Day 61: Welcome to Concrete!

August 9: I woke up to a mostly clear sky and hit the trail bright and early at about 7:00am. Today was the day I'd enter the town of Concrete and I was anxious to get into town to take a shower, get some real food and reconnect with the world!

 

Baker Lake just before sunrise.

But first, I had to get there. That began with a 1.4 mile walk through the forest to a trailhead where the road walk would begin. And then, it was a road walk pretty much the rest of the way into town.

The first five miles of road walk weren't so bad. It was a relatively quite gravel road--especially so early in the morning--and I could walk fast and efficiently. 

It also passed over the Upper Baker Dam which was interesting to see. This is a dam I hadn't visited before, but it was a pretty standard-looking dam. It's a large dam, completed in 1959, 312 feet (95 m) tall and 1,200 feet (370 m) long. Not as large as Ross Dam, but still quite substantial.

Upper Baker Lake Dam, and the PNT crosses right over the top of it!

The route then follows a paved road a short way before cutting a corner along a closed, gravel road that ends at a short bushwhack. The bushwhack, on my map, looked to be about 0.1 miles--practically nothing--and required fording a small creek, and I was tempted just to stay on the paved road until it connected with Baker Lake Road and just hike around it. It would have been longer, but it would avoid the bushwhack. But at 0.1 miles, it hardly seemed worth the effort.

So I followed the gravel road for a few minutes to the start of the bushwhack when I noticed a small foot trail leading off into the trees on the right. Where did that trail go? Hmm... It appeared to head in the direction of Baker Lake Road (which I needed to reach), so I followed it and it dumped me out right on the road, just before the creek that I would have had to ford if I followed the bushwhack. Except now I could cross on a bridge. 

I couldn't figure out why this wasn't the official route because it's vastly better than a horrible (albeit short) bushwhack and a ford. In fact, I'd be super annoyed if I was fording this river and could actually see this bridge a stone's throw away. It's absurd! So I was glad to have found this re-route that I invented. =) It was a much better experience!

But, of course, all good things must come to an end, and now I'd be following busy and paved roads the rest of the way into Concrete. First following Baker Lake Road for about 7 miles, then the trail turned onto Burpee Hill Road for the last 4 miles into town. Happily, Burpee Road wasn't as busy as Baker Lake Road, but it was still busier than I would have preferred.

And finally, I arrived in the small community of Concrete. My first stop was at the community garden. There was a small gazebo with shade which allowed me to sit and rest my weary feet--and make some phone calls now that I had some cell service.

Concrete community garden. (I took a short break in the gazebo on the right.)

I called a hotel in town to make sure there was availability, but they reported already being full for the night. Shoot! Well, okay, then I called the other one. They had a room available, they reported, but told me there was no Internet.

That's... kind of a deal-breaker for me. I needed to get online. My job depended on it! I needed to fix bugs! I needed to reply to emails! What kind of hotel doesn't have Internet in this day and age? It's not like it's a cabin deep in the woods and off the grid--I was in a real (albeit small) town!

So I turned down the room. I had a new plan. Amanda had wanted to come out and visit and was planning to drive out later in the afternoon. Once she arrived, she could pick me and and take me to a hotel that was more than walking distance away. Where there was availability and Internet! But it meant I couldn't check into a hotel just now and take a shower or clean up. I had several hours to kill.

What I could do, however, was get some lunch. So I walked deeper into town and stopped at Cascade Burgers, right off Highway 20. A sign on the front door said that the dining room was closed, but to give them a call to make an order. Covid strikes again! So I called the establishment--from just outside the front door--and put in an order.

There were picnic tables outside and I grabbed a table. It was in the hot, brutal sun, though, so I opened the closed umbrella sticking out of the table and life improved dramatically. =)

They eventually came out and delivered my order, and it was delicious. But I still had hours to kill. I called my mom to give her an update on my progress. She had been worried that I covered so little distance yesterday having checked my progress from my SPOT reports. "Are your feet okay? Did something happen? Why didn't you walk very far?!" And I explained that I was perfectly fine. It was just the last backcountry campsite of the trail before I started the long road walk, and I didn't want to camp on the road walk.

I also called Amanda who announced that she had arrived in Seattle (she had been working) and would be on her way soon. I told her about the problem I had with hotels--Concrete wasn't exactly bustling with options!--so now the plan was for her to pick me up and drive to a hotel closer to I-5. 

But she wouldn't arrive for at least two or three hours. I still had a lot of time to kill.

