Back at it after almost a month since our last trip - Sara’s ski lessons, Angela’s sisters trip, and overall sickness created a perfect storm and prevented the adventures for a bit. We went to the north cascades last weekend and spent some time exploring the area around Diablo lake/highway 20 before the closure. I really love this area, it’s relatively close to Seattle (2.5 hour drive) but it’s so remote, especially before the highway opens. Highlight of the trip was the Diablo lake trail as well as finding a new place to explore in early spring/late fall (elevation is low enough in this area that you can explore outside of summer).
We started our trip on Friday morning (Sara had Friday off school so I took the day off too). We got a late start - first because I didn’t feel like we needed to leave super early but then we were delayed 2.5 hours off of our 9a departure time due to the van’s battery dying - still not sure what happened, but it looks like I might have bumped the headlights and turned them on when I was downloading movies the night before.
Our first stop was Rockport - which is sort of the last stop before going onto the highway 20 pass.There was a park there with a playground where we could take a break and then a hiking trail that left from this small park and headed along a creek for a couple of miles. The park is actually a campground - but a county park so I wasn’t aware that it existed until we arrived. We had a different (free) campsite planned for this trip, but something to keep in mind for next time.
Our hike took us along the Skagit river for a couple of miles and then back. Sounds like it goes for 4 miles total (8 round trip) but it was getting late in the day so we only did 2.5ish.
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Sara/Oakley had a blast with running back and forth in the big open areas and getting their hiking legs back after the last couple of months of skiing.
Sara found a “map” and helped do some wayfinding on the way.
Where does she come up with this stuff?
We stopped for a break at our turnaround point and Sara wanted to make a boat - which ended up becoming more of a tent than a boat per-say. It has sails, which ended up being a tripod and Sara did a great job of lashing the poles together with some moss she found. Pretty impressive hull as well, with large pieces of bark sandwhiched with leaves/moss for “waterproofing”.
I got some photos of our campsite that evening. We stayed at Goodell campground - which is a national forest campground and it’s free during the off-season. We had lettuce tacos for dinner and cake for dessert. We also made a fire which we hung out around for a couple of hours before bedtime. We watched half of a very wierd live action version of the little mermaid - not sure we are going to end up finishing that one
The next morning, the forecast called for nothing but rain. That, combined with a rough sleep (both Sara and I are still getting over whatever sickness hit us last week) caused us to drive down to Rockport for breakfast.
Rockport is a very small town, turns out. They have one restaurant and it’s a 21+ bar so we were not able to go inside - even at 9am and not even to use the restroom! The food was ok, but wasn’t the most fun place to eat. After breakfast, Sara was adamant that we try to go hiking. I was thinking this might be a couple of mile trip before we headed back to Seattle, but we actually went 8 miles and found a really fun trip idea for next time. The Diablo lake trail ends at a dock and you can ride a resort ferry back to the start during the summer, my thinking is that we can do the same thing but during the winter but with our inflatable kayaks. Basically, we would leave them at the doc and hike to them - then inflate them and paddle back.
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The hike was very cool - the rain did let up after the first couple of miles (although it picked back up at the end) and the trail climbed high on Diablo lake before dropping back down so we had some awesome views during the hike. Sara did ride in the backpack for a couple of miles, but she was hiking for the most part.
The rain was picking back up as we ended our hike and I was still feeling a big rough from being sick so we decided to head back that night.
We stopped off at a restaurant called “Hops and Drops” which was a family restaurant that specialized in beer and lemon drop shots (and other flavors). The food was good, but it was a weird mix of both food and people… Still, I would go back :)
During dinner Sara showed me her new face - called “the eye”. Apparently it’s from a show she watches and after asking about 20 questions about the show, I found out that it’s a show/game she watches on her tablet called - the disappearing drink.
Don’t believe me? See for your self!