North Cascades 2016

We met a Sherpa in the Swiss Alps last summer, and when he saw photos of the Cascades, he asked us why we were in Switzerland. After pondering this, we opted to hike the North Cascades this year and spent five weekdays in a row hiking relatively empty trails. The weather for the first day’s hiking into Gothic Basin was absolutely glorious, as were the views:From the pass into Gothic Basin (it looks like Switzerland, but with no cows and more trees)

Mt. Pugh in the Distance

Gothic Basin

Foggy Lake, with the Reflection of Gothic Peak

The weather the rest of the week was far more unsettled, and while we didn’t have the distant views and couldn’t see much of Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan, the hiking was still glorious and we did see four marmots, one pica, and a juvenile Pileated woodpecker up close. We didn’t see many other people on trail, but half of those that we did were foreigners (2 UK, 3 German, 2 Scandinavian, 1 Australian). Instead of camping, we opted for a hotel then a cute VRBO cabin and real meals.

Racing the weather to the summit of Yellow Aster Butte

Looking back on the Heliotrope Ridge trail up to the Hogsback

Roosevelt Glacier on Mt Baker

North Cascades 2016 Photo Album

Durable Goods?

After only six years of use, one of the burners on our glass-top Samsung range ceased regulating temperature and became a binary Off / Full Hot surface only useful for heating our Moka Pot. A couple of weeks later, the middle bar of the stove clock ceased illuminating (8 looks like 0). Not wanting to buy a new stove every six years nor spend half the cost of a new one on an appliance repairman, a quick internet search revealed the parts required. Unfortunately, the clock is part of the main board and wasn’t worth $149 to replace, but $45 to get the burner working passed the cost/benefit test. Of course if the part actually cost half that much to make, it would have lasted 600 years, not 6. At least the stove didn’t catch fire like the Samsung Note 7 phones… Pulling out the stove for the 10 minute part replacement of course led to 30 minutes of cleaning the areas that hadn’t been seen in six years (and was slightly less traumatic than burning down the house).