85: The North Cascades National Park

HH_-_The_N_Cascades_NP_11.21.22_ADS.RX.1.1 === [00:00:00] Great image of God with four finger pointed straight at me through halos and rolls and gold folds that were like the existence of the gleaming spirit in his right hand would say a, come on boy. Go down across the ground. Go moan for man. Go moan. Go groan. Go grown alone. Go roll your bones alone. Go down and be little beneath my sight. [00:00:26] Go down and be minute to seed in the pod. Go down. Go down. Die hands now this world report you well and truly. Anyway, I wrote the book because we're all gonna die. That was American Legend and Professional Deranged R Andto Jack Kerouac sitting at top. Desolation Peak in North Cascades National Park Complex. [00:00:50] After he wrote on the road, but before it was published, Kerouac spent a summer here as a fire lookout in 1956. Among [00:01:00] other things, Kerouac was known for his moody angsty pros, his summer on a mountaintop. Called Desolation Peak, predictably resulted in a long barrage of cheerful reflections. Like my father dead, my brother dead, my mother far away, my sister and my wife, far away. [00:01:20] Nothing here but my own tragic hands that once were guarded by a world, a sweet attention, that now are left to guide and disappear their own way into the common dark of all our death. Sleeping in me raw bed alone and stupid With just this one pride and consolation, my heart broke in the general despair and opened up inwards to the Lord. [00:01:44] I made a supplication in his dream. But to be fair to Jack, there is something about these massive isolated mountains along the Washington Canadian border that makes you feel small. Visiting these parks, you [00:02:00] simply run out of adjectives. My mind keeps reaching for the word epic, but it's so overused that I know it just won't communicate what I want it to. [00:02:10] If you spend enough time up there, you won't have to be an alcoholic beat. To start rambling and tonight the stars will be out. And don't you know that God is poo bear? The evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups, the peaks, and folds the final shore in nobody. [00:02:38] Nobody knows what's gonna happen to anybody besides the fall on rags of growing old. Big ancient places like the North Cascades have a way of reminding us how temporary and fragile our lives really are. They help us locate ourselves on a grander scale, and that's part of the value of the National Park [00:03:00] system. [00:03:00] When we return to our quote normal lives, we hopefully do so with more context, insight, and even compassion for those who share our strange and often beautiful. The picture of me on the cover of On the Road results from the fact that I had just gotten down from a high mountain where I'd been for two months, completely alone. [00:03:21] And usually I was in the habit of combining my hair, of course, because you have to get rides in the highway and all that, and you usually want girls to look at you as though you were a man. Not a wild beast, but who knows, my God. But that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion, actually convertible. [00:03:36] Holy honey, we need all this show of personality and cruelty. In fact, who knows? But that it isn't the solitude of the oneness of the essence of everything. The solitude of the actual oneness of the unborn, of the unborn essence of everything. Na, the true pure forever hood. That big blank potential that can ra forth [00:04:00] anything it wants from its pure store, that blazing bliss, mati, vira, the transcendental diamond compassion. [00:04:09] My team learned about the North Cascades after researching Kerouac at the Beat Museum in San Francisco. We drove to Washington three days later, and it was as big and breathtaking as the poet had suggested, but it was also a little bit confusing in its layout relative to other parks. So I reached out to Jim for some basic orientation. [00:04:31] People hear. North Cascades National Park, and perhaps they're not familiar with it. It's a relative lake, come in the world of national parks. In fact, it wasn't established until 1958, and the name can be a little confusing if you start looking at information about the park because. North Cascades National Park is part of what's called officially the North Cascades Complex. [00:04:59] [00:05:00] Uh, the complex includes both the National Park and also Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chalan National Recreation Area. And all three of those units basically merged together into really one large area. Originally the idea was it would just all be one giant park, and there was a lot of. [00:05:19] Technical and political reasons why they have it divided up like it is. But for planning purposes all to visitors, it doesn't really matter. So I'll mentioned that just in case someone's looking at a map and they see the Lake Shalan or the Ross Lake, and wonder if that makes any difference in terms of what you're doing. [00:05:33] The visit doesn't. So while we're talking about it, I'm just gonna refer to all of it as the park and lump all them together into one spot. And it doesn't really matter what you call it, it's a magnific. Place for many years, fans of the area that were talking about it and trying to promote it, refer to it as the North American Alps, and I think that's probably pretty valid just to say there's some of the steepest [00:06:00] mountains in North America relative to the the height compared to the vertical. [00:06:04] In fact, somebody joked and said the park