A few weeks ago we headed out on our first backpacking weekend of the year. You can't really get up high in Washington until July because of snow (unless you are a mountaineer), so we found a lower elevation hike along a river to Black Lake near the awesome town of Winthrop, WA.
The hike was fantastic because it followed a fast-flowing river and went through a forest that had been through a huge forest fire about ten years ago. As scientists, we find hikes through disturbed forests to be SO COOL. You can see everything you read about (think succession) right in front of your feet and it is quite awesome. Most of the plants that surrounded us were the primary succession plants, but tree seedlings had taken root and were starting to grow. In addition to watching biology in action, we could see evidence of times long, long, ago - glaciers! In the photo above I'm posing with some glacial poo. Yup. Poo. Glacial erratics, if you don't know, are huge boulders that were moved by glaciers a long time ago and then were left behind as the glacier retreated....sort of like a glacier taking a dump. Neat eh? I think so, hence my love for glacial poo.
This may not be obvious because of the poor lighting in the photograph, but this spot was covered in gorgeous wildflowers. What a treat!
Black Lake - view from our campsite
Wee little tent and some big views
The next morning we were packing our backpacks and getting ready to hike back to the car when I heard a shuffling sound on the trail above us. I looked up and almost fell over at the sight - a moose! Now, I've lived in Alaska where seeing a moose is not exactly a rare sight. But seeing a moose in the Cascades in Washington....now that is a rare sight.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that there are about 1,000 moose in the state and these are mostly found along the Idaho border. It isn't unheard of to see a moose near the Cascades, but it isn't common at all. In fact, later on that day we were chatting with a local guy who said he had never seen a moose in the area despite the fact he had lived in the area for over a decade. So were we lucky? Heck yeah! Pretty exciting....
Great hike back along the river in hot temperatures....ahhh....love it.
We were treated to some grand views of butterflies chowing on the nectar of columbine.
It is a tradition for us to end any visit to the eastern side of the mountains with a beer at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery and this trip was no different. What was different was that the Winthrop Marathon was going on when we arrived in town for our brews. You would think this would almost shut down the town - but noooo - this must have been the cutest marathon event ever with just two tiny tents, a local bluegrass band, and a runner at the finish line every ohhhhh 15 minutes? It was clearly a tiny race and a very local event. Pretty fun to walk into.... the Methow Valley never disappoints.
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