End of our 16th summer trip

The ones that read my blog know that my wife and I are from out of the States and that we RV every summer for 4-5 months , at the end of each trip we store the rig and fly home for the winter, in the following Spring we pick the rig from the storage and discover new to us States/Provinces.

Because we hike allot mainly to waterfalls, View Points, Lakes and Mountain Peaks it took us 16 years to "cover" most of North America main areas.

This year we started in Bend Oregon and ended in Spokane WA, hiking Mt Helen,Mt Rainer,Mt Baker and visiting the beautiful Washington West Coast ( scroll back to my previous posts ).

It is a challenge to store the rig each time in a different place without worrying all winter what is going to happen to the trailer and the truck during these months, will mice adopt the trailer, will ants enter, will heavy snow damage the roof or will the sun "burn" the walls, in any case there is no alternative for us and so far no major damage happened touch wood.

The storage process starts few days before our departure to the closest Airport , it includes: removing all foods, cleaning the trailer from inside from all remaining foods that might attract mice, shutting the fridge ,disconnecting the battery,winterizing,packing bags that fly with us (mainly clothes and presents for grandkids), lowering trailers front to get rid of snow and water , covering the wheels and the air-condition, putting wood boards under the wheels and asking someone to start the truck every 2 weeks for 10 minutes and hoping for the best.

Sometimes like this year we are lucky to leave the rig on a friends property instead of a RV storage place , we know that it will be in good hands and can always find out through e-mails how are things going.

After all these preparations we start our trip back home that can take in some cases 2 days:

We were booked with United Airlines from Spokane via Denver to Toronto to visit our son before flying home, the connection in Denver was 55 Minutes, which is OK if the flight arrives on time to Denver , in our case the flight to Denver took off 3 hours later than scheduled , so we stayed in Denver overnight and continued on the next day, it was not bad if you are familiar with the Airlines regulations and demand them to pay for accommodations, transfers and meals .

All in All we are having a blast in the last 16 Summers, everyday is a new "adventure", we manage the bank of time as we wish, we like it then we stay -we don't like it then we move, we can hike an area using the truck for days before moving to a new spot with the trailer and most of all we made many friends that enriched our lives ,some we are in touch constantly and meet again after a year or two.

LIFE IS GOOD IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND DO THINGS THAT YOU CAN AFFORD AND LIKE .

Thank you all dear friends and RVers that shared great times with us, may you all be able to do what you want to do but had no time till today.

See ya all next summer.

Winthrop WA

Time flies when you are enjoying life, we "just " started our 16th RV summer trip in June and we are very close to wrap it up and fly home for the winter, wow that was really fast..

Yesterday we traveled the HWY 20 from the North Cascades Eastbound missing a lot of the most beautiful scenery in this part of the country because of the smoky air , but quite lucky to still be able to hike earlier and see great views around Mount Baker.

Will be storing the rig in Spokane for the winter while using the International Airport to fly out and in again in the next summer.

Driving East we made a few stops and one that we liked the most was in this Old Town of Winthrop.

The Old Miner Town has a great atmosphere, with resturants,hotel and shops all along the main street, even the gas station is "nostalgic" but unfortunately with updated fuel prices that are close to 3.30 a gallon of diesel...

Great place to spend a day or more strolling the main drag or having a drink facing the river…Lots of fun.

Newhalem and Diablo Lake WA area

Hwy 20 in the North Cascades provides numerous nature spots, hikes, lakes ,mountain peaks can be found all along this Hwy.

Unfortunately we got to explore Newhalem and Hike to vista point on Diablo Lake when the air was full of dust from the numerous fires in the area.

It was imposable to know when the wind will pick up in the right direction and clear the air, therefore we did not change our plans and started the day in Newhalem, a small nice town with some old buildings and a beautiful gardens and Ladder Creek Falla that are lightened at night, it must be a real treat.

The hike is easy and only 1 Mile roud trip .

Leaving the town driving East we stopped George Creek Overlook , a short walk from the parking area this high falls could be seen and at the end of the summer it sure is not in a full swing.

Thunder Knob Trail is a 3.8 Mile round trip to a vista point above Diablo Lake , with no expectations due to the smoky air we climbed the trail gaining 600’ to the top and tried to imagine how it would look with clear air.

We could hardly see the lake and the mountains, wow we have to come back when it will all clear up..

Still we enjoyed the hike and the area that offers great hiking , camping and swimming opportunities , before heading home we drove around the lake that is created by a huge dam and took  a break next to the beach getting as much as possable from the situation.

There is a mountain at the “end” of this shot….

Wish all the fire fighters to come safely home, while we are complaining about the smoke they are doing the hard dangerous work.

Baker Lake & Mount Baker NRA

We settled down for 4 days in Marblemount on HWY 20 in the North Cascades, a simple small Camp Ground with full hookups, week WiFi , only 27 sites , only cash and a friendly manager.

We called ahead to reserve a spot from the 1st of October and thought we will have problems getting in on Labor Day , but it all went well and smooth

The location is great for touring the Baker Lake area and the Newhalem area, you have to be prepared to low or almost no cell phone signal, very limited grocery shops and high gas prices and pray for good weather (which we had).

On the next day we explored Lake Baker area. a huge lake with many C.G (no hookups) around it ,lots of water activities and all in a beautiful surroundings.

A short hike in the Shadow of Sentinels is worth taking to see the big trees ,ferns and moose , there is a loop good trail usable with a wheelchair .

It was time for our traditional picnic just before starting our hike towards the glacier on Mount Baker and we found a great spot with a view of the Lake and the snow on top of the Mountain.

To reach the Trail Head we had to drive 10 Miles on a bad gravel heavily used road that for some reason the Forest Service is doing too little to maintain it, there were parts that I had slowdown and almost stop to overcome ditches, but finally we made it to the parking lot loaded with cars and had to park long side the road.

A Park Ranger had a table near the parking lot but had no maps of the trails and could only explain verbally about the routes that later we found not accurate at all, so next time I will bring trail maps from home...

It is our second time hiking Mount Baker but first time from the East side (see my previous blogs)

We chose to hike High Camp trail one of the hikes that lead to a glacier with panoramic views when reaching the last third of the hike.

The hike gains 1200' and is 3 miles all the way up, we passed 2 rivers on rocks, one river on a bridge , most of the trail is in shade , it was challenging but very rewarding, the good parts are the views and the way down....

Another great adventure ended with a hot shower followed by dinner wine a bottle of wine, life is good.