Storing Up Some Chill

All work and no play makes Doc a grumpy boy. Consequently I was desperately needing a day off and finally got one yesterday (after 2+ weeks). My endurance was rewarded with a drive up Hart's Pass to Slate Peak about an hour west from Omak into the North Cascades.

First stop was Winthrop, an old west town that still has it's mainstreet lined with false fronted stores and wooden boardwalks that look like they were part of a western movie set. It even had a saloon with swinging doors called 3 Finger Jack's. Instead of horses, Harleys were pulled up to the hitching posts in front of all the businesses. Lunch was a gourmet burrito to go (pretty good, but how I miss Chipotles).

Then it was off to Mazama following the Methow River up its increasingly beautiful alpine valley. Steep forested slopes plunged almost vertically down to the valley floor where horses were grazing alongside deer on the thick grass punctuated with patches of yellow and blue wildflowers. At Mazama, I turned onto the gravel forest service road that would take me an additional 20 miles and 5,000 feet up to Hart's Pass at the Pacific Crest (a divide separating wet and liberal western Washington from dry and conservative eastern Washington).

The road up offered some white knuckle moments as several areas were in various stages of washout. To my right was a solid rock wall. To my left, loose shale shoulder with significant erosion problems and a drop of a couple thousand feet (I assume because I couldn't really see the bottom or even the downward slope from my vantage point, just the drop off). Of course the single lane road had no guard rail.

Eventually I made it to the pass and then on up to the top of Slate peak above timberline where meadows were full of alpine flowers and a few remaining patches of snow. It was somewhat cloudy so the magnificent views were tempered by wisps of white clouds spilling through the surrounding mountain passes then whirling up the mountainside to surround me in short lived banks of fog before sliding down the other side of Slate peak to hang above the U-shaped glacier carved valley below. On a clear day one can see all the way across the multiple rows of snowclad peaks that make up the North Cascades to Mount Baker 52 miles to the west. Canada is seen about 20 miles to the north. I was a little disappointed that I was missing a grand view, however the peaceful solitude of being by myself on top of a mountain in the clouds with the only sound being the snowmelt fed creeks many thousands of feet below kind of made up for it.

I lingered in the chilly damp air as long as my goosebump riddled skin would allow (knowing that its supposed to be in the 90's this week in Omak), then drove back down. Back to the heat and daily grind until next weekend!