has got a certain number of acres, but. That's cause it's standing on end. If you lay it out flat, it'd be three times bigger than it is otherwise, but it's, it's got a lot of vertical terrain. It's got over 300 glaciers, the most glaciers in the United States, anywhere outside of Alaska. [00:06:23] There's really three general kinds of visits you can make to the North Cascades. The first is a great scenic. Across the central part of the park, and you can easily do that in a day or even less. That's what most people do when they come to this park. If you rush through though, if you. Just dive through. [00:06:42] You miss some really great short hikes that are really easy enough for people to enjoy, but that's one way to see the park is just get it through on the scene at Drive. The second is visit down to the Lake Shalon area of the park, which almost everybody does by boat. And it's possible to sample [00:07:00] that area of the park in a day also, although some people wanna go and spend several nights, and that's possible to do and some great lodging there. [00:07:08] And the third way to see the park is to get into the back country. This is really an excellent park for. Some serious mountaineering or for backpackers, and so we'll talk about that in a bit. But I thought we'd focus first on the scenic drive cause that's what most people do. There's a highly called state Route 20 that runs east and west. [00:07:30] Runs right through the middle of the park. It's a beautiful drive. The elevation varies quite a bit. It's started about 500 feet on the west side of the park. If you go all the way through the park and keep going a little further, you get to 5,400 feet at the Washington pass, the high point of the road. [00:07:47] And so a lot of variety. Not 20 enough is the longest highway in the state of Washington. Runs all the way across the. The state from West East, not very far below the Canadian [00:08:00] border. It's only about a two or three hour drive from Seattle, and so it's a great place for people to go on the weekend, and that's maybe one tip if you're planning a trip. [00:08:10] And you're coming from some distance. If you can manage to be there on a weekday rather than a weekend, it won't be as busy while you're there. But the one thing to keep in mind, people say, well, we're close to Seattle, a couple three hours. We'll just buzz up there in November or March and have a little getaway. [00:08:27] It comes back to one of my favorite tips, which is always to be sure you have good information about a park and check the park website for any tips or information about what's going on. And that's certainly important at North Cascades cause that senior drive is not open during the wintertime. We'll talk a little more about that in depth in just a minute, but in terms of tips on the park website, almost every park, so. [00:08:54] Over the course of a year or two, there's gonna be some kind of major road construction going on, or something's [00:09:00] been damaged to by a storm. The Yellowstone floods they've had there in June of this year are a good example, so check the website. Look for what's called alerts. On the homepage, and that'll give you a heads up. [00:09:13] There's thing important going on. For example, if you were going to North Cascades in 2022, the Scenic Road, route 20, a portion of it outside the park had some major flood damage last year. And so traffic's down just to one lane at a time or one stretch of the road, and they're working to try to. All repaired this year, but that means there's gonna be some pretty significant delays there if you were driving it this year. [00:09:41] So one thing just to keep in mind that it may be something different next year. The park is also doing a lot of work along that road. A lot of pavings that's going on, and some of the camp grounds gonna be closed for a week at a time. Some of the scenic pullouts are gonna not be available. So again, just a good idea to check before you go and be sure you're not surprised.[00:10:00] [00:10:00] Now, I talked about the winter. They're on Route 20 and just, you wanna be sure if you're gonna make a trip that the road is open. As the highway gets up into those mountainous parts of the trip, one site says they have perhaps as many avalanches on that stretch road as any highway in the country. And so as a result, they figured it's a losing battle trying to keep it open, and it's not very safe to do that anyway. [00:10:26] And so, That entire stretch of Route 20 through the park is only open from about May through mid-November. Now the dates vary from year to year. Some years it's opens in April, some years, not until the 1st of June. It just depends on those, on the snow conditions for that year. So again, check before you make the trip and make sure what's going on. [00:10:48] Cause there is so much elevation variation in that park. Also, if you're going there, Take either a serious back country hike or just wanna stroll on one of the short trails. The lower [00:11:00] elevation trails are in great shape. Usually by may you get up to some of the higher elevations of the park, some of those trails, not snow free until June, maybe even the 1st of July. [00:11:09] So again, you want to do your homework before you go so that you won't get there and find out something that is not possible. [00:11:21] You're listening to Hometown History from Black Label Podcasting. I used to have the worst time falling asleep at night. I would get into bed and just lay there staring at the ceiling. Thinking about all the things that