Cascade Trail

Winter is a difficult time to hike. The days are short and the responsibilities of work and family make it hard to hit the trail before the sun goes down. Add in bad weather and snow and the options are limited. I've found myself bored with my usual local winter trails and decided that during the winter break from school that I would try to hike the Rail Trail alternative to the PNT that it seems most PNT hikers choose to do. The Rail Trail's official name is the Cascade Trail, and it goes about 22 miles from Concrete to Sedro-Woolley. To see a map of the trail go to ftp://ftp.skagitcounty.net/GIS/Documents/Parks/cas-trail.pdf

The first day I parked at the Fruitdale parking lot. I originally wanted to start from Concrete and head towards Sedro-Woolley but the closer I got to Concrete, the deeper the snow got along the side of the road, so I scrapped my original plan and headed back to Sedro-Woolley. It was a rainy cold day but I warmed up as I hiked briskly north. The trail paralleled highway 20 for the first mile or so but then broke away into the countryside.

Large bird watches over the trail

I passed several homes and crossed a road, passing under large electrical lines. After an hour I turned around and began to head back to the car. I crossed a footbridge and discovered that someone had decorated the trail with ornaments. I was surprised that I never noticed them on the way north, but now that I was looking for them, they were all along the path. I really wanted to take one with me and put it on my Christmas tree, but decided it would be better to leave them for others to enjoy. Not that anyone else was out today. I was the only one on that trail for two hours.

 The next day I returned to do some more of the trail. I couldn't find a place to park close to where I'd ended the previous day, so I went further north and turned down Robinson Road. I parked by the gate and started south. It was again a rainy cool day but the scenery was lovely and surprisingly private. I enjoyed the running water and passed several small streams and beaver dams.

Beavers had chewed all the way around the tree on the left, but the tree is still standing

 After passing the streams I headed into farm land. Occasionally the sun would burst out from the clouds. The combination of farm land and river bed reminded me of eastern Washington, but the snow geese and swans in the fields were definitely western Washington.

What kind of cow is this?

This fence stile takes me back to my childhood!

Minkler Lake

 There are several of these little foot bridges along this trail. In the center is a nonskid strip but the nonskid is missing where they've replaced some older boards. The nonskid is there for a reason! I was marching along and not paying attention and I hit a spot without the nonskid and fell and skinned my knee.

Pay attention to the newer brown boards. They're slick when wet.

 The second day I did another two hours and about six miles.

Today I returned for another section. I parked in Lyman and headed out in the bright sunshine. It was nice to do this trail in the sun instead of the rain! This was a lovely section that went right by the Skagit River. I took advantage of the bench to sit in the sun and enjoy the view. There were many more people out today enjoying the sun and the trail.

Skagit River

Iron Goat Trail

This hike has been on my to-do list for awhile, and it did not disappoint. It combined hiking, history, and trains! Really, it doesn't get much better than that for me. Iron Goat Trail is a six to nine mile loop on an old Great Northern Railway grade. It was constructed in the 1890s and was the scene of a terrible avalanche in 1910 which swept two trains off the track and killed over 100 passengers. A safer lower track was built in 1929 which is still in use today, and some dedicated volunteers built the Iron Goat Trail in the 1990s, utilizing the old abandoned grade.

I arrived at the Iron Goat Interpretive Center trail head to find the gate locked, so I parked below the gate and started up the trail past the locked pit toilets, the informational kiosks and red caboose. 

I huffed and puffed up the short cut to the Windy Ridge viewpoint, gaining 700 feet in about a mile. There were plenty of switchbacks, but a few places were steep enough to warrant steps. Occasionally I'd get a whiff of the earthy smell of decaying leaves that shouted, It's Fall! 

When I finally reached the top I turned right towards the Windy Ridge look out point. At Windy Ridge I gazed over the valley, and also checked out the the toilet sign. I'm always intrigued by the toilets that you find in the wilderness, and this one was no exception.

Not a lot of privacy with this toilet!

