Man, it was hot in Omak so we decided to head towards Winthrop. I found a free campsite on Freecampsites.net that was between Twisp and Winthrop that we had to ourselves. It had clearly been in the line of a forest fire - likely last year - as there were burned trees all around.
In the morning we decided to hike the trail we could see from our camp site. As we were hiking it we realized that it wasn't actually a trail but a fire break that had been created to contain the fire that burned trees on one side and barely touched some on the other side. You have to look closely at the pictures to see that.
We decided to hike Blue Lake Trail in the North Cascades National Park along the route. We were pleased to get a close but safe encounter with a mountain goat and kid. That picture you also have to look carefully to see the kid's leg behind the protective adult.
Blue Lake was your average beautiful Mountain Lake with tall cliffs protecting it on two sides. The hike is less than 5 miles round trip and only 1200 ft of elevation gain so not a hard one, but very pretty. We fully recommend it.
Somewhere after our hike we decided to drive the Cascade Loop route since we were almost half way anyway . We had plans to hang with a friend in Wenatchee too, so we continued around, stopping in Gold Bar for some great Mexican food, before camping with the "dirtbag vanlife climber crowd" at another free campsite in Index, near a very popular climbing wall.
In the morning we cruised up to the Wellington Ghost Town trail at Steven's Pass before heading into Leavenworth for a little breakfast and heading down to Wenatchee. We weren't going to meet up with our friend until the next day so we decided to head up to Lake Chelan.
The campgrounds near there were either stupidly expensive or full, but we were able to connect with another friend and wine taste at the same time. When we were done we headed to another free camp area in Ancient Lakes in the Quincy Wildlife Recreation Area. Wow, was that place great! The pictures don't really do it justice.
We departed there in the morning and headed north through Ephrata and through a canyon with lots of beautiful lakes and eventually made our way to Grand Coulee Dam before heading back to Wenatchee.
We were still early to meet our friend so we found what was supposed to be the best dive bar in town - Wally's - which did not disappoint. The beer was cold, the fries were tasty and the people watching was just right.
We then headed to Michelle's for the night where she made us a wonderful dinner. The swimming pool was refreshing, much red wine was drank and we all stayed up too late. The slow morning sped up after some breakfast as we unfolded our bikes and Michelle rode her one piece model on a 10 mile paved trail ride. The folding bikes did well on their maiden voyage. The top speed was maybe 20 MPH which is plenty fast for folders.
Some pool time and showers followed the ride and we headed west to Roslyn for the night where we got to listen to a thunder and rain storm while watching a Harry Potter movie inside the van. The campground was nearly empty in the morning, but we were warm and comfy all night.
We puttered along from Roslyn to Snoqualmie for lunch before deciding to check out a free campsite near Crystal Mountain, Buck Creek Campground. This one is next to an old airstrip - Ranger Creek State Airport - with tons of room to camp. We almost had it to ourselves - enough so that no shower tent was necessary in the morning. The night was another Harry Potter movie while the storm raged one.
That left us needing to head out to grab our mail and a couple of other errands in Tacoma before heading to hang with another friend in Seattle for the night. Jill, another Gonzaga friend, was nice enough to make us a tasty dinner and we were treated to great wine and conversation with her family for the evening.
Once we arrived at our current pet sitting location we had driven a total of 4190 miles, been in 7 National Parks, spent time with friends from Vashon, Gonzaga, and work associates, and met people from Holland, Canada, North Carolina, Maine, Montana and Washington of course.
The van and the way it was packed made great sense and we were not stuck looking for stuff or with stuff in our way even though we are still packing around things we won't take on the real trip, so it is difficult to see this trip as anything but a complete success. We learned that the van doesn't like the higher speed limits in Montana. It ends up costing us about 2 MPG driving there.
More soon. Peace.
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