August 31 Into Sequim

Today we did a bit of exploring in the nearby town of Sequim. The town itself was not too exciting but a cruise around the area surrounding Sequim was enjoyable. We swung into Dungeness State Park where we soon realized we had stayed there back in 2014. I barely remember it. They say the mind is the first thing to go.

There are some beachfront communities scattered around the same area and, as is usual for beachfront communities, there were some architecturally gorgeous homes, nice wooden boats and nifty yard art. There are also herds of deer and we even spotted a Northern harrier, dining on some formerly unwary small animal. It was great, except from the small animal’s viewpoint.

See pix. Click link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/7f4g46pgwHk5Myjz9

August 30 Concrete to Sequim

Today we had a monster travel day. It wasn’t the distance so much as the route that made the day long. We started out by packing up all our stuff and hooking up our trailer in Concrete. We must be like the Empire in The Empire Strikes Back – we discarded our trash and then took off. WA-20 took us down the Skagit River, through Sedro Woolley and Burlington, before emerging on the other side. We crossed the Swinomish Channel and drove onto Fidalgo Island. In Anacortes, we turned south and headed across Deception Pass onto Whidbey Island. About and hour later, we turned off the main highway at Coupeville and took a short drive to the Port Townsend Ferry Terminal.

We have used this ferry before but every time we arrive, the procedure is a little different. Like the last time we lined up for the ferry, we pulled behind a few vehicles on the right shoulder of the road outside the ferry terminal considerably before our reserved crossing time. This time, however, there was a rotund Washington State Ferries employee with a big head and a walkie-talkie standing in the road. He directed us to pull up to where he was standing so he could speak with us. The state website states that those wishing to cross Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula on the ferry must arrive not less than 45 minutes early so the benefits of queuing up can be fully appreciated. The guy with the big head told us that we had arrived too early (about 45 minutes) and, if we didn’t pull out of line and go elsewhere, we would go on standby and sacrifice our 3:30 PM slot. We could not grasp his reasoning but figured anything else inside the guy’s head would make it pop so we pulled past the terminal and parked for a while at a boat launching ramp nearby.

Peggy seized this opportunity to whip up a tasty lunch which we devoured. Then we drove the wrong way past the terminal again, then a mile up the road and found a place to turn our big rig around to head back in the right direction. We then pulled into the roadside queue where we were greeted by a much less ugly ferry employee who told us to shut it down and we would be installed in the boarding lane shortly.

Forty-five minutes later, we drove onto the car ferry and off on our short duration crossing of the Sound. There were lots of dolphins (or porpoises?) swimming around in the strait and we hung out at the very front of the car deck to ogle them as they scampered away from the looming ferry. About 25 minutes later, we were disembarking into the Port Townsend ferry terminal and back onto our road route. The road south from Port Townsend (still WA-20) is skinny, curvy and pretty high speed for an old codger like me because I seemed to always have some furious youngster right up my trumpet almost all the way to US-101. At 101, we turned back north and did some more squiggly racetrack to the town of Sequim. Despite the plain spelling, everyone around here pronounces the name as Skwim.

One more skinny, twisty side road of about 5 miles and we pulled into a place called the Diamond Point Resort. We were now on the very edge of the continent. It is pretty close to the Strait of Juan de Fuca but you can’t see it from the park. Getting into the park was a challenge because: A) Our GPS was completely befuddled in the tall trees and hills and B) The park is obscured from the road. Thanks to Peggy and her patience, we eventually pulled up the gravel driveway to the office.

Things sort of went to shit after that. I must have been more stressed out then normal because it seemed I was almost completely unable to get our trailer into the space we had been assigned. Soon, many park denizens were helping, all pointing in different directions and issuing conflicting advice. After numerous changes of direction, only limited cursing, considerable befuddlement and only one car needing to be moved, we backed our monster trailer into the correct orientation.

This park has full hookups, a staff more than willing to offer tenants conflicting trailer backing directions, WiFi and cable TV. I believe we could use our satellite antenna here but we selected cable for this stay.

We didn’t cover many miles today but from starting our routine in Concrete to being set up in Sequim took eight hours. That’s a long day for me and I will endeavor to assure it never is that long and miserable again.

See some pix. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/UpAwK27ruGKV6qpo9

August 29 Hanging around home

We did some minor maintenance and travel prep today. I cleaned our barbecue. It was messy but necessary. It is our last full day here in Concrete and we both are reluctant to leave. We have had good weather most of the time, puppy dogs galore during our 13 day stay, great scenery and superb, reasonably-priced food at Skagit Burger, Annie’s Pizza Station and the Birdsview Diner. It is hard to be disappointed here.

We went over for a bit to hang out with Don and Mary, our neighbors. They are a lovely couple from Stanwood, WA, and, as a bonus, have a beautiful 9-week old Bernese puppy named Bunsen that is already bigger than a breadbox. They may want to set up a foundation now to pay for his food later because he is going to be a monster. On the other side of us is a guy with a 12-week old Doberman pup who has no difficulty entertaining himself with a bath towel he can maul. It is puppy heaven for us, particularly because our dog is elsewhere.