But the view from the toilet is pretty dang good!

Way below is the train tunnel that replaced this rail section

From Windy Point I turned around and started the trail down the upper grade, passing numerous little waterfalls that splashed onto the trail. Despite the water the trail was in good shape, although occasionally muddy and a little flooded in a couple places. 

Water pours over the old concrete snowshed wall

Another waterfall

I peered into the black and scary tunnels with the "extreme danger" signs in front of them, reading about their history and the men who had created them.

Great view down the valley with the tree leaves gone

old relics litter the trail

After about three miles, the trail took a steep turn down hill to the lower grade. There were many more interpretive signs to stop and read along the way and I found the information and history extremely interesting. 

Remnant of an old snowshed. The white pole ahead on the left marks the mileage from St. Paul, MN

Leaf covered trail

Another scary partially collapsed tunnel

Cool bridge over a steep ravine

Eventually I ended up back where I had started. I had skipped the section up to Wellington where I would have been able to see the scene of the avalanche that swept so many people to their deaths. Although the trail was snow free, previous reports said that snow increased beyond Windy Point up to Wellington, so I decided to give it a skip. It gives me an excuse to go back again!

White Pass to Chinook Pass on the PCT

One of the many reasons why I love hiking and backpacking is that it takes me back to my childhood, when my sister and I would yell to our parents "We're going exploring" as we'd head out the door to explore the woods around our home. I grew up in the foothills of the eastern Cascade Mountains, with the Naches River in my back yard and Bethel Ridge in the front.  I love eastern Washington; the Ponderosa Pines, thin underbrush, dry heat, bugling elk and vibrant fall colors. This section of the PCT in particular holds a special place in my heart, because it is so close to where I grew up.

The parking lot at Chinook Pass. Sunny and staggering views!

Thursday morning Mikenzie, Teresa and I drove up to Chinook Pass where we dropped off a car, and then continued to the PCT trail head at White Pass.

Pulling on the boots and hoisting on the packs

We're ready to go

It was a beautiful sunny day, with just enough fall bite in the air to make it perfect backpacking weather. We hit the trail about 1:00 pm and hiked seven miles to Pipe Lake. My pack felt excruciatingly heavy with four days of food, but after plodding steadily for an hour the weight began to feel okay. We passed a few day hikers and met thru hikers Andy, Sweet Tooth and Hot Tub. We got to Pipe Lake around 5:30pm and Mikenzie scouted out an awesome camp site right above the lake.

Fall colors are just beginning

Lots of beautiful little ponds

Amazing mushrooms along the way

Buesch Lake at Mile 2309

View from my tent at Pipe Lake, mile 2310

Teresa and Mikenzie set up their tent

Mikenzie cooks up the evening meal of soup

We filtered water, cooked dinner and I went to bed at 7:45 pm. We were serenaded by elk bugles throughout the night to the light of the full moon.

On day two we packed up and left camp about 11:00 am. It was a lovely day of hiking as we passed lakes, clearings, and saw a variety of mushrooms and fungi.

cool mushrooms

Wild blueberries! Or are they huckleberries?

There were so many blueberries we took our packs off and grazed for awhile!

We ate lunch at Snow Lake at mile 2313 and had salmon and cream cheese wrapped in tortillas. That was a winner of a lunch! We got to Bumping River at mile 2317 and carefully forded the stream on some boards and rocks. My water bottle fell in the river and I had to put my river shoes on to go snatch it out of the water.

Heading through the water to rescue my water bottle from the Bumping River

The camp near Bumping River

The camp fire helps dry out my socks

The camp site on the far side of the river was small and right next to the trail, so Mikenzie crossed back and found us a large camp site just up the hill. Teresa and I forded back across and we set up camp, cooked dinner, and I washed my socks and sock liners, curious to see how quickly they would dry.We met thru hiker Lieutenant Dan while filtering water at Bumping River, who chatted with us for awhile, turned down our offer of extra food and then continued on his way. It got a little chilly and looked like rain, so we made a camp fire and then sat around talking and catching up on life while I dried my socks out near the fire. It was really nice to have a relaxed schedule with only seven miles of hiking a day. It gave us time to set up camp leisurely and even hunt for fire wood. We stayed up until about 9:00, and then I snuggled into my tent, hearing the sound of the Bumping River all night, wondering if Saturday, our third day, would be rainy.

