DEER LAKE BACKPACKING

I finally restarted the blog and now I'm working backwards.

A couple of weekends ago we went backpacking. We left the city on Friday, around 5:30pm, headed north in heavy traffic. This is the great part about the northwest.  Picture yourself at work at 4:30pm in the greater Seattle Metropolitan area which, by the way, is the 15th largest metro area in the US with an estimated population of some 3.6 million people (holy moly! 3.6 million!!). Traffic  is building, it's a Friday night, and you want to escape.

You drive north on 405.  Near parking lot status, but it's moving. Slowly at first, but as you escape the gravitational pull of the city, traffic thins.  You pick up speed. Suburban towns began to fall into the rearview mirror and rural vistas come into view. You've been driving for about an hour.  Our particular destination was the Dorothy Lake Trailhead, out on highway 2.  Just shy of 2 hours of driving we begin driving on that road, punching south into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.

The trail head is some 9 miles off of highway 2.  The Miller creek road becomes an unpaved forest service road. Bars on the cell phone have dwindled from a solid 5 to 3 to 1 and finally the crossed out circle appears. No cell service. A few cars at the trailhead, no one around and we gear up.

Just as we head out a car speeds into the parking lot a little too fast with 4 young men in the car. I note their license plate and Leigh comments 'I wonder if they are casing the parklot'.  At that point Leigh remembers she left her hat in the car and we saunter back the parking lot.  Partly to get the hat but also have a look at these guys who could be ne'er do wells.

As we approach, these guys are all smiles unloading their backpacks out of the car. Clearly friendlies and I chastise myself for thinking otherwise. As it turned out, we'd bump into these guys several times over the weekend and they were absolutely great.

In any case, with light threatening to fail, we begin the hike to Lake Dorothy.  Our plan was to camp at Lake Dorothy then push on up and over the ridge in the morning to Deer Lake and hike all the way out on Sunday.

It's about 2 miles into Lake Dorothy and it's full of stairs.  Up, up, up, with full packs. As we approach Lake Dorothy, it's getting dark and finally we had to switch on our headlamps. We're tired and it's unclear exactly where the campsites are. In the dim light, Leigh spies a barely detectable trail off to the right and she follows it.  15 seconds later she exclaims 'this is it'.

We pitch the tent on a perfectly flat bed of soft pine needles and I open the box of wine that's been in my backpack.   We have a little happy hour and there's no man made sound whatsoever. The forest is silent, dark and we have no cell service. No one around. Perfect.  It's about 9:30 or so and just a few hours ago we were surrounded by 3.6 million people.  Now it's just us.

In the morning we had coffee on a rock above Lake Dorothy. There are a few other parties at the Lake, but the camp sites seem well dispersed. We saw the guys again, getting ready and share our stories of finding campsites the previous night and we push on to Deer Lake,  another couple of miles and some 600 feet of elevation gain.

Leigh is now hiking with both her feet and her hands.  Her feet swing rhythmically forward and her hands are darting laterally grabbing fresh blueberries and the occasional salmonberry growing along the trail.

She doesn't stop, just forages while walking, grabbing and munching fresh berries along the way.
We found a nice spot along Deer lake and while we are setting up camp, the guys stroll by. They are headed on to Snoqualmie lake, a bit further down the trail. To get there you lose some 500 feet of elevation and would have to hump out of there in the morning. We stay put, but take a day hike for an overview of Snoqualmie lake.

After rigging the silicon/nylon tarp anticipating the impending rain, we stroll down to the lake about 5pm for a nice little happy hour. There are no other parties along the shore of the lake, we're the only ones here for the evening. Perfect.

After dinner it gets dark and we hunker down in the tent.  The rain starts up in earnest. There's no wind, just a steady downpour. As I write, it sounds miserable, but it was actually quite nice.  We were dry, comfortable, and the rain made a great sound on the tent.

Sunday morning it was still raining, but I have a morning routine when backpacking.  The night before I ensure that the stove, coffee and mugs are within reach without getting out of my bag. When the decision is made to finally make coffee, I can do so without getting out of bed. With the rain coming down, that was especially nice.

Leigh's tarp also made the morning comfortable. After coffee we could sit in front of the tent, perfectly dry, and make breakfast. Oatmeal with freshly picked blueberries.

