the financial drain of the trip, and a few other things. For me, it meant a reminder of how little money I have, how work won’t take a month off despite my hopes it would, and just the general inrush of trivial e-mails that choke my inbox with clutter (sometimes they are useful, but their sheer volume means that the hide themselves when they are). This lead to additional stress and put a damper on the second half of the drive as we were attempting to not be brought down by reality.
Fortunately, we quickly were out of cell range. We found the road to the Cascade Pass trail and started down it. We stopped at the Marble Creek campground in the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest outside of the south unit of North Cascades. This was a nice car campground nestled next to a creek (I would assume it’s the Marble creek). We set up the tent, got everything in it we’d need (we have a small an air mattress that we’re using to try to help me recover a bit better), I made dinner, did a little work, and Lara made the fire.
While we waited for the fire to die down, we got to hear some wildlife near the creek. We could hear it make some vocalizations, though what it was, we couldn’t tell. As I went to see if I could see it on the other side of the creek, I heard a loud rustling in the bushes, followed by a splash of it falling in to the creek – I won’t lie, this startled me a little and I leapt back. For now, hopefully some nice sleep.
Tomorrow: Cascade Pass Trail, a motel, and a bit more rest before Rainier.
STATS: 10 days, 5 National Parks, 3 National Recreation Areas, 1 failed attempt to flee reality for a whole month.