Building Trails

  • Our first overnight sail

    A Ketch and the Olympic mountains
    We cast off from Shilshole Oct 5th around noon to embark on our first overnight sail aboard Whisper. Our itinerary had us sailing to Bainbridge for lunch and continuing on to Blake Island. Blake Island appealed to us as a good first overnight, because of its isolation and lack of land access. The small marina had us worried, so we figured out how to tow the small, wet dinghy behind us using the port cleat above the transom.

    The view from Whisper
    The view from Whisper’s cockpit

    We reviewed plenty of charts and field reports the night before sailing. This is quite in contrast from our day sails, where we’re familiar with the waters and obstacles. We spent some extra effort in planning the route we would take to cross the VTS lanes the quickest, which easily added an extra hour to the trip. After that, we paid attention to the narrow channels and shallow waters surrounding Bainbridge and Blake. It’s almost unheard of to worry about depth near Shilshole, where the water quickly reaches several hundred fathoms.

    Our dinghy
    Our dinghy

    Low winds prevented us from traveling as fast as planned, but the unusually sunny day easily made up for it. The leg to Bainbridge, which was supposed to take an hour, took close to three hours. Luckily, it was three luxurious hours spent in sun and solitude. As we neared the shoal jutting from the northern entrance of Eagle harbor, we decided to spend the night at Bainbridge.

    We spent the remainder of the evening meandering around downtown Winslow and tasting wine at Eleven Winery. We enjoyed grilled squash and veggie burgers on the boat before settling down in the V-berth for the night. The boat felt like a camper and was just about as solid. There was no rocking and we didn’t feel the tide at all.

    On Sunday we packed up, took a short walk, enjoyed coffee at Roosters Cafe, and then left Eagle harbor. It was easier to leave than to enter, although we had to time our exit plan around the ferry. It’s fun to see the people on the ferry looking down at Whisper. I used to stand on the ferry and wonder who the people were that were sailing around. The winds were great for the return journey, quickly pushing us back to Shilshole at 5 knots.

    Winslow Marina
    Winslow Marina

  • Twisp Pass – South Pass

    Hiking the Twisp Pass – South Pass Loop

    We spent Labor Day weekend in 2012 hiking the 25.4 miles Twisp Pass – South Pass route from Backpacking Washington by Craig Romano. We arrived late Saturday, which meant we were unable to pick up our back country permit in Marblemount. Labor Day is a horrible time to forget your permits, because the rangers roam the heads of trails like hungry wolves.

    A late start on Saturday put us behind in reaching the first campsite, which is about four and a half miles into the hike. This resulted in some some hiking with headlamps and fruitless hunting for an early camp. We established a campsite in a small flat clearing to the side of the trail with easy access to fresh water. There was no sign and just a light deer trail to the clearing. It was deep enough that we didn’t meet any day hikers while stepping out of our tent the next day.

    The next day we woke up with some instant coffee and oatmeal, refilled our water, and packed up camp. Our hike towards McAlester Lake started off well, meandering through several passes and meadows with wildflowers abloom. Several better campsites with water access are located along this section about eight miles southwest of South Creek Campground. One of these, Fireweed Camp, is located in the North Cascades National Park, which means different requirements for backcountry permits.

    Near Fireweed camp we took a jaunt east for an arduous 3.3 miles uphill. The description in the guides neglects to stress the steepness of this never-ending climb through wilderness and clear-cutting. After leveling off and hiking through a couple sections of clear-cut trees (at least in 2012), we came across Dagger Lake and made camp. There was another couple here that seemed much better prepared for the cool evenings, with a fire roaring and heavy down jackets. No doubt they’d been at the camp site for a few hours. This site has two advantages over the other camp sites we passed: a location for tying up pack animals and a wooden throne.

    The wooden throne
    The wooden throne
    Dagger Lake
    Dagger Lake

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The final day we hiked three miles to a tree trunk bridge over the merging of south and north forks of the Twisp River. We developed a false sense of being near the end of the trail when we came upon a gravel parking lot about seven miles further, approximately where Road’s End Campground should have been located. The trail indicators disappeared at the intersection of 4440 and the trail, and we followed our compass east (left) along the gravel road until we saw trail 440 on the left hand side. This picked back up the trail, and followed relatively close to the road until we came upon our car.

    Katie on the log-bridge

    Our drive to Twisp Pass took us through some scenic country (the North Cascades National Park and Winthrop), and we loved hiking the loop from Twisp to South pass. The hardest parts of this trip were not leaving enough time to pick up permits the day of our trip and not hiking enough the first day. The shortened hiking schedule forced us to pick up the slack on the second day, which in turn impacted our endurance on the final day. We love loops because there’s no backtracking, but they also remove the capability for an early return. We welcomed the return to civilization when we arrived at that first gas station and rested our blistered feet.

  • Cougar Lakes

    We spent Labor Day weekend in 2011 hiking from Chinook Pass to the Cougar Lakes and back. We followed the Cougar Lakes and Three Lakes route from Backpacking Washington by Craig Romano.

    We hiked the 10 miles to Little Cougar Lake on the first day. The trail was initially congested with day hikers but the trail is soon nearly empty with only backpackers. Many were only hiking as Dewey Lake at about 3 miles. On our way to Cougar Lakes, we met a nice older gentleman with an umbrella and a pistol. We also met a llama that was lost but luckily found by his owner.

    Found Llama

    We were one of three tents at Little Cougar Lake and there was plenty of campsites for each group. However, we only saw one camping spot with a fire ring. We enjoyed relaxing near the water and only dared to dip our feet in given the water was freezing.

    Big Cougar lake

    Since the hike to the lakes was not strenuous, we took the alternative route back to the PCT in the morning. Romano described this route as a “rougher, shorter, highly scenic, more adventurous route back to the PCT.” His description did not understate the difficulty or the beauty of this alternate path. We found ourselves walking directly up the mountain along a dried spring without switchbacks. There were times we were certain we lost the path but the climb was rewarded with this view of the Cougar Lakes.

    Cougar Lakes

    We were ecstatic to come across the notice that we were in the Mount Rainier National Park, because we then knew we were on a trail and would make it back home.

    Back  on the Trail

    Once we were back on the PCT, we headed back while taking in views of Mount Rainier. We spent our second night on Dewey Lake, which was much more congested than Little Cougar Lake but not too crowded to find a good spot near the lake. Dewey Lake is beautiful, cold, and worth spending some time near before heading home. Being Dewey Lake is a shorter hike from the tail head, there were multiple families with younger children spending the weekend there.

    Resting at Dewey Lake

    After a night at Dewey Lake, we had a short hike back up to the car (a short elevation climb of about 5150 ft). By the end of the hike, we were dirty, tired, and had amazing pictures to treasure.

    Dewey Lake