Worldwide Wanderers

Last day in North Cascades, Seattle, and home - July 17-18, 2024 Being our last camping night, we did not have luggage space to take the purchased air mattress home. I ran into the lady that we talked about the pass hike in the bathroom and asked her if she wanted it. She thought that I was crazy. Someone who went into the stall said she would take it if the first person did not want it. We left if on the picnic table, and I said that she can look at it and if she wanted it to take it from the picnic table at site 24. She did give it a new home, and we were glad to not be just throwing it into the landfill.  We did not take down the tent yet and went east to Ross Dam Trail at MP/Milepost 134 for the 1.5 miles, 500 foot elevation gain hike. This hike was downhill first and then up. We quickly found a waterfall.   Arrived at Ross Dam.  There was also a waterfall into the lake by the dam. Washington had many beautiful waterfalls, just everywhere.  The power house a...

North Cascades Maple Pass Loop hike - July 16, 2024   Well, sort of, actually the Maple Pass Loop trail was actually on US Forest Service land instead of in the National Park Service. As mentioned, this requires the Annual Interagency National Park Pass (or other pass that the NPS sells) or a $5 fee.  From our campground, it was about a 25 minute drive to the trailhead. We had no trouble getting a parking spot. I have seen others who note having to park 1 mile down the road and walk to the trailhead (starting the hike at 1:30pm). Seen from the trail and when leaving, there were a few cars on the road, but no one having to park that far away. I brought a lanyard to hang our pass on the rearview mirror, but with this car, you could not see it well. So, I moved it to the dashboard. Still in the lanyard, it almost melted into the dashboard. The NPS website for North Cascade, in the warning section, warned of car break in at parking along Hwy 20, saying to take all valuables and ev...