Summer in the Northern Cascades
By Francis Marion of Highcountryblog.com
The doorbell rang at 8:30 AM on Sunday morning. It was my cousin dropping off her son. They live a few miles away just down the road from us on a small hobby farm where they grow anything their heart’s desire and collect stray critters. There are few people we are as close to in this world. We love them very much and do our best to see them as often as possible. As a result, our sons have become more than just cousins – they are good friends too.
My cousin’s husband is on night shift this week so I thought, this being the first weekend of summer vacation, that I’d take the two boys into the high country. The only stipulation was we’d be moving at “old man speed” and not “jacked full of piss and vinegar fifteen-year-old boy speed”. It worked out pretty well.
It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid twenty-degree Celsius range. The hike was eight kilometers round trip with an elevation gain of 3300 feet in four ‘k’. That means it’s damn steep so I was moving pretty slow. I can climb all day at my own pace but I can’t move like the kids can so I made them follow me. My Jeep, my gas, my equipment, my pace. That be da law!
The boys brought up the rear and the conversation was brisk. I mostly just listened. They talked about everything; movies, sports, computers, school, the future, girls and even Millennials. Did you know that the new generation of kids sees millennials as mentally ill? I think the boys called them psycho brainwashed SJW wannabes. The comment was unsolicited. I was going to tell them not all millennials were like that, there are good ones too, but I just let them have at it. The fact that they know what an SJW is was good enough for me.
At any rate, I am happy to report that fifteen-year-old boys are still interested in the same things they’ve been interested in since I came into this world. The following is a pictorial journal of our hike into an alpine lake. I hope you enjoy it.
Starting Out
Gaining Elevation
Bridging the Gap
Lunch and a Break
-30-
Beautiful.
Good for you F.M.
I am much happier looking out my windows and seeing piñon, ponderosa, and chamisa, than I ever was seeing a city.
Years ago When I was in the Junior Marines we would be ordered to run through the mountains (Rockies Mountains )like that barefooted with 80 pounds of rocks in our backpacks. It was hard but we made it.I can respect any man who still knows the value of being in the mountains. Francis Marion you are a good father and role model for those boys. I’m sure as they get older they will appreciate the time you spent with them.
BB, can you do the same wearing heels now?
We did 30 miles this weekend as well, with vistas more benign, but decidedly more rock strewn. Overall, 5000′ in gain, to about 11,600 and of course, more painfully, 5000′ down. Work has been great with a thriving metropolis, so my 54 pound pack kicked my balls, literally. The phrase; couch potato, was stuck on repeat and the clarity of my activity for the past 5 years struck me like a diamond.
Thanks for the constant reminders of why I live here.
Through your articles
the mountains call.
The ‘down’ is the worst part. You can pace yourself and control your heart rate on the way up but there is no way to soften the blow on your joints and muscles on the way down. Gravity is a bitch.
I’m glad you guys are enjoying this stuff. When I think of all the places I’ve hiked into, hunted and fished and never so much as snapped a photo I sort of wish I had done otherwise. It would have made great blog material. Oh well. Hopefully, there are another thirty or forty years left in me to make up for it. You should post pics BTW – love seeing backcountry photos from people in other parts of the world.
Damn, I’m jealous! But thank you for all the beauty.
It’s 100 degrees in the shade here this week, or I’d consider going for a hike. But my wife can’t do it since her cancer treatments, and I don’t want her to feel left out.
Getting old sucks.
Years ago on a business trip to Calgary I took a side trip to Banff; utterly beautiful, and a balm for my soul. I need to go find those pictures again.
Mountains restore you.
James,
Yes – getting older sucks in a variety of ways. For example, each year the hills seem to get steeper and taller – not sure why??
At any rate, I hope your wife is responding well to treatment. Take good care of her – and yourself.
She’s been cancer-free for about seven years now, and on a maintenance regime of drugs to keep her that way. Thanks though!
It was a weird and mildly surreal experience, cancer treatment. We can make certain types of cells STOP GROWING and / or die; zap you with radiation to KILL designated spots at will; and a skilled surgeon can remove the tumor with relatively minimal damage to surrounding tissue. But we can’t get politicians to balance a budget, an arithmetic operation fifth-graders can be taught to master?
Anyway, it’s the maintenance regime that keeps her weak, sore and lacking in stamina. The price she pays to stay alive! And it’s had other costs as well … anyway, we are here and preparing for the Crunch as best we can, while trying to get our two kids to a point of self-sufficiency. I hope Canada can meet its challenges like we are trying to down here; to the survivors goes the job of rebuilding. And so it goes!
Best wishes! JtW
Francis, Nice story, even better pictures. I have a feeling that even if you let the boys go at 15 year old boy speed you would pass them at the end tortoise and hare style.
I have noticed as well with friends children that the younger 20> kids don’t generally have much respect for mini’s. Maybe they intuitively know that they will have to fix this mess.
Beautiful! Brings back memories of a long ago summer bear hunt in the Colorado San Juan. Hiked up to 13000 ft and the air was rarefied indeed. Found a kettle lake so similar to the one you posted. It was filled with 2′ long trout! Schools of them! We had some rudimentary tackle, but they showed no interest. At all. I never did research why they would be so dismissive, might have been our approach. Anyway, thanks for posting.