Day 4: Lone Fir Campground

Day 4: Newhalem Campground to Lone Fir Campground

A wonderfully quiet night led to some great sleep, and we woke up early to some coolish temperatures (low 40s). It was surprisingly quiet considering the campground was nearly full, but I guess some people really can be considerate of others while camping. Pam’s throat was sore, but Matt was feeling a bit better. We knew we had a big climb ahead of us, and we ate breakfast and broke camp and got on the road around 830 am. We were dressed in our cold weather gear, with many layers.  First stop of the day was the Seattle City Lights display, a whole set-up to showcase the utility that provides Seattle with a lot of its electricity. Our path was going to take us up the Skagit River Gorge, which over the years has been dammed 3 times, forming impressive reservoirs.

So, we climbed, and climbed, and climbed. As we warmed up, the layers of clothing came off. There were short periods of downhill, but mainly just a steady climb up. As we climbed higher, we rode above the lakes, and the beautiful water below, fed by snow and glacial melt. And then we climbed up high enough to see the glaciers, too! The scenery was spectacular. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sky was blue and the air was clear. At one point, a deer stepped onto the road from the shoulder and crossed over in just 15 feet in front of us. We watcher her as she was very unconcerned about us, nibbling on leaves and holding still as cars passed her.

We made our lunch near a waterfall in a little patch of sunshine. Pam took some Alka Seltzer cold tablets, and we continued to climb. The shoulder of the road was wide in most spots, we had a couple of tunnels to go through, and we passed a few tourists coming the other direction.

We kept eating snacks as we climbed, and ended up eating two Snickers and a Payday, each, plus various Gu’s and Gummies. The day wore on, and Pam felt terrible, her head hurt, and it was hard to think. But the one thought was that we needed to get up over Washington Pass and down the other side to the campground. We were crawling along at about 4 mph, and stopping every mile, then every half mile, then every quarter mile. Finally, Rainy Pass was in sight, which meant that we had a 1.5 mile downhill and then 3.5 miles up to the top of Washington Pass. It was on that downhill that we lost our squeeze filter bottle. See, earlier we had run out of water, so we paused at a roadside waterfall, and Matt acquired us some fresh mountain springwater. Yum! But on that downhill, the bottle flew out of Pam’s pannier, never to be seen again. Sigh.  

Finally, we crested Washington Pass. With jubilation, we took a picture of the sign, and then enjoyed the exhilaration of the downhill, reaching speeds over 30 mph. It was so beautiful, with the sun going down. It was cold, too, but even though we were freezing, we didn’t want to stop to put back on the layers we had shed. We just wanted to get to camp to make dinner and go to bed.

We reached the campground with no time to spare, and found the last unoccupied site. For $12 we got a great site, isolated, and again, quiet neighbors (although no showers, boo!). With teamwork, we got the tent pitched and dinner made, and then both crawled into our sleeping bags, with promises not to wake up early because we would have an easy ride the next day. We made it! Our first huge climb, and we survived, even with Pam feeling sick and Matt not feeling the greatest either.

Gorge power plant, bottom most in the Sakgit system

Some of the early morning views

our first tunnel, with flashing lights for bikes and all :)

 Small falls going in to Gorge Creek

Gorge Lake

Hello deer

Diablo lake with glaciars in the background

Diablo Lake

Our lunch spot, on a cliff near John Pierce Waterfalls

Bikes rested against the cliff for lunch

Pam

Pam excited to make it to the top of Washington Pass after a grueling climb 

Liberty Bell Mountain through the trees

Liberty Bell Mountain towering over the trees

Sunseting on the mountains as we sailed down from Washington Pass

Distance: 50.63

Max: 33.6

Avg:6.9

Time: 7:15!