A Weekend in the Cascade Range
We packed up for another weekend trip with our Colorado adventure friends Kelly and Austin - just this time, not in Colorado. We picked a route in the Washington Cascades and we were thrilled to experience this new area with them.
We had scouted this area out a few years ago and had kept it on our map of future Pacific Northwest Adventures, but this weekend felt like the perfect opportunity to explore this beautiful area. We had a little blip in our plans when my leg was feeling numb with joint pain and not a lot of feeling on the plane. It left us concerned - to say the least. We were about to start a backpacking trip for the next 4 days and it could have become a serious problem quickly if my leg problems persisted. Out of an abundance of caution, the group dropped me off at Urgent Care while they picked up some Pad Thai for dinner - perhaps placing a little too much of an optimistic stake in the name of Urgent Care. About an hour and a half later I was able to join them for Pad Thai in the parking lot after a series of exams, some blood work, and more. I was free and in the clear to go backpacking - and couldn’t have been more relieved.
After the short hiccup, we were back on the road and heading into the mountains. We car camped for the night before starting our backpacking route the next day. After some carb-heavy muffins to fuel us for the day, we set off on the trail deep into the mossy, lush forests of Washington.
The size of the trees was mesmerizing - it felt like we were walking through an enchanted forest. The first area we planned to camp had at least one - maybe more - primo campsites. As the hours ticked by, Grady and Austin started to get concerned about finding a camp spot at that lake. We agreed that they should continue ahead and that Kelly and I would follow shortly behind. The plan sounded great in theory, but in practice - Austin and Grady had the two phones with our GPS routes downloaded and the trail was ambiguous at best. Kelly and I made great route-finding decisions to keep ourselves on the right trail, but we came to one fork in the trail with three possible routes - and this decision had us stumped. The guys must have also realized this was a critical decision point and left an arrow in the trail carefully crafted out of sticks. We saw the arrow and while we appreciated them doing that - it was almost halfway in between two of the trail options! We went with our gut and said we’d turn around in 20 minutes if it didn’t feel promising. We continued up the trail, over boulder fields, up scree patches, and along a ridge to what appeared to be a clearing... hopefully, where the lake sat. All of the sudden we saw the guys emerging on the horizon waving us in to camp like ships coming to a port - we had picked the right way!
Not only were we greeted by the guys who had set up an amazing campsite, but by 1000s of our closest mosquito friends. The bug nets were out in full force that evening as we enjoyed a quick dip in the lake, a mac and cheese dinner, and many games of Doomlings - although we played that safely within the protection of our tents.
We experienced the best of the Cascades with low lying fog, inversion cloud formations, and more. It was a beautiful place to fully unwind.
From there, we descended some of our route and then began another ascent up to a different area. We didn’t have quite as much information about this second area, but it far exceeded our expectations. We hiked down a boulder field, up a different boulder field, along some waterfalls, and past smaller alpine tarns before arriving to our destination.
We couldn’t believe how beautiful our campsite was and how different the views of the mountains, staggering high above the valleys, looked from this vantage point. We ventured down to the lake to cool off and refill our water after setting up camp. To our surprise and excitement - we found slopes covered in snow that just perfectly overhung a part of the lake. They were perfect for sliding into the lake. We all slid in (some more gracefully than others) but had a blast spending the afternoon up there at the lake.
Our evening was full of cloud inversions, beautiful stars, and more Doomlings. We were glad to have all stepped out of our tents for some astro photos in the evening because we would have missed this incredible view.
The mosquitos were rampant the next morning - encouraging us to pack up quickly and start moving. We figured we’d try to get an hour or two of hiking under our belts and stop for breakfast - hopefully somewhere with fewer bugs. After successfully getting out of the densest part of the mosquitos, we started cruising for our hike out. It felt like a never ending hike. After about 8 hours of hiking, the car was finally in sight and our feet were especially happy to be off the trail. We went back to Seattle and grabbed a greasy dinner with a lot of potatoes before we caught our evening flight. It was a quick trip, but a memorable one to one of our favorite areas to spend time in the summer.