First, and most importantly, to all our St. Augustine friends and
family, our hearts are with you in this difficult time. We are praying for a successful, quick
recovery from Hurricane Mathew and its impact on our homes and city. God be with you all.
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| Northern Cascades National Park |
From
our visit on Vancouver Island and Victoria Canada we headed back into the US
and into the Northern Cascades. It was
so nice to be back into the US….and to have our routine communications
available to us. Thankfully, we have had
several weeks of wonderful sunny, cool weather to enjoy the mountains and islands
of Washington State.
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| Cascades Glacier |
We
first visited the Northern Cascades National Park, a vast wilderness of
conifer-clad mountains, glaciers and lakes.
There are more glaciers in the Northern Cascades than in all the other
parks in the lower 48 combined. While
there are fewer than 25 glaciers in Glacier National Park (named for the
spectacular glacial topography, not the number of glaciers in the park), there
are over 300 in the Northern Cascades.
Most of them are not accessible via car, and would require multi-day
hikes into the back country to even be able to see them. There are black bears and wolves, but we saw
neither. Like the Canadian Rockies, the
vertical relief is large and provided incredible mountain vistas, with lots of
waterfalls.
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| Winthrop WA Sidewalk |
We
first camped on the eastern side of the mountains in Pearrygin State Park in
Winthrop, WA. This is a great little
western “cowboy / cowgirl” town with wooden sidewalks (dry during the summer
but LOTS of snow in winter). We spent a
lot of time hiking to glacial lakes, but also in visiting some of the great
communities along the eastern slopes.
Lake Chelan is a VERY long, beautiful 50- mile-long glacial lake with an
“off-the-grid” town of Stehekin, at the far north-western end. The town is only accessible via boat or sea
plane. We had a beautiful boat ride to
Stekekin, with a few hours to enjoy the small town and lunch. The residents there are a hearty bunch;
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| Lake Chelam looking toward Stekekin |
winter is long and hard, and even getting groceries delivered is challenging
and available only by boat. Although
they have a small hydroelectric plant, electricity is not reliable, and communications
is sketchy at best and dependent on satellite.
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| North Cascades Scenic Byway |
Route
20 through the National Park, also called the North Cascades Scenic Byway,
follows the Skagit River to the west.
Washington Pass, the highest point by car, has spectacular scenery. On the western slope, we camped between
Marblemount and Rockport on the Skagit River.
We were blessed with pretty good
weather on both sides.
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| Lake Ross in Northern Cascades National Park |
It
is interesting that, unlike all of the other national parks we have visited so
far, there are several BEAUTIFUL lakes that are the result of hydroelectric
dams along the Skagit River. Ross,
Diablo and Gorge Lakes, which provide lots of recreational opportunities, are
the result of three dams built in the early 1920s to supply Seattle with
hydroelectric power. The same water is
used three times to provide power as the water moves through the three
hydroelectric dams. This is a win/win;
the lake scenery is beautiful and provides water recreation, and the same water
is used multiple times to provide electric power.
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| Lake Ross Dam |
By
law, National Park lands cannot be used for commercial activity. The park was originally established as a
forest preserve in 1897, which allowed commercial activity. When the North Cascades NP was declared a
National Park in 1968, long after the projects were built, the Government carved
out the dam projects and created “Recreational Areas” contiguous with the NP to
include these commercial activities. In today’s
pro-environmental politics, these projects would probably never be
approved. In fact, when the preserve was
“upgraded” to a national park, Seattle City Lights (the power company) had to
spend 20 years to prove that the dams did not negatively impact the environment
– specifically the salmon runs. What
would they have done if the salmon had been impacted, destroy three dams and three
hydroelectric plants?
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| Mt Baker |
The
volcanoes are the most spectacular part of the Cascades…in fact the Cascade Arc
includes nearly 20 major volcanoes. From
the south to the north, the most famous volcanos include: Lassen, Shasta,
Crater Lake, Hood, St Helens, Adams (visible from Mt Rainier), Rainier,
Glacier, and Baker. We drove up Mt.
Baker, which is a beautiful glacier covered peak, and hiked the shoulder
between it and Mt. Shuksan. We thought
it was one of the
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| Mt Rainier from Reflection Lake |
most beautiful mountain peaks, until a few weeks later when
we visited Mt. Rainier. Mt Rainier took
our breath away. We had wonderful
weather and for several days, we actually saw the usually elusive peak, crowned
in glacial glory from multiple viewpoints.
John Muir said, “Of all the fire mountains, which like beacons, once
blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest”. We agree.
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| Mt Baker from San Juan Islands |
Once
we left the mountains, we headed to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound. We camped just north of Friday Harbor on San
Juan Island and also did a day trip visit to Orcas Island.
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| Friday Harbor, San Juan Island |
The
San Juan Islands are small; much smaller than huge Vancouver Island, which is
almost like being on the mainland. We
took a small ferry from Anacortes to and from the island. Getting the RV on and off was a bit more
“interesting” than when we boarded the huge ferries servicing Vancouver
Island. It was tight by comparison. We enjoyed our visit to the islands, but we
think “island fever” could be a problem, if you lived there full time. The Friday Harbor American Legion Post is
great and has the best view in town. Because our campground had no phone or
internet service, the Legion became our favorite phone and internet/email
hotspot.
