North Cascades National Park. For a long time it had been on my list. Despite I wanted to visit, I didn't study the trail for this trip at all. The reason was, we originally planned to backpack in the other region (Spider Gap). Unfortunately the road to the Spider Gap was closed, so we spontaneously went to North Cascades National Park.
To backpack there, permits are required. We just showed up at 2 p.m. at the wilderness center and asked if there is available permit on the day. The only permit available on that day was Basin Creek camp. Without knowing much, we said, "Sure"
The ranger was a little worried, because it will be 2000 feet elevation gain and 2000 feet elevation loss and we still had to drive to the trailhead. We said it would be fine. The ranger was from Mass, so she got excited when she found out we came from Mass.
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View from Cascade Pass
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The first three miles from trailhead is switchbacks in the woods. Those switchbacks are really gentle. I felt like flat. If it was in New England, you would have to straight up in 1 mile instead of 3 miles. Once we got out of the woods, it has open vista. Extremely beautiful. With short distance, we already reached Cascade pass. Completed the uphill of the day. The view was gorgeous. Then we hiked down into the valley.
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| Porcupine |
The highlight of the downhill part was a porcupine. Evening is the golden time for wildlife sighting. Not only because it is their activity time, but also they sometimes come out on the trail since man-made trail is so much easier to walk for wildlife as well. When I turned the curvy part of the trail, a porcupine was on the trail. "Oh" I stopped a couple of meters away from him. He was also, "Oh" and stopped. We stared at each other for a while. I tool pictures. Then he thought, "OK. I need to go off trail" and went off in the woods. I love wildlife sighting. It is precious. After 3 miles, we settled down to the Basin Creek Camp. It is designated campsites with 3 spots. Cooking area is common and bear locker is there. This is nice because we didn't need to carry a bear canister. I don't like to be forced to talk with other campers in the common area. I know that a lot of people like "chat, chat, chat" with hikers but I am an introvert and hiking is the time to be away from chatting with human beings (probably I am minority though in that sense). There are another party of 3 guys from Seattle were at the cooking area. I let Mr.N to interact with them.
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Beautiful Basin
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The next day, we traced back to the trailhead, but we did two side trips. The first one was short to the small basin. It was worth it. Countless falls could be seen coming into the basin. Nobody was there and really peaceful.
The second side trip was a big one. First we went back to Cascade Pass, which required 2000 feet elevation gain, then from there, 2.3 miles with 2300 feet elevation gain of side trip to see Sahale Glacier. To go to Sahale Glacier is a popular dayhike, so there were many people on the trail. I wouldn't say it was peaceful trail, but, BUT, the view was incredible. Probably one of the best views I've had. No wonder how popular the hike is. The trail is a lot of scree portion and I wished I had not carried the big pack. I got tired with total of 5000 feet elevation gain of the day. The glacier was amazing, and the all surrounding mountain scenery was FANTASTIC! We took a long break to soak into the view. WOW. I wanted to stay longer, but it was past 4 p.m., so we started descending. Going down was easier with admiring views every step. There are many mountain goats with babies. Cute! After Cascade Pass, switchbacks were endless, but we came back to the parking lot. We saw a black bear on the road near the trailhead.
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| WOW |
What a view-packed 2 days!
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