Up in the Kettle Mountains

Saturday morning Walter and I finally took off for the night and drove up to the Kettle Range in north Washington. We got to the Canyon Creek Campground around 10 in the morning and got things settled. It was supposed to start thundering and lightening during the afternoon so Wally and decided not to climb up on any exposed ridges or mountains. I have been wanting to check out Trout Lake and the trail that goes into Hoodoo canyon so that is what we did.

The lake is pretty small but the canyon is really cool with lots of cool rocks and cliffs. The trail goes up above the lake and creek for quite a ways and has some incredible views, then heads back down to Emerald Lake. We turned around at the junction with the lake because it was getting a bit late. I think we walked about five miles total. There were some people camped at the lake which has about five camping spots. There are also lots along the road on the way to the lake. After the hike we drove down near the Columbia River and then to Lake Ellen to just check out the campground and lake there. There was only one spot taken at the campground. After tooling around for a bit we headed back to Canyon Creek (which is really on Sherman Creek) and had some dinner. Oh, and as a bit of warning, the campground does not have water. Luckily I had my filter and was able to get water from the creek. Otherwise the campground is pretty nice. And the fee is only $6 per night

I was really in touch with my restless self while there. I have a very hard time just "being." So I sat in a chair and read an entire Smithsonian issue. There was an article in it about Coast to Coast walking through England. I was really quite impressed with the openness of the country when I was there. You can actually travel a great many places by walking on paths through the country that are kept open for pedestrians. I used to walk back from the pub along a trail on the South Downs. Often times I was walking among the sheep.

Anyway, we had a relaxing evening and the rain started in around 3 in the morning. It kept up all day, but we went on a hike along the Sherman Peak trail anyway. There is a loop trail around the base of the mountain and we had never taken the right hand path before. We walked in the clouds for about three hours. I have no idea how far we went but we turned around on the north side of the mountain. The view of the mountains through the clouds was pretty darn cool.

Pictures: Totally cute Walter in his little rain coat; looking down at Trout Lake; the campsite complete with ghetto tarps; Walter very unhappy in the back of the car (why does the stuff never go in as well as it came out?); the mountain mist at the base of Sherman Peak.