Winthrop, Washington

After leaving McChord AFB we headed to the Tulalip casino north of Everett were spent a night. Friends, Bill from Granite Falls, and Carol and John from Hawaii, came over for a visit. Later that evening, we stopped by the fruit stand where grandson, Cody, has been working for 4 months. We were impressed by watching him ring up the fruit and know all of the prices. We’re sure he has learned a lot on his first job. He is in his junior year of high school.

Friday morning, we headed up to the North Cascades to Baker Lake. Friday afternoon we did a 3 hour hike along the Baker river. Sunday we were suppose to do the Park Butte Lookout trail, but after talking to our friend, Doug, it turns out he had to work on Sunday. So, we headed up there Saturday morning, which was a good thing since it was pouring on Sunday. The hike on Saturday was nice – perfect fall weather. We had some partial views of Baker – the clouds were flitting in and out all afternoon. We made it to the lookout for an elevation gain of 2200 feet. We were both pretty tired when we finished the hike.

Since it was raining on Sunday, we decided to head over the pass in the hopes of finding nicer weather near Winthrop. And, we were right – the sun was out on the other side of the mountains.

Monday, we headed up to Harts Pass (the highest place you can drive in the state of Washington) to an elevation of about 7000 feet. We did a ridge hike with about 600 feet of elevation gain. While hiking, we had a few snow showers lightly sprinkle us with our first snow of the season. It was partially sunny, so we had some nice views of the North Cascades.

Tuesday morning we moved down to a state park near Winthrop. After 5 days on only battery, it was time to get plugged into some power. We’re here in Winthrop for a barn square dance that starts on Friday night. We’ve never been to this dance, but we’re sure it will be fun.