Northern Cascades National Park - Beaver Loop Backpacking

I took my annual "big" backpacking trip a few weeks back. Todd, Allen, Steve, and I went to Northern Cascade National Park and did the Beaver Loop trail in four days. We did the majority of our hiking on the first three days - covering 43 miles.


All in all the trip was decent. It definitely did not have the most breathtaking scenery for much of the trip. We spent a lot of the time in the woods, and the weather was only so-so. We got a good amount of rain while we were hiking, and some while we were sleeping. Luckily the weather cooperated when we hit Whatcom Pass, which had some great views, and when we were chilling in camp.


We drove up most of the way on Wednesday afternoon, taking off form work at about 3:30. After getting our permits on Thursday morning and parking my car at the trail head, we headed down about 1 mile to the Ross Lake "Resort" where we picked up a water taxi and headed up Ross Lake to Little Beaver. The weather was terrible. We the proceeded to hike another 12 miles to the Stillwell camp. The views were honestly pretty boring. There were some large Cedar trees and lots of wet underbrush -- but nothing all that exciting. Here is a photo of us on the shore of the Little Beaver river:





Luckily the rain let up when we got to camp, allowing us to easily get all setup. Stillwell is a good campground near the banks of the Little Beaver river. I would give it a 7. The views were not spectacular, but it was peaceful. We did not see anyone the entire day (after being dropped off) ... which was pretty cool.


We ended up having a campfire at night -- something that I rarely do while backpacking. This turned into our thing, and we ended up doing it every night. Thanks goes to Allen for being the fire master :). Stillwell camp also randomly had a lawn chair. It was quite nice :P.


On day 2 we took a 13 mile day trip up Little Beaver river to Whatcom pass. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip. The weather was good enough -- a bit cloudy but with patches of blue sky. It decided to rain on the way home a bit -- but big deal :).


Here is a photo as we climbed towards the pass:





Here is a photo (with some blue sky!) of Allen and Steve on top of Whatcom Pass with Challenger Glacier in the background:





Here is a photo looking down the Little Beaver River Valley that we had hiked all the way up through:





On day 3 we packed up camp and headed back towards Ross Lake with our destination at 39 mile camp (about 11.5 miles from Stillwell). About 4 miles in, Steve sprained his ankle. Doh. So, we got to our planned camp at about 2:30 (after making really good time), and decided to push an additional 5.5 miles out to Big Beaver camp on the Ross Lake. It is a lot easier to walk on a sprained ankle on the first day before it has a whole night to swell up. This turned out to be a great decision. 39 mile camp was not bad -- but it was not great either. The Big Beaver camp, on the other hand, was amazing.


Most of the hiking on day 3 was pretty uneventful. There were a few marshes and such -- but really nothing to write home about. Here is a photo of Ross Lake from our campsite at Big Beaver.





On day 4 Steve went and talked to some of the other campers at Big Beaver and bummed a boat ride off of them back to Ross Lake resort, decreasing our hike out (on his bad ankle) by 6 miles :).


Here is a photo of Todd and Allen standing on the boat dock at Big Beaver looking over Ross Lake.





Here is a photo from our boat ride back:





I am having some trouble uploading to my website right now ... so uploading my photos is going to be a bit delayed.

Ian's Parents Visit

My parents came for a visit a couple weeks back. I just got the photos downloaded from my dad, so I will make the post now.


We drove up to Mt Hood on Saturday and took it easy. My parents rented a really nice place on the Salmon River in Welches.


Sunday we went on a couple of hikes on the East side of Mt Hood. Janel and I had not done any hiking over there yet as it is a bit too far for a day trip. First we did a short 2.5 mile hike to the top of Lookout Mountain. This was a relatively easy hike with a great view from the top. It had a nice view of Mt. Hood, and you could also see Jefferson, Adams, and Rainier.


Here is picture of Janel with my parents.





Here is a picture of Janel and I. We decided to pose a bit more than usual :).





After this hike we drove a few miles up 35 to hike Tamanawas Falls. The hike, as described in the Sullivan Book, was not possible because the old bridge was out. So, we had to drive down a few miles to the Polallie Trailhead. This added maybe a mile to the hike. The hike started out along a ridge above 35 which was okay, but after a mile or so hit a river and headed towards Hood and away from the road. This part of the trail was very peaceful.





After hiking in for maybe 1.5 miles, we hit the falls. Tamanawas Falls was great -- much wider than a lot of the falls in the Gorge and still quite tall. You can also hike all the way up and behind them which is always fun :). Here is picture of the falls from the front.





After the hike we came home and took it easy. That night we went out to dinner at Timberline Lodge.





The next day my Dad and I went on a hike to Devil's Peak Lookout. There are two ways to this lookout -- one that is a relatively easy 2.5 mile hike and another that is 8.2 miles with 3200 feet of elevation gain. The problem with the shorter hike is that it is at the end of a nasty 10 mile forest road. We decided to try the easy hike since and drive the evil road in my parent's rental SUV. This turned out to be a great decision -- I would not have wanted to subject my car to the road. This also shows why you don't want to buy used rental cars :).


The hike had some good views of the West side of Mt Hood, and the lookout building (shown below) was a strange place. There were a couple of beds inside and a whole bunch of random crap :).





Janel and I really enjoyed having my parents out for a visit and the house up near the Salmon River was great. You can see all the photos here. You can see some select photos here.

Nutrition

I found some cool software online for tracking your diet. It i called cron-o-meter. You basically type in what you eat and it gives you how well you are doing across the board (vitamins, minerals, carbs, fats, etc). The webpage makes it sound like it is for people that are dieting (which I clearly am not) ... but there is nothing in the software that is really "diet"-focussed.


I am going to try using it for a feel weeks to get my diet in better order. Give it a shot. You can download it and read more about it here.


Update: Ever think about starting to buy organic foods? Janel and I already spend a large percentage of our weekly grocery bill on fresh produce, so I am not sure if I am going to dive into organc foods yet ... but my Mom sent me this webpage that ranks produce based on how much pesticide is used (as well as how people normally wash the food). So, if you are thinking of switching to some organics -- this shows where you might want to start. Peaches, apples, and bell peppers are the worst ...


Update2: Sain mentioned selecting seafood based on it's sustainability. You can read about what you should eat depending on where you live here.