Moominmama's Adventures: Southern Cascades

Wherein Moominmama relishes a return to clear mountain lakes but struggles with wayfinding...

Snoqualmie Pass is a historic route trod first by native people and later by wagon trains moving between the Pacific coast and the southern Cascades. It's now a busy interstate highway, which Moominmama learned quickly heading west on a Sunday afternoon when Seattle traffic clogged the route back to the city.

Fortunately I was stopping well before the city, at Kachess Lake Campground, and looking forward to a week near the pass and the area just to the north called the Alpine Lakes. Exhibit No.1, Snow Lake, above! 

Swimming and kayaking were on my mind but the weather refused to cooperate my first two days. Thunder and dark clouds rained or spit the entire time. I was also completely without any cell service and had to drive back up to the interstate every time I needed to work or check online for hiking options.

On the third day, I found a visitor center that had a book of day hikes in the region. So I went back to old-fashioned paper maps and books, identifying the hike to Snow Lake as a moderate but rewarding hike.

Of course, "moderate" is in the eye of beholder.

Happy to get clear blue skies finally, I set out on what turned out to be a challenging set of switchbacks that take you to a saddle between the mountains and then downhill through a still-snowy bowl to the lake below. 

It was spectacular even though I fell in the snow, and my calves hurt for days after.

I returned to the campground, happy and tired, and eagerly went for a swim in Kachess Lake, cold, clear and a magnificent jade color in the sun. 

Moominmama also had an opportunity to get out on the kayak and went to look at what appeared to be a beaver dam, getting this shot of the lake from some shallow grasses near the shore.

 

And when I say the water is the color of jade, I'm not kidding. So swimming and kayaking were a great pleasure, though thunderclouds had a tendency to return mid-afternoon, and the claps and rumbles scared me out of the water.

On my final day before departure, I wanted to try another hike. By then, it was a Saturday and the campground had gotten very crowded the night before. I figured trailheads might also be crowded, so I set out before 7:30 a.m. to get to an area called Denny Creek that allegedly had a natural stone waterslide. I drove 15 miles west to the designated exit only to find the area was off limits.

My second choice was a hike to a fire tower and I set out, traveling 30 miles back on the highway, then up a long dirt road that, as I traveled, grew narrower, rockier and more rutted by the mile. Unable to turn around, and only a couple miles away from the trailhead, I was increasingly aware that if something went wrong, I was far from any help and had no cell signal. When the road finally widened a hair, I turned around and bumped my way back. On to trailhead No. 3, which surely had to be the charm.

Nope. I'd have to hike up a steep, weedy downhill ski slope to get there. Beyond discouraged, I followed a sign nearby for Gold Pond and I did find a trail there -- paved and, by then, totally overrun by families and strollers. A flat 1.2 miles around a former gravel pit that was created to build the highway!

That said, it was pretty nice for a gravel pit, and I did enjoy hearing the toddlers exclaim at every little bug, stone and stick.

I ate my lunch by the water and headed back to camp in better spirits, spending the afternoon by the beach and enjoying a final swim.

I am glad I have a second shot at seeing the Cascades on the return trip from Alaska. The northern Cascades were less heavily logged and remain less populated. I found new and different wildflowers here and still have much to learn about the ecology of the Pacific Northwest. 

Here is a plant known as beargrass, which, until it flowers, looks like a tuft of grass.Yet it sends up this crazy stalk when it blooms. It turns out to be related to yucca.

The day after my gravel pit picnic, I set out for the coast and have now arrived in Bellingham where I will clean the trailer, stock up on dry goods, defrost the fridge and shut things down for the ferry trip on Friday to Alaska!

Now the adventure really begins! I will not be able to post next weekend as there is no connectivity on the ferry, but the trip up the Inside Passage is said to be spectacular, and I hope to have much to share with you once I arrive in Juneau for the Fourth of July. 

Til then, a photo of Bellingham Bay overlooking the Salish Sea, where I will set sail at the end of this week!