Alpine Lakes High Camp
Merry Christmas 2017!!
Andrew finally found a time to follow up on the Christmas gift he gave me last December. We spent two nights at the Alpine Lakes High Camp (formerly the Scottish Lakes High Camp) between Stevens Pass and Leavenworth, Wa.
On Friday we started lowering the Airstream’s hull back onto the frame and floorboards. It took a little bit longer than we had anticipated and so after we got it most of the way down we tried to protect the floors from the rain as best we could and off we went. On the way we stopped at the Gold Bar Family Grocery and picked up foods. It was a pretty unsystematic shopping trip and we ended up with a very random assortment of food and Andrew was drowning in snack bars and fruit snacks.
We got to the parking lot about five minutes late but the “shuttle” (Land Rover) was still there to take us to the camp. We were driven up the eight-mile road to the camp and were greeted with falling snow! After a little tour, Andrew and I took a mini hike to one of the Scottish Lakes and back after a desperate attempt to find a spot with good visibility of the lake. On the way back we couldn’t even find the footprints we had made on the way there the snow was sticking so well.
While Andrew made dinner we listened to Dracula by Bram Stoker on audiobook. To be honest that is the majority of what we did that weekend. Highly recommend if you haven’t read it yet. Its not at all scary considering we are pretty well versed in vampire typicalities but it is interesting to think about how people reacted to the novel when it was published in 1897. I digress.
We had a slow morning, watching kids play between the cabins and listening to what else but Dracula. We only started hiking at 10. So so so late. Anyways. We made our way through the previous day’s snow / slush and hiked to Larch Lake. We picked this weekend because it is around about when larches are in their golden state, but before they lose their needles. Plus the left over snow from the night before. Oh. It didn’t disappoint. Even with a late start and a couple hours exploring the lake’s surroundings we made it back to the camp before six.
For the rest of the night we listened to Dracula while Andrew made dinner and we waited for the fire to us heat up.
We originally planned to do another hike on Sunday before we were to be shuttled back to our car but we decided to just hang out at the main lodge and play Pictionary and listen to more Dracula (I told you that is what we did all weekend… We made it through about 90% of the book).
Being able to come back to a cabin after a day of hiking was a nice change from our usual backpacking trips. Not having to worry about being wet at the end of the day was also really nice as well. That being said, we will probably stick to sleeping in a tent for the foreseeable future.