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| Red Fox Visits Us in American Settlement |
While
touring San Juan Island we learned about The
Pig War, which almost became another British – American conflict in 1859
(Canada did not become independent from Britain until 1867). The Jay Treaty in 1796, which set the
US/Canadian border at the 49th Parallel, became problematic when the
country building finally got to the west coast of both countries. If you
simply continued the extension of the 49th parallel, the southern
part of Vancouver Island (Victoria) would belong to the US and would have split
the San Juan Islands similarly. Vancouver
Island was easy - the British got
it. But the San Juan Island ownership
was under dispute for many years; so both Americans and Brits had settled there
to help support their claims of ownership.
In 1859, an American farmer shot a pig owned be the British Hudson Bay Company,
a fur trading company, when the pig ate his garden AGAIN. He had warned the owner of the pig multiple
times. The Americans paid for the pig,
but the incident established a reason for both countries to establish military
settlements of about 100 soldiers each.
The British were on the northwest side of the island, and the Americans
on the southern tip. After 11 years, the
San Juan Islands were given to the US by Canada through the efforts of an
arbitrator. The San Juan Islands protected the only navigable large boat water
access to protected harbors for the US Northwest.
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| Orcas from Lime Kiln State Park Cliff |
The
most interesting part of the San Juan Island visit was our “education” about
Orca (killer whales), which are actually the largest member of the dolphin
family. We have previously seen a lot of
grey and humpback whales, but never Orcas up close. The whale museum in Friday Harbor is
excellent, but the most interesting information was obtained from a volunteer
who tracks the various pods, supporting a university study at an
abandoned
lighthouse, now used for whale observation and research. They used an abandoned lighthouse on the west
side of the island, which borders on the Horo Strait. The water is very deep right next to shore,
so it is not unusual to have an Orca pod swim within 50 feet of shore. This is one of the few places you can see
whales up close from land. The research
has been tracking some of the pods for decades.
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| Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse, Orca Tracking Station |
Unlike
many other whales, the resident Orcas (versus the transient Orcas traveling
through) live in small, family pods. The research team has identified each Orca
by the distinctive features on the fin and body. The Orcas in one pod do NOT
interact with Orcas from any other pod; each pod has its own “language” (they
cannot understand other pods) and eat
their own “specific food”. For example,
each resident Orca pod might eat a specific type of salmon, while the transients
might prefer only seals, or otters.
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| Orca "Spyhopping" (Whale Museum Photo) |
The
most significant new information was about the negative impact of “man-made”
sound on water mammals, but most especially on marine mammals, especially whales
(all types). Since whales are wholly
dependent on their sonar/hearing to “see” in the water, they are very sensitive
to sound. It is now believed that
self-beaching of whales and dolphins are efforts by the water mammals to flee
“deafening” sound events. These include:1)
an increase in propeller vibration sounds due to the significant increase in number
and speed of ultra-large ships; 2) increased quantity and louder active sonar
use by naval ships (including the US Navy), and 3) the increased use of larger
and larger underwater air blasting by oil/gas exploration companies. Active
sonar use by the US Navy in now prohibited inside Puget Sound, but the whales
are impacted over vary large distances. The whales/dolphins have actually been seen
jumping out of the water when the directional sonar hits them, or when the
underwater explosions occur. In some cases, the whales have ascended to the
surface so fast, that they display symptoms of the “bends”; previously only
experienced by divers who ascend too quickly when diving.
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| Mt. Rainier with Lenticular Cloud |
Whales
have been proven to hear another whale over 5000 miles away. The sound from these man-made events is so
loud, it actually has physically damaged /destroyed their “ears” (data from
autopsy), and other internal organs. We
can do something about all of this…all it takes is some education and
willingness to do it. Prop noise can be
reduced by 90%, with an improvement in efficiency of the prop (win/win), and
there are other ways to do underwater oil/gas exploration. The navies of the world might need to turn
down their sonar while in whale inhabited areas. This is some food for thought…and it’s up to
us. The research facility had a hydrophone and it was amazing how loud (and
annoying) the passing ship traffic noise was to listen to for just a few
minutes. Too bad for the whales, they
can’t just drive away or turn it off like we could - this is their home.
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| Hike to Rainy Lake in Rain |
No
geology discussion this time. Suffice it
to say that the results of plate tectonics, collisions of island arcs with continents,
and massive glaciation are obvious wherever you go in western Washington - from
active volcanos to remnant islands and to the many glacial lakes and fjords.
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| Cascades Fall |
It’s
hard to believe, but the leaves are turning yellow (no brilliant reds here) and
it is getting cold. Just a few short
blogs ago, we were talking about spring wildflowers for months as we traveled
north with the spring. Now, as we travel
south, we are following the start of fall.
The weather is getting colder, the days shorter, and more rain.
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| Hike to Mt Baker |
We
are now headed to Seattle and the Olympic peninsula, where we will finish up
our visit to Washington State, before we head to California to visit friends on
our way home.
Feel
free to pass the blog link on to anyone who might be interested.
Best,
Linda and Bob
