Day 105 - North Cascades NP

Another warm night

After a poor night's sleep, we were early to rise. After breakfast, Ellen and I took a short hike/bird walk up to the Newhalem Creek Trail while it was still somewhat cool.

There a two mile gravel road from just outside the visitor center that goes up to the trailhead. Our intent was to hike part of the trail and get back to Speedy before it got too hot. It was a pleasant two mile walk up the road, with a fair number of birds in the trees to slow us down. The first one we saw was the largest, a Turkey Vulture sitting at the top of dead tree. It was the first vulture that we've seen in quite a while.

The road ended at the top of a long cascading falls just below a dam on Newhalem Creek, part of Seattle City Light's power project. The road is there for access to the dam, not the trailhead. In fact, the trail was completely overgrown and littered with fallen trees. We walked in only a few yards to realize that the hike for the day was the road, so we headed back downhill.

We stopped at the visitor center on our way back to camp and learned the trail has been "decommissioned". After the fires two years ago, there was too much damage in the area of the trail and too many burn dead trees, so they decided to just close the trail. That explained the lack of signage on the way. The ranger apologized for the fact that the published brochures and guides haven't caught up with the changes since the fires.

We spent the rest of day hanging out at the site as it was too hot, 90+, too do much else.

We are rather worried about our refrigerator. The temperature of the refrigerator compartment reached into the 50s inside and freezer is up to 11. The problem w/gas absorption units is temperature differential. I much prefer compressor type, but then again, sun is problem in our site. Not much sun here...this is good for keeping Speedy a bit cooler, but no charging. Electricity is required for a compressor refrigerator and our batteries are not getting charged as we sit here. They were down to 88% this morning.

We had dinner outside tonight. It was salads all around as it was too warm to cook inside the van.