Big Beaver Valley

The Big Beaver Valley is one of my favorite places in the world. I’ve been there maybe six times, and it never disappoints. Big Beaver sits behind Ross Lake, in the North Cascades National Park, many miles from the nearest road. Big Beaver Valley has been designated a natural research area in the National Park, and it is just plain amazing. I did my weekend run there on Saturday.
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To get there, you have to go to Mile Marker 134 on Highway 20, which is roughly an hour and half east of Mount Vernon. I got up at 4:30 Saturday morning and headed out, coffee in hand, and saw a fox on the way up. The road was empty at that hour, which is pleasant. To get to the valley itself, you can either catch a boat ride from the Ross Lake Resort (which I have done—it’s easy); or cross the dam and run on the West Bank trail for 7 miles, which I did this time. This is a relatively easy run, sort of like the East Baker Lake Trail, but it does have its ups and downs and ankle burner rocks to look out for.
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Spectacular stuff. Ross Lake itself is really beautiful--it's actually the Skagit River, and the lake is a reservoir formed by the dam. Ross Lake reaches into Canada. The Big Beaver Valley holds the biggest grove of old growth red cedars in the lower 48, according to one guidebook. Real monsters. Some are over a 1000 years old, big, with gnarly bark, glow in the dark moss, and real personalities. Also, the Valley has a bright green river running down it, with the most amazing wetlands, and some fire scorched mountains across the way. I saw a big owl in flight, a jack rabbit, a mule deer, some black squirrels, and the remains of a big bird, feathers and bones scattered on the trail. Also, I saw a bunch of interesting plants—weird mushrooms, vascular plants, wildflowers. There’s much to be said—this place is just amazing. Here are some ok photos below—I do these with my phone--and a link to the National Park’s writeup.
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http://www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisit/big-beaver-trail.htm
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You can take the Big Beaver Trail all the way to Canada, Bellingham, just about anywhere, via some junctions in the middle of the Park, but right now it’s still snowed in at the Pass. I made it a little beyond 39 Mile Camp, five miles up the valley, after which there were downed logs everywhere. The total distance on my “run” was roughly 25 miles. I ate Skittles, GU, and risked beaver fever with the glacial runoff streams. I carried some emergency gear as well, but traveled light. It is a five to six hour run, going casually, but I spent an extra hour kicking around in the Valley, looking at plants and trees. I was home by 4 PM.
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I’m planning on doing a few other long runs up this way this summer, including maybe Desolation Peak, where Jack Kerouac spent a summer, and a Sourdough Mountain loop of 25 miles. Also, it’s roughly 45 miles to cross the park point to point, which is a possibility. Next up, the Stanley Park Seawall this week, as I’ll be in Vancouver; and maybe Seafair next Sunday.
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Lake Youngs

Lake Youngs was this weekend, put on by Arthur and Jennifer M, and friends, and it was a kick. Three laps, 9.6 miles each, around a fenced watershed preserve in Renton, where the wild things are, I think. The run is almost exclusively on dirt, and it isn't technical, except there are a few rocks here and there, which need to be watched out for when tired. It's a Proud Mary course....rolling, rolling...big trail a keep on rolling.... One real aid station each lap, with some jugs midway. Roughly 120 participants, with a little more than half doing all three laps.
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I really really like this run, probably more than I should--it's my second year. I like that it starts at 7 AM and that you can start at 6 AM if you want to. I like that it's fast, so that you're done by noon. I like that everyone knows everybody. I like the barbq afterwards, and the nice Patagonia shirt I've gotten each year. What I really like, besides that 7 AM start--I like that a lot actually---is how the trail rolls up and down. That just suits me well. Flats grind me down after a while, and I'm never in such great a shape as to be crazy about verts. I pushed a little harder this year, and dropped my time by a half hour, but didn't overkill. I was fine with it. This course makes you feel like you're in shape. Afterwards, you get home early enough to do a bit in the yard, and then watch a couple flicks with popcorn. That's what I did, anyway.
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Sunday, I got up and headed down into the Nookachamps and said hello to the cows. Eight mile loop. Farmers were out doing their thing--the paper says it's a tough year for local farms. I saw an owl fly in low circles over a field, right above four foot tall grass, looking for critters. It went into the grass and got one and that was all I saw of the owl. The sun is out, finally, yes!, and the longest day of the year is this week. Next up for me...possible North Cascades adventure by Rockport or Ross Lake, or Seafair.

