North Cascades (ADK on steroids)

The rugged North Cascades were an unexpected pleasure. I thought it sounded like a cool place and there was no way we could make it all the way to the Olympic Peninsula in one day. That said, it took 10.5 hours to drive here from Kootenay, AB, Canada. Brian did the entire drive. He is a better driver than passenger. And I am a better passenger than driver (not from a skills perspective mind you).

I am usually busy in the passenger seat looking for a place to stop and eat, get gas, go grocery shopping or planning our itinerary for our next stop. And once in a while, I nap. Brian – who can fall asleep in an instant, has some trouble with this as a passenger. I wake him with slightly too hard braking or minor swerve (as far as I see it). I just don’t drive the same way he does & he worries. Don’t blame him – until this trip, I never drove a truck pulling a 4500lb. camper. And I live in NYC – where I rarely drive, except in or out of the city. Fine with me, I don’t really like to drive anyway and when he is tired I drive. Except on those scary chestnut drives – like this one into the No Cascades; the Northern Cascades Scenic Byway. Who knew? Google maps doesn’t give you much info on topography, elevation gains/descents, etc. even in terrain mode. Someone probably made an app for that though. Give him much credit, no way could I have driven that far and ended with the byway pulling the camper.

The campsite – Newhalem Campground – was very nice but is a government site, with no hookups for water or electric and no hot water (and no showers). We were only there 2 nights, so made the most of our time and really came to appreciate the Northern Cascades. It definitely reminded me and B of the Adirondacks, but on steroids.

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After sitting that long in the car, we needed to get moving. So we hiked the Thunder Knob Trail trail up to a vista of Diablo Lake. 4.1 miles, but not too difficult, and a pretty reward at trail summit.

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It it very interesting that three lakes there are used for power via the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project which consists of three power generating developments on the Skagit River – Ross, Diablo, and Gorge. The three developments are hydraulically coordinated to act as a single project and supply approximately 20% of Seattle City Light’s power requirements, while providing instream flow conditions favorable to salmon and steelhead reproduction and rearing downstream of the Project. All three of the dams are upstream of a natural barrier to fish passage.  Very cool.

Well, that trail was not enough, so we thought – we will do the one across the street, the Pyramid Trail. WOW…that was a very difficult hike with not a great reward at the end of trail. It was a lake, but meh. 4.8 miles but with 1,500′ ascent over rock & root, with some more manageable terrain in between. You know it is hard when ascenders ask “how much longer” and descenders feel obligated to tell you you are almost there.

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We were depleted by day’s end – did the best we could to wash the trail dirt off in cold water and wet wipes. We didn’t have a super long travel day ahead (125 driving miles & a ferry crossing), but we were out early and slept long.