If I did it right, there is a picture of Bunsen, the neighbor puppy. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/MYgL5WWgRM5M6sDx7

August 28 Into Burlington

Today we drove into Burlington, maybe 25 miles down the Skagit River. We took the slow road right next to the river instead of WA-20 which is a bit further from the water. It passes through Hamilton and Lyman, two communities that, because of their proximity to the river and the vagaries of weather, have been flooded many times in the past. Some folks have figured it out and built their homes up on pile foundations which will possibly save their possessions in a flood but they will also leave the owners in a massive lake with only the top part of their home sticking out of the water and escape being impossible. Maybe the Coast Guard will pick them off the roof with a helicopter.

There is a great burger joint called Skagit Valley Burgers between the downriver towns of Sedro Woolley and Burlington. It is located in an old caboose right along WA-20 and we both know we shouldn’t eat there because the food, while being very tasty, is probably bad for out hearts. So we went on by to the Safeway in Burlington to pick up some vittles for our soon-to-be departure from this part of WA.

On the way back home with our scant shopping loot, we pulled right into Skagit Valley Burgers and got Skagit Western and Blue Cheese burgers along with some waffle seasoned fries and luscious milkshakes. I know it is bad for me but I have scant remorse. I’m weak. Their burgers are sensational.

August 27 Skagit, Sauk and Cascade Rivers

Exploration was on the agenda today. We crossed to the south side of the Skagit River and drove the shoreline road up to the Sauk River, a tributary of the Skagit. We then drove up the Sauk until we got to a bridge where we crossed and then drove back down to near the confluence in Rockport. Just before pulling into town, we diverted onto the Rockport Cascade Road, again going east up the south shore of the Skagit to Marblemount, a town with few businesses and a very low speed limit.

In Marblemount, we turned away from the Skagit up another tributary, this one called the Cascade River. Peggy and I went part way up this road when we were camped nearby in June.

The Cascade River runs in an extremely narrow gorge with nearly vertical banks. The flow is mostly snowmelt running through massive prehistoric highly compressed ash deposits which gullies easily and volcanic basalt which doesn’t gully at all. There are many small waterfalls right along the first 8 or 10 miles of road. Near the end of the paving, we pulled into a state park called Marble Creek and were able to follow the challenging skinny gravel road down to the river’s edge. The small campground has some wonderful sites and pit toilets but I am surely too big of a coward to pull our 34 foot monster in there. However, the terrain is majestic, the river is gorgeous and it looks like a spectacular camping spot for the tent crowd.

Not far from here is one of our favorite picnic spots. There is a pullout next to the road where you can take your food out, sit on the National Forest barricade and see exceptional views of the Cascades Range on the horizon, impossibly steep forested mountains all around and the Cascade River hundreds of feet below at the bottom of the gorge. It is pretty nifty.

A few miles above the campground, the road continued but the paving didn’t. We tried it for a mile or two but the washboard road surface became so miserable that keeping the back end of the truck behind the front end became quite challenging, so we chickened out and turned around instead of having a senior moment and plunging to certain death.

There’s a few pictures. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/DPZnGNAdN2WTh1Gu8

August 26 Trailer repair

Today was my designated day to do a repair on the outside of our Barbarian Invader. At some time in the past, there was a leak somewhere in the top front of our trailer. A month ago, Peggy got up on the ladder and sealed the leaky spot. The treacherous leaked water had run down through some inaccessible crawl space to the cheesy wood and plastic sheet that covers the underside of the gooseneck. Once there, it was trapped so it puddled on the formerly planar surface and slowly reconfigured a section so it looked like a big white hematoma about the size of a racketball. Eventually, the flimsy plastic burst like a big zit, emptying out the water but leaving a hideous open wound.

Today we used our oscillating tool, cheaply made in China and purchased at the Mount Vernon Harbor Freight store, to excise the subject ugliness. It actually worked quite well, cutting right through the fragile plastic and crummy veneer behind it and revealing the interesting, normally never-seen components inside. Many other tools eventually came into play but all were wielded amateurishly. After breaking and dulling many razor blades and repeated applications of Goo-Gone, I finished cleaning off many applications of caulk, crud and road grime all around the surgery. A thin piece of aluminum diamond plate acquired in Bellingham was stuck over the hole with butyl rubber sealant, screwed down tight with sheet metal fasteners and then caulked at the edges with a fancy Sika caulk/sealant we purchased on the internet. It even looks like I knew what I was doing although we all know better.

The whole time I was being puzzled and getting sticky stuff on me outside, Peggy performed a whirlwind of tidiness inside, cleaning up our well-used toilet room (including all the walls), doing the same to our shower, making the carpets look like I have always stayed outside and vacuuming out the heater duct work concealed below our floor. The place looks great inside. We had cocktails later.