stressed me out that day or the mountain of work I had to do for the next. Not anymore though. [00:11:39] Not since I've started using next evo. Next. Evo C B D worked faster than other C B D due to their smart, so technology. It is scientifically formulated to deliver more c. In a way your body can use, it can even work in as little as 10 minutes. Plus, it's proven to have 29 [00:12:00] times better absorption in the first 30 minutes. [00:12:03] The best part of it all for me is the strawberry flavor. Get a better night's rest and a better day tomorrow. With products from Next Evo Naturals for up to 25% off subscription orders of $40 or more. Use promo code hometown@nextevo.com. That's N E X T E V o.com promo code hometown. [00:12:35] Because of our confusion on our way into the park. We did a fair amount of driving before we found our way. But if there's any place you might not regret being lost for a little bit, especially from the safety of your car, it's a national park. We didn't always know what we were looking at, but it was always captivating. [00:12:55] I asked Jim if he might help spare our listeners the same confus. There [00:13:00] are a lot of places people like to stop and look at along that drive through the park. I thought I mentioned maybe just a few highlights that somebody is gonna try to just to get through and hit some of the high points. If you're, let's say you're coming in from the Seattle area and going from west to east through the park. [00:13:16] Not too long after you come into the park, there's a little small community code, new Halem, and the park visitor center is there and if you stop there, always encourage people to stop at the park Visitor Center. Pick up a map. Cause don't count on a cell signal for your app on the phone or the gps, and ask them about updates on the trails and that kind of thing. [00:13:38] But while you're there, there's a real bonus, even if the Vista Center is not open, the shortest trail in the park, it's only a 330 feet long. Starts there near the Vista Center. It's called the Sterling Monroe Boardwalk. But you've got some great rewards for almost zero effort. If you walk all the way to the end, 330 [00:14:00] feet to the end of that trail, then there's a great view of the picket mountains there in the park, and it's, if you bring a para binos, it's the only place you can see a glacier actually from. [00:14:12] From the paved road, highway 20. Again, 300 glaciers in the park, but you gotta hike to see most of them. But if you're on this trail there by the visitor center, bring your binoculars and you can see it. You might also spot some mountain goats on the mountains there from the end of that little short trail. [00:14:27] So there's a bonus for stopping at the visitor center. Take that little short hike and there are also half a dozen other really easy short hikes you can take right there in the visitor center area. Now if you continue. The drive on Route 20 from the visitor center. You'll notice as you make that trip, you'll come to three dams on the Saggot River. [00:14:49] And you might think that's kind of when you usually have, uh, all these dams built in a national park. And that's cause they were there a long time before the park was established. They were all built [00:15:00] to provide hydroelectric power and in fact, understand about 20% of the electricity used by. City light. [00:15:07] Their main utility comes from these three dams on the Saggot River, so you'll see those as you drive along. The first one you come to going from West East is the Gorge Dam, and there's a pullout there if you stop. There's an easy half mile loop trail, goes to a really nice waterfall, 242 feet high. So if you want a leg stretcher, that's a good place to stop and if you continue on, then eastward on Route one 20 for another four miles. [00:15:36] You'll come to the second dam. It's called Diablo, D I A B L O. There's a pullout there, but some of the traveled experts from that part of the country say rather than a stop there at the dam, keep going for about another five miles and you'll get to a pullout there. They have these mile post markers on the edge of the road with the number if you get to about just [00:16:00] past mile 1 31 at the Diablo. [00:16:04] Lake overlook one rider from the Seattle Times says, if you only gonna make one stop on the entire drive on Route 2120, make it at the Yabo Lake. It's, if you look at a lot of reviews, you see. Must stop and stunning and don't miss and those kind of adjectives. So that's certainly a place you want to include on your trip if you can. [00:16:25] And one of the attractions of that spot, one of the unusual features is you have a gorgeous view of mountains all around this beautiful lake. The people comment about the cutter, particularly there during the summer, uh, July, August, September. It's a real distinct turquoise blue, rather unusual, and that's cause it's. [00:16:46] Glacial fed when the glaciers are grinding the way down the mountains and grinding up all the rock and particles. And then when you get the runoff in the late spring, early summer, all those tiny particles are [00:17:00] washed down in the water. It's called glacial flour is the geologist term for it. So basically it's this. [00:17:06] Very finely suspended sediment in the water, but it causes the sunlight then to be refracted when it hits the water and gives us this turquoise color. You'll see that in some other lakes all around the world that are located below glaciers, and that's always the same reason that really neat color, but it makes