We left Seattle early this morning. We originally thought we would take a ferry out to the San Juan Islands and do some hiking, but the scheduling proved too challenging. Instead we decided to go east, and try some hiking in the Northern Cascades.
We took a beautiful scenic drive in the valley between mountains along rivers, that I think are all salmon spawning waterways. Everything was old growth forest, with moss draped over incredibly tall trees and ferns everywhere.
Eventually we found our way to Rockport State Park, where we stopped and met Ranger Don. We intended to hike up Sauk Mountain, and wanted to make sure someone knew we were there – safety first! After spending a little time with the ranger, who must have been kind of lonely since this was pretty far into the back country, we made our way to F.S. 1030, a gravel road up the mountain. It was 8 miles up to the trailhead, although Don warned us that as the road ended at about 3500 feet, we’d be above the snow line.
After switchbacking our way up about 6-7 miles through dense forest, we finally hit the snow, and had to concede defeat. It was just too deep and soft to get through, and given the seriously steep drop offs down the mountain, not worth the risk. Here’s a shot from the bottom of the mountain – we made it as far as the snow line:
Personally I’m still counting that one as an adventure. The forest is incredible, it’s hard to fathom how old the trees must be:
We made our way back down the mountain, and decided to take a really short walk in the park. The ranger told us where to find the biggest tree in the park, and boy, he wasn’t kidding:
Then it was off to Vancouver. We were slightly worried about crossing the border because of the sheer amount of stuff in the back of the truck, but it was very anticlimactic – took us five minutes. But we were pretty excited to reach Canada anyway.
Looking forward to a nice seafood dinner tonight and a fun day exploring the city tomorrow.