The Walkabout: North Cascades: Cloud:1; Hikers: 0

Have you noticed a correlation between a government shut down and frequency of blog posts? As was expected, the shutdown has seriously damaged my quest...though it is not beyond salavaging, yet! It actually couldn't have happened at a better time. I was in the Redwoods backcounty when it happened. Luckily the Redwoods is both a National AND State Park! While I wasn't really able to fully explore the National Park, the indiscernible Redwood State Parks were just as mind-blowing. Truly. But more on that later...

Oh and I guess being without an itinerary in Napa Valley Wine Country isn't such a bad rub...

Anywho, I guess the title is a bit of a spoiler but eh.

The morning brought a fresh start though with it came along the bruises, aches, pains, and blisters from the day before. Michael decided, wisely, to remain in the basin for the day and reflect on life...I'm convinced that this basin had healing powers. If there was ONE place on Earth where clarity and the answers to life's questions could be found, it was in the Pelton Basin of North Cascades National Park.

While Michael nursed his dinner plate size blisters (on BOTH feet), Fern and I set out to try and tackled the ascent of the Sahale Glacier.

We would go back across familiar and foreign scree fields, up switchbacks, and peer down cliff faces before nature really started to creep up on us. Yup...a massive front of fog or just a cloud completely consumed us. We witnessed the whole thing. We came to and proceeded up the mountain from the Cascade Pass. When we stopped to look back at home much ground we had covered, the blanket of white rolled across the pass where we stood only 30 minutes before. It was such a spectacle that we sat and ate a gourmet lunch of cheese, crackers, almonds, and berries.

We pressed on passed Doubtful Lake (an oasis fed by the purest glacier waters imaginable - of course its the ONE thing I didn't get a picture of - irony?) and further up the Sahale Arm. We continued until it came to the point where the cloud/fog became so thick that we could no long see where we were walking. The two of us sucked up our pride and made the mutual decision to turn around...you know...so we wouldn't accidentally FALL OFF THE MOUNTAIN! It was a tough call to make because we wanted to reach the high above glacier so badly. And we must have only been about 1/2 a mile from our goal. A bitter but wise lesson in limitations.

In unison with our decision...the skies opened up. I don't mean they CLEARED up...they OPENED up. We were drenched from head to toe within moments. Even with rain gear on, we were no match for this relentless moisture. While our spirits were bruised and wet, we made great time heading back to Pelton Basin.

We found Michael at camp. Exhausted, no doubt, from a day of mental and emotional rigor... something we would each experience in our own ways while at North Cascades.