North Cascades Charms, both sides

Here we are at October 7th still enjoying temps from 70-close to 80, but weather next week looks like reverting to typical fall or early winter weather more like 50s.-60s. Leaves are beginning to turn but not yet. My garden is full of flowers blooming. I play golf every Friday with three others, but -- like them -- do not take scores as a big deal. If I get a bogie once in awhile, good, but I also might rack up 10 strokes on some hole where all goes wrong. Great scenery always in the Northwest, usually nice weather except in rainy mid-winter, so who cares. I am hoping to get over to eastern Washington yet before the North Cascades Highway closes for the winter (heavy snow in mountains, not in western WA. ) But driving along the Columbia River means wonderful views of fruit orchards along the river that turn brilliant yellows in fall, enhanced by reds here and there and certain wild deciduous trees mixed into the prevailing tall evergreens in the Cascades that are mostly yellow, too. Fall in the San Juan Islands brings some foggy mornings and brilliant afternoons and fewer tourists to help out the seasonal businesses that tend to cater to boat populations.  A good time to avoid crowds and some reservations on the ferries, though.

The North Cascades Highway usually gets so much snow above 4,000 feet (passes are all more than that) that some close. The NCH seldom makes it past December 1 and comes back to life around late April or May. Dangers of avalanches or rock slides along the highway. But the valleys are always fun and the east side great for cross-country skiing. Nearer Bellingham, Wenatchee, Seattle, and so on are top downhill skiing areas with good overnight facilities. A book I have not talked about on this blog is constantly popular: North Cascades Highway  -- and also another one Stevens Pass (lots of railroad history there). It has gone through several reprints and is very desirable still since publication originally for the Mountaineers and later Montevista Press,

If you find my books of interest, a more serious but unusual story is Ranald MacDonald, Pacific Rim Adventurer from WSU Press, the fascinating life of a half-Chinook and half English (Hudson's Bay pioneer) who made history along the Pacific coasts, in Japan, Australia, Canada, and the USA. It took two years of broad research in all those countries to put it together as armchair-readable history. Not the Ronald of MacDonald's burgers but Ranald. That is actually the way  a man's name in spelled in some areas of Scotland.

Happy leaf raking, readers.  JoAnn   www.joannroe.com