NCI to the Rescue

While at The Eatery, Amy found a brochure about North Cascades Institute, a local non-profit organization with naturalist-led programming and (generally) paid excursions (hikes, canoe trips, retreats, etc.) in the area. They happened to have free first come, first served offerings on Saturdays throughout the summer. These take the form of short canoe trips and hikes.

This seemed promising so we scrambled to get to NCI by 8:30 a.m. to sign up for the naturalist walk. After that walk we would decide if we were leaving North Cascades and, if so, where we were going. Turns out we were the only people signed up for the 9:15 hike. After we declined the canoe trip, there were two of us, an NCI naturalist (Adam), and an NCI grad student (Lauren) hiking the 1.75 mile (one way) Sourdough Creek Trail.

After sitting and/or walking through an inordinate number of first time ranger/student volunteer hikes/talks over the past couple of weeks it was a huge relief to be with two people who actually knew what they were doing. Adam had been with NCI for two years and really knew the land and the trail. Lauren was towards the tail end of her year-long internship and seemed to have an interest in plants, which was great for Amy. They were both more than amiable and we had very interesting conversation as we went.

We kept a pretty good pace but stopped frequently to look at plants, slugs, mosses, etc. Midway through the trip up Lauren pulled out a plant reference book and kept it close at hand for the duration. There was a nice hidden water fall at the top of the trail and Lauren took a picture of us (we got our feet wet fording the stream). These free hikes are meant to illustrate what NCI has to offer and usually last on the order of just over an hour. We started at 9:15 and returned at 11:45.

Maybe a half-mile up the trail we passed a stone wall and Adam announced we were now within the borders of North Cascades National Park. Yay!