8 September 2017, Friday

By the time S & K arrive home from work and we pack Vincent and prepare sandwiches for dinner on the road it is about 4:15. We drive north in the middle of rush hour. As we drive we reach a unanimous decision that chocolate milkshakes would be an excellent enhancement to our cold turkey, fontina and pear sandwiches. We arrive at Stilly’s Diner in Arlington, WA only to find they closed at 4 pm. We must settle for shakes from Bluebird Cafe instead.

The four of us are amused to find ourselves in the middle of an old car gathering in Arlington. We feel as if we’ve been transported back to the 1950’s. Classic autos with rumbling motors spewing gasoline fumes cruise the main street. Our eyes tear from the fumes and our ears hurt from the thunderous engines.

Soon we are back in Vincent driving into the Cascades along winding highway 20 in the dark night. We are vaguely hoping to find a national forest campsite before we get to our reserved state park site which is 35 miles beyond the trailhead for our hike tomorrow. Unfortunately, the nearer campgrounds appear to be full. Finally, we arrive in Winthrop WA a bit before 10 pm. The town seems to be a tourist attraction built from an abandoned old west movie set. After some confusion as to which roads lead to the park, we find our way to Pearrygin Lake. The road into the west campground is very dark. None of the numbered sites match our reservation. We realize the east campground must have the lower numbers and it is another mile and a half up the road. We arrive at #61 just past 10 pm, thankful for the open grassy area which makes it easy to set up our tents in the dark. By 11 pm we are ready for bed.