BAKER LAKE AREA

#7 WITHIN OUR 100 MILE RADIUS

Baker Lake is not far from where we are, but we are not doing anything at Baker Lake. We are about 6 miles west of the town of Concrete, camped at a Thousand Trails that shares the campground with KOA. Seems so strange to me but I guess it works. Some sites are KOA, some are TT.

I am so sorry that I neglected to take any photos of Susan and her college friends, John & Elaine when getting onto small, quiet Lake Vogler for a fly fishing outing. John and Elaine live in Alger, not very far from where we are, and John especially, is an avid fly fisher. Elaine joins him on may fishing trips, and they were happy to join us for part of the day and go fishing. They all caught at least one fish each on this day. But of course, being a catch and release thing, there was not fish for dinner.

After fishing, we set up and settled into our campsite for the following three nights. I had never been up into our loft, and this was a test. After first feeling a little claustrophobic, I got used to it and rather liked it. There is a weight limit for the loft of 200 pounds, so an adult and a child maybe, or a couple of children would meet that limit. The Grands LOVE sleeping up there.

I was so comfortable in the loft that I stayed a while and read a little. You can see Susan’s pontoon boat through the rear window. That is what she used for her fishing outing.

That was about all the activity we could muster for our first day.

Next day was time for a bike ride. The Cascade Trail is unpaved and runs from Sedro Wooley to Concrete. Being so near Concrete we chose to ride that way as an ‘experiment’ for possible riding the following day in the other direction. We all know by now that unpaved riding is not one of my favorite things to do! 

First we check the announcement board.

Then, just before entering the trail ... my relic photo op appeared.

The trail, though unpaved, is much nicer to ride on than that Iron Horse Trail we did in Easton. It is much better hard packed with fewer places of loose gravel and potholes. Periodically there are benches that appear to be very new.

 

A waterfall caught our attention.

And THEN ..... THIS caught our attention.

There was no way to get around it, no way to get under it, we had to go over it. 

Well, you know, I HAD to have photos of this. As I grabbed for my camera Susan was kinda yelling “NOT NOW”. But NOW is when it was happening, so I didn’t listen as she growled at me. At best, I chuckled. ;’-). But she was doing most of the work!

We succeeded, and continued on into Concrete for a loop through town.

Having read all through camp information, Susan, of course, had discovered a pizza place that was here in town. We retraced a mile of the trail and then got onto the highway to find the pizza, and ordered by phone. We sat at their picnic table and ate our packed lunch while we waited for our pizza that we would take home for dinner.

Getting back on the trail for our return trip, it seemed harder and less fun than I had had coming out. Susan had found an actual road on her GPS that parallels the trail and we took it. A bit hilly, but even being chip seal surface, it was a nice relief from the bumping and pounding of the trail. And there was no auto traffic at all. A wonderful way to end our trip for the day.