Washington Cascades, Day 12, Van ride and Newhalem

Read all the posts about this trip in backwards order (or better yet, start at the bottom and work up) here.

With fires sweeping through Washington blowing our planned itinerary to pieces, our Adventure Cycling leaders where in full tilt improvisational (but experienced and very clever) mode. Today instead of riding bikes, we'd be in the van and on a ferry, heading for a small campground near Newhalem close to Washington Pass.

I'm not a big fan of being in motor vehicles, but this wan't too bad. And being as it was raining a little and the sky was gray maybe it was a good thing. We chatted a lot and made jokes. Jeffery and Mark explained how not to take care of a map, and showed what can happen when you don't.

Best of all, we weren't trapped in the van the entire time. I can see how riding a ferry could get old if you had to do it every day, but for me the ferry to Edmund was like an amusement park ride.

When we arrived at our campground I guess we could have gone for a ride, but it seemed late in the day after we set up our tent.

Tricia wanted to go for a walk. After some arm twisting I ended up going with her. It turned out to be almost magical. Walking down the road we stumbled across a path that took us into a different epoch. It was clearly a portal to previous time in the Earth's history.  Here are too many photos.

Apparently some fungi have adapted to look like aluminum cans to avoid being devoured.

It was our turn to cook again. Tricia made red beans and rice, and cooked up some andouille sausage as well as some apple chicken sausage for the non-pork eaters and a bit of tofu for the veggie folk. We had Mississippi Mud Cake for desert.

The star of the evening was our leader, Heather Anderson, who read a bit from her book, I never Intended to be Brave. We sat around and asked her and Greg serious and silly questions about their adventures until we realized we'd better hurry and pack up the cooking equipment before it got dark. We'd never have made it without the rest of our group pitching in.

Eventually we got back to our luxurious tent. Doesn't this fisheye make it look downright spacious?