Day 3 - North Cascades

We set out early for the North Cascades.  In truth, I found the desert bleakness a little depressing, and those RV campers didn't help things.  Besides, with the trouble we had finding a camp site the day prior, Felix was anxious about having the same problem this time.  From SR97 we took SR153 to SR20 until we came to the town of Winthrop; a touristy, frontier themed town.  Until then, I had never been there, though Renae was there a few months prior and told me I should at least stop there.  When we arrived it was still pretty early, except for a handful of restaurants and a coffee shop, the town was still closed.
Felix was not happy with us stopping and didn't care that I hadn't yet had a coffee- but there are privileges that come with being the driver.  We sat outside the coffee shop with our coffee, chocolate milk, and cinnamon bun on a deck that overlooked a small miniature golf course.  Felix didn't care for the cinnamon bun so he went downstairs to check out the mini golf.  Soon he was done and he told me it was time to go.  Perhaps he just doesn't dig frontier themed towns, I thought.  The picture to the right captures probably the happiest face he made in Winthrop.  Eventually I heard him actually say "I don't want to not have a camping spot".  I explained that if we got there too early, the people who were going to leave that day would still be there.  He understood but I also learned that Felix just doesn't dig frontier themed towns.

Renae had told me several times over the years that highway 20 is a beautiful drive.  She wasn't lying, it was an amazing drive.  As I had seen myself, it is a fairly popular route for cyclists, and those are some pretty steep climbs up the Cascade Mountains- I was impressed.
But the views were truly stunning, several points along the way you overlook Ross Lake.  You come around a corner and see an awesome view of snowy peaks.  I took lots of blind pictures while I drove, the picture to the left is one such picture.
I was intent on camping in Newhalem but I too was a little anxious about getting a campsite.  At about 11am we came across Colonial Creek campgrounds, which is about 12 miles east of Newhalem and was not listed on my map.  At first I passed it, intent on Newhalem.  But I thought "I'm right here, why not", actually it was more like "If Newhalem is full I don't want to backtrack 12 miles to find out this one is full as well".  I drove through the campgrounds, which sat on Diablo Lake, and saw several empty sites.  But it was a really beautiful site, the whole site.  Initially I thought that if Newhalem is full, I'll have plenty of time to get back here, but after checking in with the ranger and finding out I don't need a reservation (more on that in a second) I realized that Colonial Creek is gorgeous- there really wasn't a reason to leave it.
Second's up.  In my limited experience, there appear to be a few differences between state parks and national parks.  One is that state parks allow motorized vehicles on the bodies of waters where national parks don't, another is that state parks are quite a bit more; $21 to $12 a night, and state parks take reservations.  Also, the national parks seem to be better staffed and maintained. 
The true highlight of our trip for Felix was when he was bestowed the title of Junior Park Ranger.  This experience illustrates another difference between state and national parks, and here's the story: initially the site we selected was right on the lake.  The site next to us had a boy that looked to be six or seven.  I thought this was perfect, and Felix really liked it too, but then we crossed the small access road to a secluded site surrounded by the forest.  Felix was in love and we set up there.  Anyway, while we were scoping out the lake front site, the father of the boy told me that the ranger station had some activity books for kids I should check out.  After we moved and were all set up, Felix and I went down to the ranger station to see what they had.  One of the rangers explained the Junior Ranger Program: the child was given an age appropriate activity book and had to complete, in the case of the age group Felix was in, five of the eight activities in the tree frog themed book.  We took it back to the campsite and over the next hour or so we completed seven of the eight tasks.  The last task was to interview a park ranger, which we would do when we returned to the ranger station.  Though we had discussed the questions he would ask the ranger when we returned, that task got lost in the excitement.

When we approached, one of the rangers was talking to two bikers and another was at the window listening in on the conversation.  There was another fellow with a large camera strapped around his neck I thought was camper as we were.  So Felix and I stood behind him for a few minutes figuring he was waiting to talk with the ranger at the window.  After a couple of minutes it became clear that he wasn't waiting, so Felix and I approached the window to tell the ranger we had completed the tasks.  And this why I love national parks: the ranger in the window interrupts the other ranger and announces, "Excuse me gentlemen for interrupting but we have a very important occasion here.  Felix here has fulfilled the requirements to become a Junior Park Ranger".  She then hands off the badge to the other ranger while he congratulates Felix and pins the badge on his chest.  The two bikers applauded and one of them showed Felix his retired police officer badge; it was all so cool.  As we turned to leave, the fellow I thought was another camper was, in fact, a photographer for the National Park Service.  He photographed Felix being honored and asked that I sign a waiver so that Felix's picture may appear in a brochure or any type of National Park literature.  We'll see.
Felix was so proud of his achievement, he wore it on his shirt for the next few days.  While at the campsite, later that evening Felix was standing on a large rock in our campsite that was close to the access road when a girl a couple of years older happened by.  They greeted each other and then Felix realized he didn't have his Junior Ranger badge on (the reason will be explained shortly).  He rushed back to me so that I could help him put it on, explaining "when the other kids come by, I want them to see my badge so they can ask me about it".
Early afternoon that day we decided to take the twelve mile drive to Newhalem, and am I glad we did.  When we got there we came across Old Number Six, now a monument to the glory days of Newhalem in the early part of the 20th century.  Here you see Felix sitting atop the old steam engine.  We then got a couple of ice cream sandwiches and walked around the very tiny, Seattle City Light owned town.
When we were about to leave I noticed a sign above what was a bridge I could not yet see, it read: Trail of the Cedars.  I had intended only to get close enough to take a picture until I saw that it was a suspension bridge.  We were both pretty awed at how cool the bridge was, and how beautiful the Skagit River was below us.  Well, I can't speak for Felix regarding the beauty thing.  Anyway, we crossed the bridge and found a trail down to the river.  We skipped some rocks and took the picture at the very beginning of this post.  I had noticed that the rocks at the river's edge were mossy and were pretty slick.  Felix noticed it too... when he fell in.  It wasn't that bad, he wasn't hurt and the camera he had in his pocket was fine.  Though all of his clothes were wet and stained with moss.  Luckily, I happened to have all of our clothes still in the car and he was able to change.  And that is why he didn't have his badge on when that girl passed by our campsite.
We drove back to our campsite and had a very pleasant evening just being with each other and talking.  In the car we listened to a Black Francis song called Dead Man's Curve (not Jan and Dean), back at the campsite Felix told me about a song he was thinking about that would eventually become a movie called Dead Man's Fear.  Dead Man's Fear, it turns out, is actually the main character and he is quite an interesting fellow- he's a skeleton with a multitude of abilities.  I asked Felix how the song would go and he told me he hadn't worked that out yet.
We also were able to start a campfire and I think Felix felt that that really completed the wonderful trip we took.  This was our last full day- tomorrow we would wrap up the North Cascades and begin the trek home.