We thought that we were almost there and that it would only be a short trip from the Columbia River Gorge to the Northern Cascade mountains. Wrong, again. There’s a lot of terrain to cover between these two locations. So we drove east on I-84 until we could cross the river on Highway 97 then north to Yakima, Washington. We stopped to load up on current maps (our highway maps of this area are old!). The good folks at the Visitor Center recommended a visit to Leavenworth–a Bavarian-style city. So we did. It was…um….interesting.

And, still, we had a long ways to drive.

We stopped in Winthrop—which had a nice grocery store—to stock up on food supplies for the next several days. Heading west we encountered several campgrounds—all full to capacity. It’s the beginning of the weekend so we weren’t too surprised. We finally drove down a Forest Service road to a trail head and decided this would be our camping spot for the night.

We’re finally in the Cascades. Dang—that took a long time to get here!

For the next few days we camp where we can and hike whatever interests us. Short hikes, long hikes, easy hikes, and hard hikes. Our first day hike was Fourth of July Pass. We did this as a backpack trip in 1987 carrying overnight gear and an 18-month old child in a backpack carrier. This time we travelled light—and the steep trail was hard. How in the world did we pull that off all those years ago? We were younger. Much younger.

I took several nice photos from this pass back in 1987 during evening twilight. This time it was mid-day and the light was boring. So here is one from 1987.

On the recommendation of some climbers that we met at a picnic area, we chose to hike to Blue Lake. It was only a few miles to the lake and the scenery was very nice—especially looking at Liberty Bell Mountain and various spires. These mountains are very popular with the technical rock climbing crowd.

We considered getting a backpacking permit but after discussing the possibilities with the Park Rangers, we decided to skip doing overnight trips and do more day hikes. While it would have been glorious to spend the night at the higher elevations, we were able to cover more ground travelling light.

We had learned from hikers we met on Fourth of July Pass trail and Blue Lake Trail of some “must do” hikes. One suggestion was Cascade Pass Trail and Sahale Arm up to Sahale Glacier. This was about 11+ miles round trip and about 4K vertical. Wonderful weather and fabulous views made this a great hike.

Now it’s time to head towards Mount Baker.