10-9-16 Washington Mountains and Puget Sound Islands

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. 

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. 

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.   

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;

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.   

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.   

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.   

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?  

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

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.   

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.   

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.     

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 49^th Parallel, became problematic when the country building finally got to the west coast of both countries.   If you simply continued the extension of the 49^th 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. 

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.

 

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.   

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.    

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.   

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.   

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.   

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