Reaching
Newhalem gives you access to Ross Lake National Recreation Area,
and North Cascades National Park. Getting off the bus prior to
the end of the line gives you access to Mount Baker, the Noisy-Diobsud
Wilderness, the north side of Glacier Peak Wilderness, as well
as bald eagle viewing and camping opportunities along the Skagit
River near Rockport.
I begin this segment with a warning: due to one unfortunate scheduling gap, this is one long - ass haul from Seattle: more than nine hours.
This trip presents a grand opportunity for you to practice your wheedling and cajoling skills: ask a friend with a car for a ride (at least to Mount Vernon). You'll be amazed at just how easy it is to cadge a ride from an automotively - endowed friend once he or she finds out you'll make your own way back (transit connections aren't much better on the return run, but at least you'll have memories of your trip to keep you company).
But if bus you must, here's how: catch Sound Transit Express 510 in Seattle at Second and Union at 6:50AM, reaching downtown Everett at 7:44. You'll see the Greyhound Station as you hit downtown Everett; get off there and immediately get in line to buy a ticket on the 8:30 bus to Mount Vernon (getting a round trip ticket will save you a buck, and may enable a close connection on the return trip).
Arriving in Mount Vernon forty minutes later, have breakfast, pull out a book, take a nap: Skagit Transit 717 leaves the Riverside Transit Center at l:OOPM. It runs Monday through Friday all the way to Newhalem, it's free, but you've got to kill almost four hours until then. In season, you might even consider taking a local bus to go look at the tulip fields. Grab lunch.
At 1:00, board SKAT 717 at the Transfer Center and ride all the way to the end of the line, reaching Newhalem at 4:11. You'll want to get off at the Goodell Creek Campground and Ranger Station, on the west side of town, for the following
reason. You cannot register for your trip at the trailhead, as is the usual procedure; you must register in person at the ranger station there. They actually want people to register at the ranger station in Marblemount, twenty miles back down the road, but when I explained to them that the bus runs only once a day, they were understanding and said that one can register at Goodell. The station at Goodell is open until 4:30, and is a good half - mile from the road, so I would suggest jumping off the bus, ditching your pack with the ranger on duty at the campground, and hauling butt for the station. It'll be good to stretch your legs after the long bus ride. I would also suggest that you call the North Cascades National Park Headquarters at (360) 873 - 4590 beforehand, and inform Valerie Normand (Ext.38) of your plans to register at Goodell.
By this point you may be exhausted from hauling your pack on and off buses all day. If so, camp at the campground right there and start out the next morning. If not, and the days are long enough, the next available camp sites would be at Buster Brown Camp on Diablo Lake. When you register at the ranger station they will want to know where you will be camping, as camping is allowed, within North Cascades National Park, only at designated camp sites on the days you sign up for. I realize that sounds kind of harsh, and detracts a bit from the spontaneity of backpacking, but, take heart: on a five - day trip late last summer, I stayed at the campground I had signed up for only once. One advantage to mid - week trips is that campgrounds tend towards empty, so there is some slack.
On the return trip, SKAT 717 leaves at 7:30AM, Monday through Friday only, from the machine at the plant in Newhalem. Or you could catch the bus along Highway 20 opposite Goodell Campground; just stand where the driver can see you, where he can safely pull off the road, and wave.
SKAT 717 is scheduled to arrive back in Mount Vernon at 9:55AM. A Greyhound is scheduled to leave the station at 9:55. You may at least want to try (the grey dog seldom runs on schedule) as the next one leaves at 2:10PM. This is where already having your ticket may make a difference.
A few words about Newhalem and Diablo: these are clean little towns run by Seattle City Light, and their sole industry is keeping the dams running and the power flowing. The public restrooms are spiffy - clean, with plenty of hot running water, and the pay phones are, well, free for calls all the way to Seattle. You'll notice that about half the vehicles along the highway are Seattle City Light service trucks; the road is very well maintained. Between Newhalem and Ross Lake, you'll get to see the dams and big machines that provide Seattle's power up close and personal.
