Pasayten Wilderness

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This year's annual Farnell family backpacking trip was to the Pasayten Wilderness in northern Washington state. Enjoy the pictures, or click here for a video!

North Cascades Highway - Amazing Mountains!!


Making homemade ice cream at Klipchuck Campground.
Brrr!!


Dinner time!
Baked potatoes and chili.
Telling stories around the campfire.
Sunset
Marshmallow time!
Christina and James arrived about 4:15 a.m.
Kathy A. fixed us a nice pancake breakfast before we headed for the wilderness.
Group photo at the campground.
Headed for the trailhead.

We took a break for lunch. It was over 100 degrees out!
Mountain goats crossing the road.

Packing up at the trailhead.



Group photo at the trailhead - ready for nine days of backpacking?
Jonathan leading out. Man he walks fast.

Filtering water at the first stream crossing.


An old woodstove.
Taking a break in a burned area.


We saw the smoke from this forest fire two years ago.

Nearing Sunny Pass.

Trail sign at Sunny Pass.
Dad headed on to camp while we took some photos.
Fun with shadows.








Wow!

More fun with shadows.



Sunset


Packing up camp the next morning. It's a nine mile hike today.
Getting ready to cook blackberry cobbler.
Matthew mixing up the batter for cobbler.
Adding the batter to the blackberries. Mmmmm!
Hiking through Horseshoe Basin.
Hiking by Louden Lake.









Taking a break.
Snack time.
Picking huckleberries.
The huckleberry bushes are really small here.

Doctoring blisters.



Moose tracks!!
Heading off trail.



Rough country.









An amazing cliff face. I'd love to climb up the back of that some time and look straight down into the lake.
Pumping up the raft.
Suzanne reeling in a big golden trout.
Suzanne with her golden trout.
Cooking the trout.

Yum, orange meat!
Huckleberry bread on a stick.
Another golden! These guys are really hard to catch. I've yet to get one landed at this lake.
A few minutes before this pic, it was pouring rain! Then it cleared completely for an hour, then clouded and rained again!
Dad fishing out in the raft.
James filling water bottles.






Blue sky at the moment!


Michael fishing....notice the sun is still out.

We packed up and started hiking, and it clouded up and started raining again! What fun.

Can you see the rain drops?
Those cliffs back there are behind the lake we just came from.
Suzanne had to raise her skirt to try to keep it from getting so wet on the bushes.


We made it to the cabin at Tungsten mine! Now we can dry out all our stuff. We're now 20 miles from the cars.
We're pretty much moved in.
What a blast.
Playing with nails.
Eating dinner outside with a few rays of sunshine.
Mmmmm, can't you almost smell all those boots and wet/sweaty clothes, not to mention all the rats that live in here? (it really wasn't bad at all....)
Walking down to where the mine equipment and adits are.



The stamp mill.


Wow, how'd they get all this heavy stuff out here?




Brooklyn decorated the cabin with flowers, rocks, and pine cones for us.

The next day it was still raining, but a few of us braved the elements and went on a dayhike to catch dinner! We can always dry out when we get back, right? As long as we don't freeze to death in the process.
Mmmmm.
Charlie cooking up the fish.
James' first time eating fish on the bone.

Some of our packs and food hanging outside the door.
Is it snow in August??
Dad adding fresh huckleberries to the blackberry cobbler!

The kitchen window......look, it's snowing!!

Wow, can you believe it is August!
We slept outside under the tarp because of all the rats. Some of us got up before the big snowstorm.....

Keeping my socks dry inside.



Group photo in the snow....cobbler is waiting inside!
Dishing up the blackberry cobbler.
Day hiking in the snow. A little bit scary - what if it turns into a white out and we're off trail? We took a compass just in case.



Walking through a forest fire in the snow.


Dad fishing in the snow. It makes your hands really cold, especially when you have to clean 15 of them!
Jeremiah fishing in the snow.
And Michael fishing in the snow. The mountains were so cool dusted with snow.


Warming up by a small fire before heading back.

What? A forest fire! We walked through here in the snow and didn't even notice it was an active fire. Then it cleared up a bit on the way back and we saw smoke coming up all over the place.

We even found red hot coals and flames! Yikes, this is a fresh fire.


We all caught our limits!
We were looking at pictures and I decided to take a picture!


Picking huckleberries.


James and Christina are up there on the ridge, against the white cloud. The next pic will give perspective on how far away it is!

Fish on the bone!

Ptarmigan





Can't they make the bridges any wider?

Picking huckleberries.




Cooking bread on a stick.

David, the gourmet-bread-on-a-stick-cook.
Suzanne's bread was oozing huckleberries!
Christina split her's open and filled it with berries.

It had cleared up, so we moved all our stuff outside, and James cleaned out the cabin for the next party that need shelter.
Sitting around the campfire.
Dynamite boxes were used for shelves in the cabin.
Headed toward the car.
Checking out a swamp on the hike to the car.
Indian Paint Brush. I decided I ought to get a few flower pics before we left.



Heading towards the car. 14 miles in one day is a lot!
The view from the trail.
Interesting landscape.


Taking a break.
Michael and Jonathan never take breaks. As soon as we stop, it's time to play!





Some cool clouds.
Charlie walking into the Horseshoe Basin. Windy Peak in the background.

We're almost there, you can make it!

Cooking a big pot of stew and frying morel mushrooms that we picked along the hike.
Dough for bread on a stick.
Cooking bread!
James likes big fires.
Suzanne, Jeremiah, and I got up at 5:40 a.m. to hike to Canada and back before heading out to the cars.
We were treated to a beautiful sunrise!
Amazing mountains at sunrise.






I didn't realize how cool this looked until I got home and looked at the picture. Wow! God's creation is awesome.


Hmm, I wonder why this pile of rocks is here.

We made it to Canada!! (Try walking to Canada and back and see what you do. :-)
The Canadian border has these monuments every mile or so.


The coolest part of the Canadian border was the narrow clearcut through the trees, as far as you could see!


Looking back down into Horseshoe Basin.
David resting up before the hike out.

Catching grasshoppers for fishing bait.





A huge Morel Mushroom!!

The yellow flowers contrast beautifully with the burned forest.


Root beer floats at Wall-Mart. Culture shock??

We stopped by the Pike Place Market on the way home. Too many people for my comfort.


Wow, this is a lot of people!
A group singing gospel songs in the market.



Post Alley!




A little pond we found - no fish here!
Tungsten lake.
Ewart Lake with snow.
Tungsten lake.
Horseshoe Basin.
Sunrise at Horseshoe Basin.
Tungsten Mine cabins with snow in August.
Horseshoe Basin.
Michael fishing Ewart Lake.
Tungsten lake.


This year's annual Farnell family backpacking trip was to the Pasayten Wilderness in northern Washington state. Enjoy the pictures, or click here for a video!

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