The Wandering Koi

We woke up to stiff backs (I did mention the deflating sleeping pad?), but on the bright side no one got eaten by a bear.

The lake was so calm behind the camp, with no wind and no one up yet. There are benefits to being a surgeon and used to an earlier time zone… but sleeping in isn’t one of them.

We realized only after arriving that there was a burn ban in effect. Our plan had been to cook over a campfire as we did in one of our “trial camping” trips. We had a cold breakfast before hitting the trail.

At a roadside informational placard, I learned the phrase “Skagit Gneiss”(pronounced ‘nice’), which is one of the primary rocks of the Cascade range and is also going to be the name of my punk rock band if I ever start one.

We started with an easy boardwalk trail along a nice stream surrounded by old growth Douglas fir trees.

We were following the stream (video below) on our way to a waterfall. We have no pictures of the waterfall, however, as the hike was cut short.

A few minutes after this video, Mrs. Koi noticed a small waterfall caused by a log jam. We walked down to take pictures, and Little Koi decided that a downed log would be a good place to sit because she was not enjoying the long (1.5 mile) hike in the hot (70 F) weather. (Admittedly, there were switchbacks involved). Unfortunately, a hive of hornets had also decided the log was a good place to build a nest, and they weren’t amenable to sharing. The hike abruptly pivoted into a run back down the trail, away from the actual water fall upstream. Somehow Mr. Koi was the only one who was stung in this adventure. (Sorry, no pictures of the hornet)

After a cold lunch back at the tent, we drove over one of the dams. There are several reservoirs in the area that provide a lot of the power to the Seattle metro area. We stopped at an overlook to Diablo Lake.

After lunch, we did Mr. Koi’s favorite hike of this part of the trip, a trail along the Skagit River. Conveniently the trailhead was across the road from the campsite. A cool breeze was blowing off the Skagit due to the frigid glacial melt feeding the river (about 10% of summer flow is glacial melt). The trail wound along the river through now dry woodland. The drought was evident in the fine brown dust floating up with each footfall, settling to clad our boots and the wilting trail-side ferns in a blanket of dun.

We found a place to sit next to the river and sat listening to the harmonizing susurration between the river and the wind as they both wound through the canyon of rock walls and riparian aspen thickets.

Mr. Koi would have sat by the water all afternoon, dreaming he’d had room to bring his fly rod. Instead, we pressed on into moss-drizzled old growth forests nestling shade-dappled rock cairns that looked like the entrance to a Faery queendom.

We made our way back to the tent after breaking free of the enchantment. After another night (before which we more firmly placed the stopper in the inflatable sleeping pad – Klymit Static V, if you’re looking for a recommendation; two thumbs up), we packed up camp and drove back to Seattle to catch a bus across the border to Vancouver, B.C., Canada to continue the adventure.

We’ll pick up the trip to Vancouver in the next post!