Great Times in the Northern Cascades!
July 15, 2024
Greetings from PNW 2A!
We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, Lord knows we sure are! We are happy to report that the first section of our trip, a 6-day backpacking route in the Northern Cascades National Park, went smashingly and everyone came out of it with at least a touch of love for the backcountry:) We are especially excited this trip because we have two children of former Moondance leaders with us! Reid’s dad, Jim Berry, and Angus’s mom, Margot Ramsay both led Pacific Northwest back in the day. What a testament to how classic and awesome this trip is!
We jumped into the trip with car camping the first two days outside Seattle, taking a fresh dip into the freezing Skagit river any chance we got to escape the summer heat. During this time, we prepped for the backcountry which entailed making GORP (good old raisins and peanuts, aka homemade trail mix) and packing our packs for the first time, amongst other things. Our first day officially in the backcountry begun with a french toast breakfast and a gorgeous water taxi ride on Ross lake to our lunch spot. Throughout our six days in the woods, we experienced many different landscapes, including exposed ridges along the lake, pebble beaches with mountains in the background sitting on the lake, cascading rivers and waterfalls, exposed peaks with 360 view 6,000 feet up in the sky, heavily wooded forest with a rushing river next to us, as well as crystal clear alpine lakes reflecting the rocks towering over them, so gorgeous and so hidden from the rest of the world. No body of water was left untouched by this group. At our last campsite, Isaac even challenged everyone in the group to a splash war, each of which he humbly reached victory.
Over our time in the backcountry, we hiked just about 40 miles total! Reid and Ford both blazed every trail for us as if their packs were full of feathers, setting a great pace for the rest of us. Sawyer was always a talkative hiker, never complaining on the trail and always entertaining the people around him. Angus had the biggest pack of all, but crushed it every day nonetheless and I have loved learning about his expansive music taste! What an old soul:) Emily always brought a calm and positive attitude to the group, and she did an especially amazing job as our Leader of the Day on the day of our alpine summit! A little more on that:
Our third night, we all woke up at midnight for an alpine start to summit Desolation Peak by sunrise, which we accomplished by the way!! We gazed at the stars and the milky way on our way up, moving and grooving to the top until the last few miles of the hike when it started to get steep. Everyone encouraged each other and kept one another occupied while we trudged up the alpine, reaching the top of the peak right as the sun was rising over the mountains across from us and glowing on our faces! The view was stunning, and we celebrated reaching the top with a little bit of music, candy, and of course tortilla wraps. We also got to meet Jim, the resident fire ranger who lives at the top, and he showed us his “studio house” and let everyone write our names into history by signing the famous Desolation Peak logbook! Special shoutout to Reid, Anna Reid, and Emily for carrying packs with group gear to the top- great expedition behavior. Everyone enjoyed jumping in the lake (which Claudia and Sarah coined as “the ocean”) when we returned to camp, as well as a good nap and breakfast for dinner! Another shoutout to Sarah, Claudia, and AR for being the “influencers” of the trip, vlogging all of our adventures and getting all the good angles for pictures:) They have discovered the perfect way to capture the moment while still being completely unplugged. Can’t wait to see those! The day after our summit, everyone crushed a tough hike to our next campsite called Nightmare and Sam had the great idea of having hot chocolate on our one cold night there, which was a perfect way to end a long day! Through the whole trip, Ford was always willing to help out the group, whether that was by sharing his snacks and toothpaste or carrying extra group gear in his pack for the day. Everyone had had so much fun together, whether that has been through trail games and conversations, shared moments of conquering our struggles and fears, laughing and telling stories during dinner, meaningful moonups, and so much more. It warms my heart to see how close this group has gotten so quickly- they are already planning their reunion for Labor Day Weekend! Mark your calendars 😉 I am so happy everyone leaned in to the weirdness and freeness of the backcountry and it helped us come together as a group. I am confident this will do wonders for us as we continue our adventure into the San Juan Islands for sea kayaking this week! Matt and I cannot express how grateful we are to have all of your rockstar children in the pacific northwest with us these three weeks. Check back soon!
Cheers,
Georgia and Matt
P.S. Claudia wishes her mom and sister a very happy birthday(s)! 🎂🥳
Safe Arrival in Seattle
July 6, 2024
Hello Pacific Northwest Families!
We heard from our leaders this afternoon that the group has landed safely in Seattle and is headed to their first campsite! The trip is off to a great start, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventure!
Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips, but we will be posting trip updates throughout the next two weeks! This will allow you to follow along with the trip. You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to!
-Moondance HQ