a great spot to stop and enjoy the scenery and try to get some photos. [00:17:28] Now you can find a couple more overlooks there in the parking lot, route 20 headed east, and eventually you'll come to the park boundary. And my advice there is if you've. A little more time, maybe another hour or so. Just because you're losing the park doesn't mean that the scenery stops right there at the boundary. [00:17:47] You're going on to some US Forest Service land and you keep going. Really, some of the best views on the whole drive still ahead of you. Maybe dlo Link maybe is the best, but there's some other great ones on beyond. If you go another [00:18:00] 25 miles beyond the park boundary, the road will be climbing steadily when you get up to about 4,800 feet. [00:18:08] You'll come to a place called Rainy Pass. I might suggest to you it's a little damp there times of the year, not a rainforest, but it is rainy there. Occasionally it's pretty green, but if you stop there, there's a picnic area and there's a two mile round trip. Paved trail, that's absolutely beautiful. You can go to a place called Rainy Lake and it's sure worth the hike from everything that I've read about it. [00:18:32] Sure. Be worth the stop. Just keep in mind though, like we mentioned earlier, it's pretty high elevation. They get a lot of snow. It's possible there will be some snow on the trail evening in June, so if you're there in a may visit, the trail may not be a great opportunity. So it depends. The time year you're gonna be there. [00:18:50] So when you finish your stop and your hike there at the rainy pass, if you go another four miles, you come to Washington Pass, which is the high [00:19:00] point of the road over 5,400 feet. And it's another just magnificent view there. In fact, if you look up on the south side of the road, there's a place called Liberty. [00:19:13] Mountain over 7,700 feet. It's a real mecca for rock climbers. In fact, someone's put out a book called The 50 Classic Climbs of North America, and there's a climb on that mountain called the Liberty Crack. I guess that's to take off on the crack and the Liberty Bell that climbers like to go and climbers like to start their climbs from that parking area cause it gives 'em a big jump start on the route. [00:19:35] So you may see some folks climbing there, but it's really a beautiful view and. If you're parked there, if you overlook, there's a just a quarter mile long trail that wonder of you says, here's the words that they've got for unrelenting in your face, beauty. You can't beat this roadside, wheelchair friendly quarter mile walk. [00:19:57] So not like the senior there, [00:20:00] according to a lot of folks, is really worth the stop. And that would be a good place for you to go. Again, keep in mind, the season might be a factor. Snow may limit your ability to do much hiking there evening into June. So stop if you can't enjoy that cause it's really a. [00:20:17] Spot to enjoy the scenery. Now, when you get to Washington past the scenic party drive is basically over. You'll start literally downhill for a long way from there, if your time is short, and you can either continue your trip on East on Route 20, or you can backtrack if you came from Seattle. But if you wanna see the other part of the park, That I mentioned, you've got a decision to make at that point. [00:20:41] From Washington Pass, it's about a hundred miles and about a two hour drive down to the small town of Shelan, C H E L A, NS, Washington. And if you go down Tolan, you're at the south end of Lake, [00:21:00] which is 50 miles long. The catch is if you're trying to get back to the park, only the northern. Of Lake Shalon is in the park. [00:21:09] The rest of it is all surrounded by private land and US Forest Service land. And if you are going back into the park, the big attraction there is a little tiny settlement year around population of probably less than 80 people. Calls two Hecken, and it's spelled s t e h. K i n, but pronounced St. Hecken. [00:21:33] And it's right on the northern end of Lake Shalon. But the trick is there's no roads there. So if you're gonna make a trip to a stack and you have to go there by boat, now theoretically you can go by horseback or you could hike, or if you have your own boat, and I understand you can even charter a sea plane from Seattle if you really wanna get there in style. [00:21:52] But almost everybody that goes to heck and gets there by boat. There are two private ferry companies that operate [00:22:00] from the southern end of the lake. They're around the town of Chilan that goes to Hicken, and they operate on a daily basis from. About early May to mid-October, and then they operate several days a week, year round. [00:22:14] But it's one of those things you want to check the schedule before you plan your trip. And there's several options. They have different boats that operate. Some of 'em are faster than others. You can make the trip from the south end to the North end Lake anywhere from about 70 minutes up to about four hours, depending upon which one of the fairies you choose. [00:22:34] Now, some days during the visitor season, if you want, it is possible just to make a day trip from shean ups to Hecken. Depending upon which boat you take, you can be there anywhere from about an hour and a half to as long as six hours up at the north end of the lake. And if you wanna stay overnight, there's some really very attractive lodging opportunities. [00:22:55] There's a big lodge, there's several private cabins you can rent. There's a guest [00:23:00] ranch. So things