On day three we got up and broke camp by 9:00 am, for our earliest start yet. We knew we had about 1800 feet elevation climb and wanted to be sure to have time to stop for some breathers. First order of business, crossing Bumping River. Rain had been forecast for the day, so I stuffed my sleeping bag in a garbage sack, hoping between that and my pack to keep my bag dry. Although I'd successfully negotiated that ford the day before, this time one of the boards wiggled under my foot, I lost my balance, and in a classic ninja move I landed backwards in the river! Fortunately I'd had the good sense to unclip my pack belt before attempting the crossing so I wiggled out of my pack and handed it to Teresa. Mikenzie came back and took it from her to the river bank. I was soaked from the waist down. So much for drying out my socks the night before! But I've got to say, nothing in my pack got wet! The Gregory Deva was very water resistant, thank goodness!

View of Fish Lake around mile 2317.5

I like to think that the Bumping River was simply inviting me to come play in it, as I used to do as a child. Growing up every summer we would camp just below Bumping Lake Dam at the spillway. We brought inner tubes with us and would walk up the concrete spillway where the water emptied from the dam until we would jump on our inner tube and ride the rush of water down the spillway into the river. It was our own personal water park. I always gripped my tube tightly for fear of losing the tube and getting caught in the rather strong undertow where the concrete met the river. Our parents warned us kids that if we were caught in it, not to try to swim up but to go with the current to the bottom of the river and then swim along the bottom until we could come up. Now, as an adult, I am surprised that they trusted us to keep our heads in that kind of a situation. But we all somehow managed to survive the Bumping Dam spillway.

The waters of the Bumping River empty into and mingle with the Naches River, the river where I learned to swim, caught crawdads, built forts in the log jams, marveled at water skippers skating across the water and eventually was even baptized in it. Now I live on an island without a single river on it but deep down I am still a river girl.

Up on the bank, I changed out of my wet pants into my rain skirt, unzipping the leg bottoms and tying the different pieces to the top of my pack to dry out. Just then, thru hikers Mike and Appa came along, hopping over the ford easily. We followed them up the trail towards Crag Mountain. My feet slushing in my wet boots were not very happy, so I stopped and changed into dry socks on the trail. We had only eaten a trail bar for breakfast and we stopped for second breakfast (elevensies) at mile 2319.

Drying out during second breakfast

 I pulled out my tent rain fly, which was still damp from the morning dew and drapped it on a small tree to dry out, and changed out of my wet underwear into a dry pair. I'd heard that things dry faster with body heat, so I tried tying the underwear on top of my head, covering it with my bandana for modesty's sake.

underwear head!

That idea didn't really work and eventually I just tied them onto the back of my pack where they dried fairly quickly. Icebreaker wool underwear are fantastic.

clear views

Hiking in my rain skirt while my clothes dry on the back of my pack

Looking down at Crag Lake and another small lake

We huffed and puffed our way up the mountain with views that just got better around every corner and switchback. It was sunny, although not particularly warm, with fluffy white clouds that obscured our view of Mt. Rainier. But there were enough other views that I almost didn't mind not seeing Rainier. I saw a pika run across some rocks and a marmot sunning itself on a large boulder.

Teresa enjoys the views at the top of the ridge

We climbed up until we were looking down on Crag Lake, and then the trail crossed the ridge onto the other side and we continued on along the ridge until we stopped for lunch at Two Lake Trail junction.
 

A marmot camouflages itself on a large boulder

Near One Lake and Two Lakes

A beautiful trail

It was quite chilly and I changed back into my pants which were now dry. The ridge walk continued and I had to pay attention to not stumble as I drank in the fabulous views. When we reached the American Ridge Trail Junction we took that off the PCT to American Lake.