August 24 Skagit South Shore

I have been a slug not making daily blog entries for the last few days but that is primarily due to the mundane nature of our activities.

One day we did the laundry in the Grandy Creek TT laundry facility. The last time we were here, there was a huge commercial clothes dryer in the laundry that, through some delightful malfunction, would dry a couple regular loads of clothes for a quarter. Unfortunately, management eventually noted this money-making anomaly and now we are required to pay $1.25 for the same service.

One of the days we drove into Burlington / Mount Vernon and went food shopping. Costco and Fred Mayer didn’t get all our money but they tried. I can happily state that we now have a prodigious liquor cabinet. After the last dozen days up in Blaine, we were surprised that we have been unable, to date, to find any sweet con-on-the-cob here. The fields look about the same both places.

A couple days were rain-outs and we were obliged to be boring right around our own home. The rain last Wednesday was not the drizzly, summer version rainstorm. It rained hard, sufficient to entirely soak an old person while he took a quick lap around our 34 foot trailer.

But today was different. The weather was still crummy with intermittent rain but we went for a cruise up the south bank of the lower Skagit River anyway. We started out by driving west along the north shore on WA-20 down to Bow, where we stopped in at the cheap tobacco stand next to the Skagit Casino. The Native Americans that operate those stands do not feel compelled to collect sin, luxury, sales, pork barrel, stamp or other pesky taxes on tobacco so the prices are splendid – about 55% of what one would pay off reservation lands across the street.

We then headed south, through Sedro Woolley on WA-9 until we crossed the Skagit. There we left the main highway and headed east up the south shore. It is a magical drive with the mesmerizing turquoise waters of the Skagit on the left, striking pasture lands and forest on the right and drizzle from above. There are many stretches of highway running under the canopy of the roadside trees making it seem like we were passing through a long green tunnel, albeit a leaky one.

We continued until we got to the west shore of the Sauk River, a Skagit tributary, and headed up the Sauk for about a half dozen miles where we crossed on a one-lane steel bridge to get to the east shore. Back north on the opposite bank, we soon pulled into Rockport. Peggy and I were once going to stop at the local bar in Rockport but they had a sign posted out front that stated that “Hippies enter by the back door.” Unaware if we were hippies or not, we chose to just get back in the vehicle and head to another town where self-characterization was unnecessary before ordering a porter. In Rockport, we picked up WA-20 again for a leisurely drive back west to Grandy Creek. We have stopped numerous times in the last week to check out if there are elk browsing in the Skagit Trust’s Hurd Field, where we have spotted the North Cascade herd many times on previous visits. The elk must be dining elsewhere because they sure ain’t here this week.

We took a few pictures along the way. Click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/TDnU8SWtNKagpctaA

August 19 North Cascades Scenic Hwy.

WA-20, the road 300 yards from our current RV setup in Grandy Creek Thousand Trails, is part of a larger, 400 mile loop that runs through the northern end of the Cascade mountain range. The whole loop is called the North Cascades Scenic Highway and it runs through North Cascades National Park, Mount Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and the Okanagen – Wenatchee National Forest.

We did not drive the whole route today. We limited our drive to the section which starts at our campground near Concrete, WA, and extends up to Washington Pass which divides the coastal side from the flat side of the mountains. The elevation in Concrete is about 50 feet above sea level and the pass lies at about 5,500 feet.

The drive was beautiful from the outset. The road took us through the Skagit riverside communities of Concrete, Rockport, Marblemount and Newhalem before changing into a steady uphill pull. The road still follows the Skagit, skirting the Gorge powerhouse, Diablo Dam and Lake and Ross Dam and Lake until it diverts away from the river and heads up into a volcanic wonderland of waterfalls, jagged mountain peaks, crystal-clear streams, dense fir and cedar forests. Approaching the pass, trees are much scarcer and basalt and tremendous sedimentary ash deposits become the view.

Right at Washington Pass, we pulled into a parking area and took a stroll to the spectacular viewpoint. The ridges of almost-vertical mountain abruptly descending into forest-filled valleys surround the viewpoint. The downgrade into eastern Washington can be seen switchbacking around and down the valley. It is almost straight down to the much lower highway as it swings by beneath the viewpoint. You could almost spit on the vehicles below but they were so far away one would never know if the gob hit the windshield.

Our fuel economy, as shown on our truck’s info panel, certainly went up as we returned. The speed limit almost all the way back averaged around 40 mph and the grade was set up, at least for our vehicle, perfectly. I put it in Drive, turned on the towing feature and the truck’s speed stayed almost right on the limit for the 70 mile descent back to Concrete.

The North Cascades Scenic Highway is a superb drive. The scenery is fantastic, the road is good, abundant forest groves line the road almost all the way and the mountains near the pass are stunning. Glaciers, volcanoes, turquoise rivers and lakes, waterfalls, deep green flora – what more could one want?

We took a few pictures and they can be seen by clicking the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/vd4Au2xPhZg8NwhW7