Walker Valley Run

I have a friend who always used to go looking for fossils in Walker Valley. Plants too, I think, possibly illegal. Then, this past week, while walking around Bellingham, I heard some people talking about a rock that someone found there. The rock was a geode crystal type of thing--it looked cool. I decided it was time to check out Walker Valley, which is only 15 minutes or so from where I live, and so this Sunday I ran and goofed off there for an hour and half.
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Walker Valley is behind Big Lake, which is behind Mount Vernon, in the hills you can see from the freeway. This may be in the "Cultus Mountain" range, which is really not a mountain range, but it is hills with trees, and logging roads. I have it in mind that I'm going to explore these hills more during the next year. I'm sure there's all kinds of interesting things out there.
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The Valley has an Off-Road Vehicle area for quads and dirt bikes, designated by the DNR, and it is a regular motocross nirvana back there, with lots of trails, lots of grandmas on quads risking their coccyxs, and not too many trail runners--only one today. Beautiful country, lots of trails, and not too safe on a summer Sunday.
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I saw a deer. I found a snake, while trying to get back into some cattail swamp country. (I wasn't running much at that point.) I might've found a fossil too, but if it was one, it was pretty lame.
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The Walker Valley is Department of Natural Resources land, and is logged and replanted in various places, with signs pointing to timber sale areas, and other signs announcing when an area was logged and replanted. DNR logging sales support public school education, at least in part, as per the Washington State Constitution. This sometimes ends up in creating interesting tensions between environmentalists, educators, and logging interests. I found it sort of cool to see how well liked the trails were for the quad crowd. Conservationists come in many stripes.
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Because weather was predicted to be bad this weekend, I bagged on my Blanchard plans--also, nobody was organizing the Blanchard Ultra this weekend which I've done the last few years. I had planned on doing the distance, but it was supposed to be ugly weather, still, again, etc.
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Instead, with the sun sneaking out Friday night, I took off into the Chuckanuts, after class (the final session!), for an awesome four hours. Caught the setting sun from the ridge. Red skies over water. Friday night runs are the best. I went Fairhaven to Raptor Ridge, connector trail, C-nut ridge trail in reverse, down Chinscraper, Fragrance Lake, 2 Dollar Bill to Cleator, and home, with a few brief side trails. Three water bottles were just enough, but it was tight.
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The Mount Vernon Farm Market opened last weekend. I'm hitting it. I was going to sign up for a consumer supported agriculture subscription ("CSA") for the summer, but this nice farmer lady talked me out of it, saying it would be too much for me alone. So, instead, I dropped $20 this weekend on leekscapes, chard, kale, spinach, radishes, bok choy, tat sui, and a bunch of other things. (I still have fritos and skittles.) Hopefully I'll eat it all, and cook it well. Although I'm not a vegetarian, I'm having a lot of fun cooking out of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. If I had one book in the kitchen...
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Last week I learned it costs $175 to get a tow from the Baker Lake Road to Mount Vernon. Also, you can coast the last two miles of Baker Lake Road to Highway 20. As my tow truck driver Carl said, I was ready to run, but my truck wasn't. Special thanks to Larry and Alyssa of the Forest Service. Larry's a C-nut veteran--they were a great help as I was a sad guy, sitting on the side of the road. Truck's all better now. Oh well--the time off was probably good for the feets, after NB2V. Baker Lake trail is open. Looking forward to running around Lake Youngs in Renton next weekend.
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Find the deer picture



And here's another snake...