American Lake

 

Campsite at American Lake

Rocky crag behind American Lake and view from my tent

We scouted out a camping site that was sheltered down out of the wind and set up camp. Dark ominous clouds were starting to blow in and I tried to situate my tent where water wouldn't run into it if it started to rain. Dinner was buckwheat noodles and more salmon. After a rather pathetic and comic attempt to hang our bear bag, we all retired to our tents about 7:30 as the temperature was dropping quickly. I snuggled into my sleeping bag, miraculously completely dry despite the dip in the river, as the first rain drops began to fall.

On day four I awakened to the sound of intermittent rain. When I opened my rain fly to peek out, there was a small patch of snow in front of my vestibule.

A little snow outside my vestibule

I could hear that Teresa and Mikenzie were awake in their tent and called out to find out if they were going to stay in bed awhile or just get up and pack up to head out. They wanted to get up and get packed up, which is what I wanted to do as well, so we jumped out of our tents, packed everything up, and headed up the trail back to the PCT. It was raining steadily and I was wearing my pants, my rain skirt and my GoLite rain poncho with gloves, with my wool long sleeved shirt and down jacket. It was a steady climb up, which warmed us up, but also wore us out. Everything was shrouded in mist and fog so there were no scenic views. The rain pounded us and we tried to hike faster. Then the rain turned to sleet and even snow for awhile, although it didn't seem to stick. We ate an energy bar on the walk as we got too cold if we tried to stop for a break. We reached Dewey Lake where we'd talked about stopping for breakfast and we were all completely soaked.

Still smiling despite the rain and cold

Our hands were so cold that we decided to just try to continue on with a little snack instead of a meal. Mikenzie remembered that she had plastic gloves in her medical kit so she pulled those out and put them on underneath her soaking wet gloves. That helped keep her hands a little bit warmer. We were passed by a thru hiker but we didn't even stop to chat, we just kept chugging our way up the mountain. I was so exhausted that it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. Eventually we passed Tipsoo Lake Trail Junction and the trail leveled out somewhat and then began a descent down to Chinook Pass. By this time I was completely soaked except for what my rain skirt covered. The GoLite poncho was pretty disappointing at keeping me dry. It has a couple snaps on the sides that don't keep it closed well enough in the torrential rain that we experienced. My feet were so wet that the residual laundry soap that was apparently in my socks began to squeeze soap bubbles out the tops of my boots.

soapy boots

 
Mikenzie had hiked ahead and took a quick victory picture of Teresa and I on the walkway over Chinook Pass, but we were all too cold to linger for any more pictures. We jumped in the car, cranked the heater, and peeled off as much wet clothing as we could. When we got back to White Pass where my car was parked, I unzipped the wet legs of my pants, yanked off my boots and wet socks and put on dry socks and shoes that I had in the car. I pulled off my shirt, jerked on my dry polypropylene shirt and then I jumped in the car and cranked the heat as high as it would go.

We started driving back towards the top of White Pass and on the side of the road I saw a hiker with a backpack. Knowing how cold and miserable it was, I pulled over and asked if he'd like a ride. He said he didn't normally accept rides but because of the weather said he wouldn't mind a ride to the campground. His name was Hiker Jim (Jim Gregoire) and he had been hiking across America from Maine in sections for several years. He was heading to Cape Disappointment where family and friends would be meeting him on October 5th to celebrate reaching the Pacific Ocean and the end of his walk across America. As we both watched the rain pound down even harder, he decided to check into the hotel at the top of White Pass. A wise decision, I'm sure, as there is no way he could have kept dry and warm in that down pour in a tent. I dropped him at the hotel office and then Mikenzie, Teresa and I continued on to Greenwater to the Naches Tavern where we celebrated a successful trip with a warm meal. Now it is back to reality, but I'm already plotting my next hiking adventure.