The couple last night said we had to go to the Rocking Horse Bakery in Winthrop for breakfast so we did morning coffee/tea in the van and headed out. Winthrop is a pretty hip town, in a good way. They made over the downtown to look kind of wild westy and not too cheesey. The people coming into and out of the bakery seemed a little younger and nicely dressed so we are thinking second homes folks or remote workers, but nice folks who have this amazing little bakery in their small town. Breakfast sandwiches all around.
The big excitement was the announcement yesterday that the pass over Rt 20 was open!. This pass was built in 1922 and then improved in 1972 and connects this beautiful area to Seattle and also acts as a conduit for the logging industry, although we did not see any logging trucks today so they must still be getting back to work.
We stopped at Washington Pass Overlook which had a loop hike to some gorgeous views. Then we stopped at Rainy Lake and hiked into there. Next we stopped at the Diablo Lake overlook for more great pictures, and then finally we stopped at the North Cascades NP Visitor Center in Newhalem. The weather was great and it did get into the 80’s once we came out of the Cascades. Deb had thought about another hike (Thunder Knob), but it was warm by this time and other trails were still covered in snow.
We had chatted with three women at Rainy Lake and they filled us in on routes after North Cascades to avoid the busy Seattle traffic. They highly recommended staying on Rt. 20 so we followed their suggestion, staying on Rt 20 and ending up on Whidbey Island after crossing the Deception Pass Bridge. We stopped at the Deception Pass Campground (Cranberry Lake) and site 179 was open for $43. Nice sites, flush toilets, hot water and showers. Living it up for sure. Deb explored the trail to the beach while I put my feet up.
Salad and soup for dinner, followed by a walk to the beach and microwave popcorn (decadence for sure).
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