The first thing I decided to do was start searching online for hotels, and I wound up booking a room for two nights in Burlington. It was cheaper than the hotels in Concrete and had a lot more services available. I didn't have a lot of data with my phone plan, however, so I didn't go crazy surfing the web. 

To kill more time, I decided to keep hiking. The route now followed the Cascade Trail, a rail-to-trail route that stretched all the way to Seedro-Woolley. The further I walked, the less Amanda would have to drive to pick me up, and the less we'd both have to travel to get into Burlington.

The Cascade Trail was flat and easy, but a little boring too....

So I started walking. Because the Cascade Trail is a rail-to-trail route, it was wide, flat and I could walk quickly. I could hear the nearby traffic on Highway 20, but most of the time, it wasn't especially close or obnoxious. A pleasant, albeit kind of boring walk in the woods. And thank goodness for the shade the trees provided most of the time because the day had certainly turned into a hot one! I didn't know how hot it was, but in the sun, it was absolutely miserable.

An hour or two later, I contacted Amanda about an update on her progress so we could figure out which road crossing would be the best place to pick me up at, and we figured our paths would intersect near the junction between Highway 20 and Baker Lake Road, about 6 miles west of Concrete. It occurred to me that I could have chopped a few miles off my hiking if I had just followed Baker Lake Road all the way out to Highway 20 instead of making the side trip to Concrete. I had planned to stay in Concrete so it made sense at the time, but now that I wasn't staying there anymore, the detour only made my hike longer.

On the other hand, Burpee Hill Road was marginally better to walk on than Baker Lake Road, I was able to stop for a decent lunch at Cascade Burgers, and the rail-to-trail path was definitely a huge improvement over Baker Lake Road. So maybe the detour wasn't so bad. =) But it did lengthen my day's walk!

For the day, I completed 24 miles of hiking--by far the longest distance I covered in a day since getting back on the trail.

I found Amanda parked on the side of Baker Lake Road having pulled up just a minute or two before I arrived. I jumped in the passenger seat and we headed into Burlington, catching each other up on each other's adventures.

And there I finally got my much needed shower before spending the rest of the night fixing bugs and other problems. The big update I had done just before starting the trail was still coming back to haunt me....

I guess this explains why I haven't seen any bats on the trail!

Upper Baker Dam

Finally! A day clear enough to see Mount Baker! =) I took this photo from the dam.

My arrival into Concrete!

The town of Concrete has really embraced their name!

Even the small, eye-level welcome sign is made of, of course, concrete! =)

I stopped at Cascade Burgers for lunch. Delicious!

Covid foils my lunch plans.... or at least alters them a bit. =)

Day 60: Strolling along Baker Lake

August 8: It rained a bit during the night, but it was very light and very short. Since I had a mere 7.5 miles to hike today--and I expected it to be mostly flat and easy--I also slept in late and lingered in camp relaxing until 10:20 in the morning. I had hoped the weather would improve, but my hopes were dashed like a gazelle falling prey to a pack of jackals.

It was a dark and gloomy morning! On a clear day (allegedly), Mount Baker would be seen towering over the far side of Baker Lake.

The day's hike was uneventful. I didn't pass very many people along the way--it was too far away from trailheads.

And I arrived at Anderson Point at about 1:30 in the afternoon. It was an absurdly short day and crazy early to quit, but it was the last backcountry campsite until a very long road walk started in a mile or two. I didn't want to camp on a road, so I quit for the day at Anderson Point.

I was immensely disappointed to find the campsites crowded with tons of people, though. Squatters! It looked like most of them hadn't moved the whole day. Probably hiked out the 1.5 miles from the trailhead yesterday with all sorts of luxury items (I'd never seen so many fold-up chairs or giant tents at a backcountry site!) with plans to spend the whole weekend here. It seemed a little unfair that actual hikers get left with scraps.

Eventually I settled on a location facing to the south at the edge of a cliff. It was well away from the main crowds of people (and barking dogs), and a rather nice location with commanding views of Baker Lake--but the location was rather small, definitely unofficial and completely exposed to the wind which was strong.

During the afternoon, the skies finally cleared up with lots of sunbreaks, but the wind continued and caused me to spill my dinner when a wind gust blew it over. It wasn't a big deal, though--just an example of how annoying the wind was.

