2/21/07

Heidi, Logan, Chazz and I just got back from our trip to the Scottish Lakes High Camp yesterday. We spent most of three days up at the camp, a collection of cabins at 5,000 feet in the Cascade Mountains. It's located off of highway 2, about a mile from the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

To get to the camp we parked our car at a parking lot just off of Highway 2 and road a Suburban up a one lane private road to a "parking lot" where we unloaded the truck and got onto snowmobiles. Then we traveled up a narrow cat track to the camp. The entire route was covered in snow, except the first quarter mile. On the trip up I held Chazz, who struggled a bit right when the snowmobile started, and Heidi held Logan, who went to sleep pretty quickly.

The cabins were all very small. They had no electricity or running water. Water was brought in from the spring at the main lodge. Heat was from wood stoves. Light was from gas lamps. It was all very primitive, but it wasn't a problem. Except for the heat. We put too much wood into the stove on several occasions, making the cabin unbearably hot. We also had to keep adding wood to the stove throughout the night.

The cabins are in a treed valley surrounded by ridges on three sides. It's right at the tree line - above the valley most of the hillsides are lightly treed. Cross country ski trails radiate out from the cabins, through the surprisingly gentle surrounding hills.

While we were there I was slightly nervous. I worried that Logan or Heidi would get sick, miles away from access to an ambulance. Logan did get a cold on the third day, but nothing serious.

Logan had fun. He loved the snowman diorama in the Main Lodge. He liked playing with balloons in our cabin. He said that our bunk bed was a "metro bus" and he pretended to drive it. He got used to the Chariot sled, and seemed to enjoy our hikes.

On the second day we had a long snowshoe hike. I hauled the Chariot sled behind me while I walked. It worked well as long as there was no cross slope, but on the upper part of the trail there was a significant cross slope. It sucked - I kept running into trees. When we finally got to the high ridge overlooking the camp the view was wonderful. Logan woke up in a good mood - he had slept most of the hike - and we played with the shovel a bit.

On the last day we didn't do much. Logan wanted to "ride" the snowmobiles. When we left Chazz and I skied down after the snowmobiles. It was pretty amazing - lovely open slopes with good spring snow conditions. Chazz was a bit slow, and skeptical of following down the steeper slopes. But we made it just fine - if a bit late!