Cascade Pass/Sahale Arm Trail....Beautiful North Cascades National Park

While our home town mountain...Billygoat as we call it...proper name....Goat Mountain was burning up this fall...we decided that to get away from all the smoke we would have to venture out a little ways...Cascade Pass/Sahale Arm trail has been on my list of trails that I wanted to explore and with some careful planning we managed to make it.....4 hours is a long drive...up at 4 AM and out the door...no stops for a morning iced coffee, not much open in the area that early....so it was a tough drive without caffeine in the system....I am always just a tad bit nervous trying to locate trails and spend entirely too much time mapping them so I wont get lost.... this one was pretty easy to find...long drive on a dirt road, that sometimes can be just a little rough but nothing a passenger car can't handle....When we dropped down onto the Rainy Pass side of the mountains we had left the smoke that was creeping up the pass and entered fog.....which we traveled through all the way to the trail head...With a little bit of encouragement at the trail head from two other hikers we headed out in hopes of clear sky's after we reached the pass...It's a nice hike...fairly easy to the top...we didn't get any views but the color was brilliant with the low wet fog.....at the pass the wind was screaming and the fog was rolling over the top...at this point we still had zero views and were considering turning back...but the wind was blowing hard enough it started to blow some of the fog clear out of the pass.....and we had a glimpse or two or the mountains and decided we had come to far to turn back...on up the steep...rocky slope we hiked...picked our way through the rocks...stopped to watch for pika's and on up.....what a view when we popped over the top.....picked ourselves a rock and ate some lunch with a view of Doubtful Lake below and back down the mountain we headed....we didn't continue all the way to the arm this trip...the smoke was pouring in the backside of the mountains and decided we would be returning some day with hopefully clear sky's ..beautiful trail...can't wait to see all the views on a return trip that we missed this time....will make it seem like a brand new trail.

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Cutthroat Trail.......Snowshoeing North Cascades Highway

I have a confession to make, I have been having some winter blues. Not sure if they can be officially called winter blues due to we have had little to no winter. I have been very impatiently waiting for the snow to arrive, it comes, blows through, makes the ground white, then its gone. The last few days we have been sitting at temperatures in the 40's. What is up with winter. One thing I can say for sure is I am very thankful for the few trips we made up highway 20 before the silver star gate was closed. Our trip to Cutthroat Trail was back in November, when we had visions of winter coming to the valley very soon. The snow was nice and fluffy and deep. Pleasant day to get out and enjoy it, one of those days where your not sure if the clouds where going to allow the blue sky to show it self or not. We parked right off the highway with a couple of other cars and Snowshoed up the road to the trail head. Wasn't very long and more hikers, cross country skiers, and furry ...

The Places We Can Go

Life goes on, things change, storms of life come and go. One thing that always remains the same is the feeling and quiet peace I feel from being in the mountains. This was a spur of the moment overnight trip. It was so needed and such a beautiful time. Left the house around 2:30 PM, traffic was so slow heading up Hwy 20, lots of folks heading out of Mazama. Arrived at the trail head a few minutes before 4 PM, and we were off down the trail in a few minutes. Three quarters of a mile down the trail a bee or some kind of flying ant decided to bite my nieces eye lid, talk about hysteria for a moment. I was pretty sure our trip was over, but we were able to move on with a very cold creek soaked multipurpose face mask. The sun was sinking fast and the wind was howling by the time we reached the top. Made some quick decisions on the best place to park the tents, and we set up camp. It was truly an incredible evening, hiked aroun...

Carlton Complex Wildfire, Pateros Washington

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. I spent last weekend moving my animals back home to a mostly burnt out barn yard. We had a small patch of trees and garden space that escaped the fire, which was where my dog pens were located. So they were able to return to a fairly normal life. The horse pen was kind of a hit and miss burnt area, since there wasn't a whole lot of vegetetaion in it the fences took most of the heat. The metal panels got a nice rusty color to them, with some serious scorch marks. Besides my horse having red smudge colored marks on his nose from the fencing he seems to be adjusting to his return home. We have found temporary living close by so it has made taking care of my animals easier, and a stress off of where we be this winter. The town is slowly getting the debris removed and homesteads cleaned up. Lots of piles of rubble and cut down trees piled up in the city lot areas. I understand that Okanogan County and the Confederated Tribes Of the Co...

Lost In The Right Direction

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