A little after sunset, the wind finally died down and life was good. =)

This was an interesting find along the trail and, perhaps, a sign of the times. This bottle of hand sanitizer was just resting on this rock in the middle of the trail for no apparent reason. And I found it exactly like this--sitting upright as if it was intentionally placed there.

Just in case you wanted to know what a backcountry toilet looked like. =)

This was the view late in the afternoon from my campsite. =)

Day 59: The Baker Lake Stroll

August 7: It rained a bit during the night, but I had known that was a possibility and rode it out from under the safety of my tarp.

But I slept in surprisingly late, not waking up until 7:00am. I had been tempted to take another soak in the hot spring. I didn't hear any activity from it with the partiers from the evening before long since having gone to sleep. They'll probably be sleeping in for several more hours given how late they were up. But given how late I woke up, I decided to forgo it.

Baker Hot Spring was a lot quieter and nicer in the morning.

Instead, I ate breakfast and packed up to hit the trail. I swung by the hot spring to get photos of it in the light of day rather than the blurry photo I took late the evening before. Only one of the Russians was soaking in it at the time, an older woman who had been there the night before but seemed oddly out of place among all the other younger Russians that had been partying. We chatted for about 10 minutes, and it was a nice conversation. The kind I would have enjoyed last night, in fact.

Then I waved goodbye and hit the trail. By this point, it was already 8:30am. 'Twas a very late start for me! I must have been more worn out from yesterday than I realized.

Today's hike was a positive cake walk. The trail followed what appeared to be an old forest service road, well-maintained and largely flat, before emerging onto an actual forest service road to Baker Lake.

At this point, it was a long road walk--probably close to 10 miles--alongside Baker Lake. The road was mostly gravel but quite busy and although several paid campgrounds were nearby and nearly deserted, the free lake-side camps were packed full with hoards of people.

The views were nice and the route was easy, but I found the traffic a major annoyance.

If Baker Lake didn't exist, the PNT would probably cut right through the middle of it to the other side, but it did exist so the route went around, swinging around the east end of the lake before resuming its westward march.

Baker Lake

The gravel road ended at a large parking lot near the east end of the lake, where I was able to throw out my trash and use the pit toilets.

Then I finally escaped the road walk to find myself on the Baker River Trail. The trail crossed the Baker River over a large suspension bridge, and once again I found myself disappointed that the bridge was solid and didn't move much. I liked the bouncy suspension bridge designs more. =)

As I moved further away from the trailhead, the number of people thinned out and I started enjoying the hike more.

I finally arrived at Noisy Creek Camp where I stopped for the day. I could hear children shouting and a dog barking at the far end of the camp so I set up at an empty location near the entrance.

Next door, a woman who appeared to be camped by herself said that I was welcome to use the bear box in her campsite if I wanted to. I think the bear box was meant to be available for everyone who camped in the area, but it was located in her campsite and it would have otherwise seemed intrusive to walk into it to access the box. I was happy to use the bear box, though, if for no other reason than to protect my food against rodents from getting into it.

We ended up spending much of the evening chatting with each other--the quiet kind of evening I had wanted the night before, in fact. Her name was Valora--or at least that's what it sounded like. It was a name I had never heard of before and I didn't ask how she spelled it. Her job teaching dance, if I remember correctly, was on hold because of Covid-19, so she was spending much of the summer traveling. Her boyfriend was from the Bellingham area so they were visiting the Pacific Northwest for a month or so, although he was busy for a few days so she decided to backpack during that time on her own.

When it started getting dark, though, she retired to her tent and I retired to my tarp. Overall, it was a pretty nice day with my main complaint being the busy traffic on the gravel road along Baker Lake.

The morning was wet from the rain during the night.

This seemed like such a weird place to cut the tree, don't you think? I'd have expected they cut the tree further back so it didn't stick out over the trail. Or maybe not cut it at all since it was so high and easy to walk under. It's like they cut it for no good reason at all, though. It didn't "clear" the trail, but it wasn't really in the way to begin with either, so why bother?

The paid campsites appeared to be largely deserted as far as I could tell.

Swift Creek--I forded this river just yesterday! (Today, I crossed it again, but this time it was over a bridge.) It's an interesting thought to think that if the current had swept me away and drowned me, that my body would have passed by here and ended up in Baker Lake.

Baker Lake

Most of the day's walk looked like this: in the trees along a gravel road along the shore of Baker Lake.

I took a lunch break next to this creek.

Baker River

The Baker River trailhead was packed with vehicles!

Baker River Bridge

View of the Baker River from on top of the bridge that spans it.