Day Trip to Cascade Corrals and Stehekin for Some Comfort Food

Jul 21, 1986 Mon0
After visiting the Cascades area of Washington in 1984 I knew I had to return. I used my frequent flyer miles and booked a first class ticket to Washington in 1986 and hiked about 65 miles in the North Cascades Wilderness area over a week. I kept a travel diary and have reproduced it here as I wrote it in 1986.


5:00PM I put on clean clothes and went down the valley today. I slept until about 8:00AM. I've been getting 8-9 hours sleep per night. I'm asleep before sundown which is about 9:00PM and I'm up by 6:00AM. Right now I'm sitting beside the Stehekin River soaking my feet and enjoying a beautiful summer day. A slight cool breeze is blowing.

The surgeon and I rode down the valley on the first shuttle. His first name is Laith. He is a general surgeon. Does a lot of work with fat people, stomach stapling, etc. He says obesity is 99% genetic. He was visited by a porcupine last night. I didn't have any animal troubles last night. I thought that being so close to a tumbling, roaring stream would keep me awake. But I slept like a baby.

On the trip down we picked up the two climbers that I met up on North Fork two days ago. They had climbed Goode Mountain. I got off at Cascade Corrals about 11:00AM. I got on the bus at 9:30AM. I had a cheese burger for lunch. They have a neat place. When I come here again I would like to take one of their horse pack trips. I wrote some post cards. The lady said she would mail them tomorrow. I thought I would have to wait until about 3:00PM and catch the shuttle going back up the valley. I was laying in the shade of a tree, looking up a grassy meadow through the valley at the mountains when I saw another shuttle coming down the road. I ran and flagged it down.

Jul 21, 1986 Mon
View up the valley from Cascade Corrals. I ate a cheese burger here.
Jul 21, 1986 Mon
Dinning area at Cascade Corrals. I ate a cheese burger here.

I really wanted to go on down to Stehekin where I rode the boat to in 1984. I only had about an hour before the last bus left going back up the valley. The first thing I did was to buy a Sprite. I also bought a peanut butter cookie, brownie and cinnamon roll from the Honey Bear Bakery. On the trip back we stopped at Rainbow Falls.

Jul 21, 1986 Mon
Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan. This is my second visit.
Jul 21, 1986 Mon
Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan. This is my second visit.

The ranger on this trip also delivered the mail. Each family has a cloth bag with a draw string. They hang this on a nail or peg driven into a tree beside the road. The first shuttle down in the morning collects the bags. The post office puts the mail in the proper bags and the last shuttle hangs the bags back on the nails. It was neat.

Jul 21, 1986 Mon
Delivering the mail. Every resident had their own custom bag and nail to hang it from.
Jul 21, 1986 Mon
This man came out to the road to get his mail from the ranger.

Yesterday when I got here I was glad to see a trash can. Can you imagine being deliriously happy over a trash can? I was carrying all my trash since the beginning. In the woods if you can't burn your trash you must carry it out.

Jul 21, 1986 Mon
Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan. This is my second visit.

I met a couple on the shuttle who seemed nice and the man and I asked the ranger the same types of questions. They are camped here also and he said they would have a campfire about 8:30PM and to come up if I wanted. They seemed to have traveled a lot and I think they will be interesting.

I started on my fourth roll of film at Cascade Corrals. It's 6:00PM and I think I'll eat supper.

Jul 21, 1986 Mon
My camp at Cottonwood.
Sad Tragedy on a Blue Sky Day




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