Journey Day 14 – Winthrop Tour (North Cascades 1)

[catchup; photos added 25/08/16]

The day started with glass, metal and ceramic. his may seem odd but it’s the first time since we arrived in the USA that we haven’t had either polystyrene or card cups and plates with plastic cutlery. Here at Chewuch Inn our hosts provide an excellent breakfast buffet including homemade quiche and fresh cakes.
Outside there is grass and apple trees and the whole place makes us feel relaxed.

Today we are staying in the same place, the plan having been to explore the east side of North Cascades National Park. However, I have done it again making assumptions. I expected ’Cascades’  NP to be steep valleys and big waterfalls. This is not the case, on the east anyway, the National Park  is named for the Cascade Mountain Range.

This change of expectations meant we decided to chill out today and take a break from much driving. We expected it to go into the 90’s again so weren’t looking for hikes.
We were very casual washing hair and a few tee shirts and looking at maps and catching up on writing for a while before decoding to go out.

We started with a drive up to Sun Mountain Lodge which was very pretty but not mountainous in jagged sense. The terrain was lowland mountain like and very hot.

Turkey Vulture?

 classic red barn

We returned to town and called in at the Visitor Centre for ideas. Falls Creek Falls north of Winthrop sounded easy and nice and we crossed the road to buy sandwiches before driving 12 miles north.
Falls Creek Falls was signposted opposite a campground and we packed our sandwiches and drinks to take with us down the trail.  The trail was actually about 300yds and it was far too early for lunch. The falls were very pretty and a precarious bridge of two half tree trunks crossed below them which Lynne was none too happy with. I clambered round and up to see the pool at the base of the 40ft fall which had rainbows in the spray.

We again returned to the car and back toward town turning out to Peregrine State Park. The Park was lovely with families camping and ambling across lush green grass with airbeds and chairs to the lake shore. Unfortunately, our Federal Inter Agency parks pass does not cover State Parks and $10 was a bit stiff to park and look. We settled for staying with the car and picnicked off the back looking out to the lake before leaving.

At 1:30 we headed back to town yet again. We had our eye on Shafer's museum which covered life in the old west around the turn of the 19th century. It was an excellent resource with loads of old machinery from farming, lumber and mining industries and lots about life with homesteads and sheds rescued and relocated from all over giving a good view of life. A backup of good information signs, not long and boring but interesting and brief and a surprisingly large number of old photos.

I chatted for a long while with one of the museum volunteers getting a little more about the area. We have been travelling along for 2000 miles in up to 99F and yet everywhere there has been snow gates and snow fences alongside higher stretches of highway. It seems that most of the way across these Northern states snow is on the ground feet deep from November to March and further both ends depending on the year and altitude. Summer and Winter are two different worlds.

After the museum we were melting in the heat and crossed the road to an ice cream parlour for a welcome cool before ambling up and down the high street and exploring a few shops.

Sometime in the1970’s it was decided to try to keep Winthrop looking as it would in 1900 and it does retain a wonderful character with facias, signage and covered boardwalks. Several of the buildings are original pre 1900nstill in the same location. That may seem odd to say but people deconstructed their cabins when the moved and set them up in their new location. The fashion still appears to apply to old buildings being retained for heritage.

4:30 we headed back to our lodging to chill, shower, write, wash hair, wash a few clothes including my wallet which I left in my shorts, Doh!

We walked down to town for the evening in tee shirts and shorts, the uniform of these parts, and headed for The Old Schoolhouse, a micro-brewery bar and restaurant which Lynne had read was good, except maybe long waits. We registered to wait for an inside table in a rather noisy room estimated at 20min rather than 45mn for outside and were invited through to the patio to wait. On the patio we looked over the lovely outside area by the river with a live duo playing and singing on the small stage. The couple were really good and we were rather sorry that we’d be going inside again to our table when the lad who registered us and sounded just like Bill and Ted asked if we were ok with an outside as one had come free.
We settled with an excellent beer and did indeed wait a considerable time for our food which suited just fine tonight as we enjoyed the music and atmosphere as night closed in and strings of lights set the mood.

 

A contended walk back across the suspension bridge under a phenomenally bright full moon and with Saturn and Mars clear in the sky in from of us. Really clear skies but the moon is just too bright to see them. The soothing chirruping sound of thousands of crickets somewhere in the grass accompanied us as we climbed the outside steps to our room.

Today’s route:

Statistics: Miles today: 57; Miles so far: 2724; Fuel added so far: 96.7 US gals; States: Washington ; Time Zone: Pacific (UK -8)