Western Washington University Students Backpack Through North Cascades
On the weekend of October 12th-13th, Josh and I led an outdoor recreation backpacking trip in North Cascades National Park for the National Park Trust, along with another Trip Leader named Iyah. We met all nine of our student peer participants the week before in a Pre-Trip meeting at Western Washington University’s Outdoor Center. We shared information about the trip, like the packing list and weather, distributed rental gear, and completed many different ice-breakers to get to know each other. Next thing we knew, it was Saturday, the first day of our trip!
Early Saturday morning, everyone met at the Outdoor Center, where we finished packing our group gear: tarps, stoves, and yummy food in bear cans. We played hacky sacks while we waited for everyone to fill their water bottles and backpacking packs. Once everyone was ready, all 12 of us loaded our bags into our cars and headed to the North Cascades National Park Ranger Station in Marblemount, Washington.
After a quick hour-and-a-half drive filled with talk about everybody’s week, their interests and excitements for our trip, and a couple of car naps, we were driving down Ranger Station Road, with the building shortly in our distance. A ranger greeted our group when we walked through the door, and we had the lovely opportunity to listen to her talk about the history of the national park where we were going to spend the weekend. After all of our participants’ questions were answered, we picked up our backcountry camping permit and piled into the cars again.
We continued to drive on the North Cascades highway to our trailhead and were pleasantly greeted with warm fall colors on trees surrounding the road on both sides that were scattered across an expansion of huge stretches of tall, jagged rocks. On many occasions, noses were pressed to the windows, and shouts were released when we spotted mountaineers on the rocks way up high as we drove in our car below them. Once we reached the trailhead, we grabbed our backpacking packs, warmed up our bodies with a stretch circle, and got on the trail.
It was so exciting to see the enchantment that the lovely blue sky and high temperature (around 65 degrees Fahrenheit—lovely for Washington in the early fall!) day brought to our participants. For many, it was their very first backpacking trip, and the North Cascades and their rangers couldn’t have made it any more special. We stopped about three miles into our day for lunch down by a river, where vegetable and hummus wraps quelled our hunger. After lunch, we crossed a log bridge and continued another three miles into the backcountry until we arrived at camp for the night. A group site next to Dagger Lake was backed by a peak with golden Alpine Larch trees glinting in the late afternoon light.
Once we established a location for our kitchen, a separate section of flat ground for our camping tarps, and a different area for where our food would be stored overnight (we were in bear country, taking proper precautions), we split our participants into three groups, where each group was taught how to set up their section of camp craft. The tarp group built our tarps for the night and learned several new knots and hitches. The kitchen group began to prepare dinner for the evening using MSR WhisperLite stoves for the first time, and the last crew collected all the water bottles and kitchen dromedaries for dinner and filtered water from the nearby lake so everyone could remain hydrated.
Once dinner was ready, we enjoyed warm burritos with many toppings and shared gratitude for our day, our hike, and spending time with each other in nature. We shared laughs, jokes, and stories as we sat in a large circle and reminisced on our day underneath the bright stars that had slowly joined our conversation as the day led into the night. After dinner, Josh, Iyah, and I presented an additional opportunity for a sunrise hike to another lake, where golden larches were capping mountains above us. Most people were interested, so we cleaned up for the night and headed to bed early.
Nine of us rose early and quietly so that we didn’t bother others who were still sleeping. We filled only a few emptied packs with extra layers, water bottles, and snacks and ate a quick granola breakfast. Before long, we headed out on the trail. The stars offered an early morning excitement; with minimal light pollution, we could easily see the outlines of the Milky Way and locate our favorite constellations. After hiking for half an hour, bits of red and orange began to speckle the horizon, and we continued our way to Stileto lake. We arrived at the lake 10 minutes before the sun rose and found the best spots to watch the sunrise above the peaks in the distance. We were surrounded by fresh, cool air, and between two valleys backed by mountains with small glaciers in pockets. The light slowly switched to a golden-yellow that complemented the golden Larches and bright red Heather plants and wild Blueberry and Huckleberry leaves wonderfully. We all shared a gorgeous silent, peaceful, very memorable moment when the sun rose above the mountains. Once we had taken some photos and the sun was higher into the sky, we got ready to hike again.
After that, we headed back down to our original camp at Dagger lake, where we took down our tarps and packed our bags, before hiking back out to the trailhead. This weekend was a highlight of many of our participants’ times at college (so far!), and we hope it invoked an appreciation and deep care for the land that surrounds us, and a curiosity towards a sense of adventure. Many participants expressed a want to go backpacking more, and explore North Cascades National Park more. All in all, we had a wonderful time celebrating one of the last weekends enjoying fall colors, and our nearby national park before the rain and snow come for Winter.