The hike back was a bit damp. Not so much from the rain, as it finally stopped and blue skies appeared, but from the wet underbrush.  Leigh again picks berries and I follow suit.

We saw the guys again just as we crossed a creek, and waved a final goodbye.

The trip back to civilization was shorter than the escape from it.  Dirt road became paved, cell service returned, 2 lanes became 4 became 6 lanes and just like that we were again surrounded by 3.6 million people.

But we had our remote weekend and were all smiles.

NORTH CASCADES WEEKEND

Weather gets iffy as fall approaches and the forecast called for showers sweeping in and out of the Northwest.  We made the final decision for the weekend at 6am Saturday morning and were on the road shortly after 7.

Little did we know as we headed north that mixed forecast really meant the rain was going to park over the northern part of the state.

We swung into the Goodell Camp ground about 2 hours later, found an open slot and pitched the tent.  Leigh had done some research and all the reservable sites were, in fact reserved, but  we had no problem on this late August weekend finding a spot.  $16 for the weekend and we were set.  Base camp established, on to the first hike.

The Maple Pass loop would be a great hike in good weather, but the rain and the mist curtailed the views.  There were a few hikers on the trail and the common sentiment was the rain sure beat the smoke that had hung around western Washington for a couple of weeks.  The weather system we were in acted like a natural washing machine, cleansing the air.  Damp, but a welcome change from the smoke.

We didn't make the entire loop.  Just above Heather Pass we called it and retraced our steps back to the car.  A good outing and by now it was late afternoon.  Perfect time to get back to the tent for happy hour then dinner

The campsite was a standard campsite.  Somewhat private, but no real view.  I thought I had seen an access to the Skagit river as we drove out earlier in the day, so Leigh and I strolled around the camp property and found a picnic structure that was for 'day use only'.  By that time, most of the sites were filled and the various parties were huddled around their vehicles and tent sites preparing dinner.  There was no one at the picnic shelter and better yet, there was beach access to the river with nary a sole around.  Leigh proclaimed this is where we would have dinner.  Perfect.

In short order we had the chairs and table set with a bottle of wine open and breathing.  More perfect.

After nice happy hour appetizers, Leigh rehydrated her Hungarian chicken soup and we relaxed and chatted over dinner. As twilight fell, the first swallow appeared, darting above the water catching whatever swallows catch.  Soon there were swarms of swallows darting in and about, some coming quite close to us.  They were fast and pretty cool.  There were so many!

 At which point we began to realize these probably weren't swallows.  I grabbed the camera, but had trouble with the camera speed.  With only the standard flash attached to the camera it was difficult to get a clear shot.  The shutter speed would only go to 1/200 of a second and these things were fast.  I did manage to get a fuzzy picture of one.

You can see the thing just above center left.  Could it be?

Here it is again, greatly enlarged.  That's no swallow.  We were surrounded by bats.  Pretty cool little animals and extraordinarily agile.

After the bat show we retired to the tent and slept pretty good as the rain returned.

The great thing about car camping is the bigger tent.  Ours isn't that big, but there's room for a small table and two chairs in addition to a sleeping space.  The morning routine is firing up the stove and making coffee, then relaxing in the chairs.  

After a luxurious hour we decided to break down camp and make our way to Cascade Pass, one of the most picturesque hikes in the state.  So the book said.  On a clear day.  

There's a 23 mile road out of Marblemount to the trail head and about half of it is paved. The other half is washboarded in the extreme with a few pot holes just for added fun.

Cascade pass was used by first nations tribes going back and forth across the state as well as miners and settlers in the early days.  You can get to Stehekin from the trailhead via a 23 mile trail.  Which just went to near top of the list for next summer.

The hike itself isn't bad.  Good for exercise and the views, well, there weren't any.

We did make it to the top, saw the sign for Stehekin and took a selfie for posterity.

We'll be back to Cascade Pass, but hopefully next time in less soggy fashion.

On the way back to the house we stopped by the Roanoke for dinner.  Leigh had been thinking French Dip for most of the afternoon and I couldn't quite get a steak sandwich out of my mind.  We ordered one each.   Perfect end to a good, but somewhat damp, weekend.

Note:  I haven't been blogging for a bit, but will try to get back on track!!!