that you can do and. Really a nice time there if you want, but if you wanna make a day trip, it's possible. And in fact, a company there is, there's an 11 mile long road that starts at the boat landing and it parallels the lake for a short distance. [00:23:14] And if you choose the right ferry, they'll meet you there with a bus. They'll take you two miles off the road. You can take a short hike to a beautiful waterfall. Go back down to time to get a lunch. There's a great little bakery there, one of the few businesses town that rave reviews about their cinnamon roll. [00:23:30] Then you can take the ferry and get back at the end of the day. So there are day trip options if you choose to do that. If you're gonna go there and stay there during the VI season, there are a usually place you can get meals. But a lot of people go and just plan to do their own cooking. Some of the rooms, cabins have their own kitchen. [00:23:47] If you do that, just be sure you take your own groceries. There's a, a small general store there. Understand the options are a little bit limited, so if you have specific things you wanted on your meals, better take your own food. [00:24:00] The way to get great information to plan a trip there, that area has a website, st hecken.com. [00:24:07] Again, it's spelled s t e. H E K I N. Then they've got links to the websites for the ferry companies and the places you can stay and tours and that sort of thing to help you plan your visit. I mentioned earlier that North Cascades is an outstanding place to go. If you're interested in backpacking or serious mountaineering, if you're gonna do either one of those, you need to really do your homework. [00:24:31] There's some great information. On the park website about permits you need, and again, seasons people go there to climb on for ice and snow climbing, for example, but you need some details about that. If you look at the park website in the upper left hand corner, you'll see a link for plan your visit. If you just slide down from there to where it says things to do, you'll see a whole list of details about things like boating and camping and climbing and [00:25:00] hiking and that sort of thing. [00:25:01] You can get all you need to know about that kind of activity. I'm gonna, I'm gonna mention just for fun, if you're going there or think about a trip, maybe go mountaineering. And if you're just a little superstitious, there's some names there that might give you pause about whether this is the trip you really wanna make. [00:25:18] Uh, it's been a while looking at the map. Here's some real place names in North Cascades National Park. Mount Terror, Mount Fury. Mount Challenger for Forbidden Peak. And mount despair. And if that doesn't set you back enough, there's also a mount formidable and mount torment. So I guess you just take your luck if you want, but consider the, uh, the names for some of those spots. [00:25:47] I mention to all those names. Really ingest suspicious saying, well, if you don't wanna go to uh, Mount Fury, well maybe you can take a hike over Easy Pass. And I'll clarify that by saying you should. Choose a [00:26:00] destination for a hike or a climb just based on the name. Easy Pass. It's absolutely beautiful. The views from the hike over ease of pass may perhaps be some of the finest in the park, but the asterisk next to that information is that the hike is anything but easy over stretch of only three and a half miles. [00:26:20] The trail gains 2,800 feet. So it's a tough hike. So keep that in mind that if you're trying to plan a hike, just don't look at the name on the map. And I've got an excellent example about why you also need to be careful if you're getting information just off the internet. This happened just in. This month, June of 2022, a, a teacher from a school in Germany was responsible for picking up a destination for a school trip for 99 kids in the early teens. [00:26:51] So they had 99 children and eight adults. They had to be rescued by helicopter cause they got stranded on a dangerous mountain trail in [00:27:00] Austria. They said evacuate 107 people from the mountains by helicopter was not an easy job. That took more than 50 rescuers to pull this thing off. But here's the key point. [00:27:11] The teacher chose this hike on the basis of reading a single review on a website that described the route as an ideal opportunity for a relaxed after work stroll. The reality is the trailer is so dangerous. All the local tourism authors have taken it off the map. They don't even want people going there. [00:27:33] But the teacher chose on the basis of one online review, the local rescue officials said they had a good piece of advice that said, if you're going on a hike, just get advice from somebody local that knows about it. And he said they've had numerous cases there of. Tourists, they had to be airlifted out cause they're getting on a challenging trail wearing flip flops or sneakers. [00:27:55] And I thought his quote was really Italian is not evenly [00:28:00] trusting what you read somewhere online can get you into unpleasant situations. I thought that was a classic understatement, but good advice that applies any place in the world at North Cascades or the Green Canyon or yo or anywhere else. [00:28:15] Thought that was a good tale to kinda remind us, don't choose it on the basis of just a name or. One review on the internet. I admitted to Jim that I do this too. I rely on reviews maybe more than I should, but sometimes it's the only thing you have to go by . Well, the thing is we don't know the background. [00:28:34] A