Monday, 18 July 2011

We awoke early in the morning to a fully condensated car and a clear crisp morning. So besides a few of the festival people wondering past in the early hours of the morning we awoke alive and safe in America.

Breakfast was a coffee and a cinnamon roll. Then off we headed into the Cascades. As we drove back past Mazama we noted a few dear on the side of the road along with the occasional farm animal.

On entering the Nth Cascades we encountered a lot of snow covered hills and large packs of snow that should have warned us of things to come. As we made it through the Washington Pass we stopped to nibble on some of the preceding night's dinner. I saw my first Pika. it had some grass in its mouth and then preceded down the embankment to its home. We continued up the pass noting larger melting ice sheets but the roads were clear and gave Shoeleh plenty of time to photograph the landscape.

Our meagre research had alerted us to the Easy pass trail and so we continued along the 20 to find it. It was in the middle of a set of road works. I will digress here to describe the process of proceeding through road works we encountered.

We were asked to wait for a car to escort us through the road works. They had a ute that drove up and down the section of road works to ensure that you travelled safety, along with the lollipop people at each end of the road works. Now this was not repeated everywhere although double demerits and double fines does appear to be consistent.

We got turned out of our guided road works to the trailhead for easy pass trail. Given the trail was set to rise 800ft in the first 3 miles it did not sound quite as easy as the name. So after filling out the form and paying our walking fee we headed up the trail.

The trail started with a walk on a bridge over the river that was made from an old tree trunk and had some guide wires to make sure you didn't fall we both made it across and started our accent. The walk while uphill and steep was interesting and the trail relatively easy to follow. There were a number of bridges and steps made from bush material that assisted in keeping you on the path and also out of the bush.

We got to a point however where the path started to be snow covered, in July! We continued on the path became harder to find as the snow drifts grew in size, requiring much exploring before the right path was found. We then got to a point where the pass was in sight, with only a raging stream between us and the snowy pass.

Despite my best efforts crossing the stream was not possible, thus our accent into Easy Pass ended, we now preceded down the hill that was a lot easier than the climb. No wildlife where encountered on journey and so we made it back to the carpark.

We then awaited our transport escort to deliver us to the next part of the journey. We progressed to Ross Lake National Recreation Area. This was to be our original stopping point for the night but thankfully we chose not to progress this far.

We pulled into the car park above the Ross Lake Dam, finished our water then proceeded to look for trails. There was a trail that descended down to the dam wall, no snow to be seen at this spot so we proceeded. The trail descended over a waterway with an interesting waterfall to the Ross Dam Wall. The trail itself was steep, well maintained and marked offering some views beyond the woods you were walking. It joined the service road for the Dam about 500m before the dam wall.

The Ross Lake Dam is also an Hydro-electric power station, the dam wall is made up of an interest set of concrete blocks perfect for an adventurous climb. Interestingly there were National Border Protection staff, armed and looking dangerous on the dam wall. They had a little boatshed and some interesting powerboats to boot. An interesting aside about the dam is that there is an Urn embedded into the dam, made an interesting read for me.

We walked the dam wall and progressed a little beyond it to look back at the dam, to which we had an eagle fly over us. Unfortunately for me, it came in so quickly and was gone the camera did not even have a chance to snap. After this we progressed to climb back up the path. At this point a realisation of our general fitness, the morning trail and the paths steepness came to provide us with some learning on preparation for holidays - do it! To sort of make this clear people meandered past us carrying significant packs at almost a jaunt, all the more disheartening when you are feeling tired.

We made it to the top of the climb found Clancy and Dinosaur and then proceeded along Hwy 20 towards Marblemount, with the idea of completing Cascade Pass before heading into Seattle to kit up.

Toilets/Ablution blocks found so far were in excellent order and all were clean and a little bit more comfortable than the ones on the Hume Hwy.

After leaving the parking are we found that there were many more magnificent views of turquoise coloured lakes held back by dams with power stations beneath. The viewpoints had interesting titbits of information and quite often a park ranger to answer questions. There were RV's of all shapes and sizes along with carloads of people.

Just prior to the Gorge Dam, we looked at the Gorge Creek Falls. These falls preceded down a crevasse before joining the lake, the volume of water was amazing. To view the falls you could walk onto a meshed steel bridge, very see through! Which add to your feeling of closeness and also alerted you to how high you were above the ground. After the obligatory photo's and a quick walk around we decided we needed to get a move along.

Interesting Aside: For non-Americans all road signs are in miles so when a sign says you will get to … in 35, it means 35 miles which are way longer than you instinctively feel they should be even after mentally making the conversion.

We made it to the Nth Cascades National Park Visitor Centre, here there was a wealth of information on the Cascades and there formation. A very helpful Ranger gave us some information about where we planned to go. He advised that the campground was only an hour away and the dirt road and campsites were clear of snow. In relation to the intended walk, half the carpark had been cleared of snow and that after we climbed through the snow, the path through the forest was relatively clear for the 2 miles in the forest and then there was about 20ft of snow to navigate through, but you should be able to get some views…. We thanked him for the information and then went to Clancy, to head off too Marblemeount for some dinner and to head into the cascades.

Marblemount - hmmm, it is a very small town with a general store a couple of eaters and fuel station. We parked at the general store and considered our options. The drive and sleep still seemed Ok but the lack of a decent walk and the description of the snow left us concerned that this was not going to be the best option. The idea of catching dinner in Marblemount seemed a risk too far for me as well as the look of the general store. Now I am not talking 'Deliverance' here but thoughts did cross my mind. After some 'pleasant' discussion on the merits of options we reached broad agreement that Clancy should be taken to the big city so we proceeded towards Seattle.

The trip from Marblemount to Burlington on Hwy20 was supposed to include a coffee break, which didn't happen as many of the stores were closed. It was now after 6:00pm and/or I noticed them after we had passed them. This was not helping our general thinking ability. In no time we were on the I5 heading towards Seattle.

Now if you picture this heading down the I5 at 60 mph to a large city after 7:00pm no accommodation booked and no plan, Clancy and Dinosaur were starting to fret. Now along the I5 every exit tells you about the food, fuel and shops available at the exit each on separate signs spaced far enough apart to read and consider before the exit. We found one that offered us a McDonalds - free WiFi - so we took the exit and started our planning.

Here we settled on Days Inn Bellevue and with the assistance of Google maps, we made it in about 9pm. Thus ends our first national park and

Interesting Aside:

Animals Spotted:Pika, eagle and insects.

Day two no bears 