Be nice. Or they might fry you with a little of their surplus
power, and seal you up in concrete in one of their dams somewhere.
- bus stop to trailhead 7 miles
- roundtrip, trailhead to Thirtynine Mile Camp 31 mile
- one way, trailhead to Little Beaver Camps 38 miles
- Walk Highway 20 from Newhalem to the town of Diablo (six miles),
and find the Diablo Lake Trail
heading steeply upslope at the end of town. You'll soon be back
on paved road and walking along Diablo Lake. Leaving the pavement
and the lake in about a mile, you'll head uphill past lots of
vine maple (ought to be pretty in the fall). If you're doing
this the same day you bussed in, you'll be wanting to look around
for a camp site: there are plenty of likely sites in about the
first mile and a half, but once you reach the lookout at about
two miles, there's nothing! Actually, I'm not sure if those "likely
sites" I just spoke of are actually camp sites, but they'd
work in a pinch (arrive late, leave at first light, and leave
no trace. Who's to know?). After the lookout, the trail switchbacks
steeply back downhill, and crosses the lake just below Ross Dam.
Head up the service road, and follow the signs to cross the dam
and reach the Big Beaver Trail.
Alternatively, you could try to hitch a ride along Highway 20 from Newhalem to Ross Dam.
The Big Beaver Trail parallels the lake shore for about six miles. In the spring and early summer, Ross Lake may well be several hundred feet below you, as it is this year, having been drawn down in anticipation of a huge snowmelt runoff.
Once you reach Big Beaver Creek, there are campgrounds on either side of the creek. Walk down through the mud flats toward the lake to spot tracks of deer, beaver, and cougar.
But, by all means, walk up Big Beaver Creek, preferably without your pack, so you can gawk at all the big trees. Along the creek lies the largest stand of oldgrowth western red cedar left in the lower 48, some of them more than 1000 years old. There are several trees ten to fifteen feet in diameter.
There are also acres of skunk cabbage and bogs and generations of beaver activity. Lots of dams and lodges can be seen from the trail. When I was last there (midMay) the water was full of frog eggs, and it was a bit cool for the skeeters to be too active. But when it warms up, take lots of bug spray!
You could continue up Big Beaver Creek, eventually meeting
Little Beaver Creek and dropping back down to Ross Lake, with
a possible sidetrip up Perry Creek to gaze in awe at the northern
Pickets up close. From Little Beaver Camp at the mouth of the
creek, your only way back to civilization is to retrace your
steps, or to have Beaver Creek and dropping back down to Ross
Lake, with a possible sidetrip up Perry Creek to gaze in awe
at the northern Pickets up close. Consider using Ross Lake Resort's
water taxi service to pick you up at Little Beaver and carry
you back downlake, or to carry you from the resort to Little
Beaver. Make arrangements with them beforehand.
- bus stop to trailhead 10 miles
- round trip, trailhead to Junction Camp 20 miles
- one way, trailhead to Stehekin 33 miles
Walk Highway 20 four miles past
Diablo Dam to the Colonial Creek Campground, where the trail
begins. A flat, easy trail for miles through stands of huge trees,
it eventually affords great views of the glaciers on the peaks
to the west and south. The trail crosses Park Creek Pass, through
which Stehekin can be reached (and the Lady of the Lake boat
downlake to Chelan, where transit connections can be made back
to Seattle).
Other options from the Newhalem Hub: Newhalem Creek, Trappers Peak, Panther Creek, East Bank Trail (Ross Lake).
Sound Transit (888) 889 - 6368 or www.stexpress.org
Greyhound Bus Lines 1 (800) 231 - 2222
(425) 252 - 2143 (Everett)
(360) 336 - 5111 (Mount Vernon)
Skagit Transit 1 (360) 757 - 4433 or www.skat.org
Ross Lake Resort (206) 386 - 4437 or www.rosslakeresort.com