person that wrote the review in the case of the one in Germany or in Austria where the teacher took a device of God said it was an. Thing to do after work. He was a expert mountaineer for him, it was probably the easiest thing to do after work, but you don't know that when you read his review. So, uh, just to work to the wise cause it's online doesn't mean it's true. [00:28:53] Right. As I mentioned and as is the case with all of these parks that we've covered, we loved our time in the [00:29:00] North Cascades, but this is the part of the episode where I'd like to share a couple of negative reviews from Shane, a different Shane with a very different opinion. One star, don't go. You'll hate it from Alexander V one star. [00:29:18] This is the worst national park in the world. The food is nasty, the animals are poisonous. It is just bad over there in Sandy L, who either does not understand the purpose of these reviews or has logged her complaint with the wrong organization. Our RV was sitting there for four. We dropped our RV off at the beginning of October and it got back completely unsatisfied at the end of January. [00:29:43] They told us repeatedly that they could only get two sets of Lover Springs and not four, telling us that they were on back order and did no win, if ever they would arrive. So after three months, finally installed two sets When we got home and with one [00:30:00] phone call, we found two other sets of springs. This last review reminded me of a story I'd heard Jim tell about another visitor who lost the plot in the North cascade. [00:30:11] And as always, there's a valuable lesson in her for all of us. That's true. You know, the way that started, that she had, she had a great plan at the beginning. This lady was going on a hike there in the North Cascades. She told some friends, I'm going to this particular trail, here's my vehicle description. [00:30:28] If they don't come back, well send help. So she didn't go back and so they send help. Couldn't find the lady. Her vehicle was not. No trace over. They wasted some valuable time in the wrong spot. It turns out that she had changed her plans. Didn't tell anybody she was going to a different spot. Thankfully, they still had her vehicle description. [00:30:47] They found her car 50 miles away at a totally different trailhead in the park. So they started the search again there expanded to a second day. Soon they were using four helicopters, five dog [00:31:00] teams, a tracking team, a dive team, and 40 individual searchers. Looked all day, couldn't find her, but they did find two notes that she left and that that seemed like theological thing to do. [00:31:13] She said, I lost. I need help. I'm gonna start hiking downstream, so please come find me. They looked all the rest of the day downstream, no sign. Over third day they said, well, we'll start looking upstream. We'll look up as far upstream as it's reasonable to think somebody could possibly travel, and they finally found her over two miles. [00:31:34] Upstream from where they found the notes. So she said, well, I left you a third note. Said, I changed my mind. She said, I decided downstream was going the wrong way. So I turned around, went upstream, but they didn't find the third note. And so unfortunately that prolonged the whole thing. She was there an extra day, an extra night, a lot of extra stress and time expense for everybody involved. [00:31:55] So leaving the notes was a fine plan, but the reality is if they had, thinking about if [00:32:00] you're. Thick forest and a mountain and you can spot a note. You're doing a pretty good job as a searcher. If they could have found the note, if she had stayed where the note was written, they would've found her a day sooner. [00:32:10] So a couple things you can learn from that. That first, don't hike alone unless you're gonna be on a really heavily. Travel trail, nothing else. If you get hurt and you're hiking by yourself, you can. There's nobody that's in for help. But if you realize you loss, the main rule is just stop moving. Just sit down and sit tight. [00:32:28] As I said, try to make yourself large. If you've got something brightly colored, you can lay out on the ground if they're looking for the helicopter to spot you. But if you just keep moving, the odds are you're gonna be harder to find, just as in this case, and you run the risk of getting injured if you're just going off trail somewhere in rough country. [00:32:44] And then finally, just always pick an activity and a destination that fits your skill level and your comfort level. You'll have a lot more fun when good expression is if you don't get in over your head. And you won't lose your head on the trip. And that's a [00:33:00] probably a pretty good piece of advice. I asked him for a final word on the North Cascades, so I hope people have a chance to go with North Cascades and hope it will be memorable for all the right reasons. [00:33:11] And maybe if that's the case, he'll be reminded of the names of two other peaks there. Glory Mountain and Magic Mountains. The hope of those are names that'll stick your mind and maybe not Mount Terra. If you go to North Cascade. I want to thank Jim again for joining us, and I've included a link to where you can find some of his books in the episode show notes. [00:33:30] I'd also like to thank Jim and Will for more than just parks. Their website is also in the show notes. We really couldn't have asked for better partners in telling the story of the National Park Service, and we hope you found their input as helpful as we have.