Happy Birthday, Jack Kerouac (1922-69)! ✍🏻📖🛣️

[CaptainOllieWest]

I have done two trips on Ross Lake in the Northern Cascades. I still haven't hiked to the Desolation Peak. Each time something came up that changed our plans.



Desolation Peak (Washington) - Wikipedia https://share.google/iqjMuiJinzMD6obxb

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I have done two trips on Ross Lake in the Northern Cascades.

COW, I'm curious as to why my "Happy Day" Jack Kerouac birthday notice is the title of this thread. Did his journeys have something to do with Ross Lake or Desolation Peak? One aspect is that I've learned that emojis can be put in thread titles. Never knew that.

 

[CaptainOllieWest]

COW, I'm curious as to why my "Happy Day" Jack Kerouac birthday notice is the title of this thread. Did his journeys have something to do with Ross Lake or Desolation Peak? One aspect is that I've learned that emojis can be put in thread titles. Never knew that.

Jack Kerouac spent a summer at a fire lookout in the North Cascades in Washington State. Many of his works were inspired by his stay.
There is a trail that can be accessed from Ross Lake that leads to the lookout.
I have been on Ross twice, but have not made the hike. I guess that means I need to go back.

 

[CaptainOllieWest]

Desolation Peak Trail via Ross Lake, Washington - 149 Reviews, Map | AllTrails https://share.google/iyz7CmO7gSS2iEjcL

Here is the AllTrails information on the trail.

 

[ppine]

Kerouac inspired us back in the late 60s and 70s. Old cars, a bedroll and a box of tools and we were down the road. 1969 it was a 1957 Chevy on Route 66 to go surfing in California. The people we met along the way were spectacular. I am always looking for 70s vibes. I drove across the country every summer as a college student just to find out what was over the next hill. Neal Cassidy was another hero.

Going to forestry school at U Dub, we spent a lot of time going over Route 20 the North Cascades Highway. It was how we got to the East Side, the sunny side of the Cascade Range with pine trees and sagebrush. Once in a drought year we drove over the range in February at night in a VW Baja buggy in a snow storm. Normally the road is closed for 6 months a year.

I miss the Cascades all the time but not the rain. The Sierra Nevada has become my new home. The East Side is mostly quiet and reminds me of the old days.

 

[tketcham]

...we spent a lot of time going over Route 20 the North Cascades Highway. It was how we got to the East Side, the sunny side of the Cascade Range with pine trees and sagebrush. Once in a drought year we drove over the range in February at night in a VW Baja buggy in a snow storm. Normally the road is closed for 6 months a year.

I spent 25 years in that wonderful valley and got to know the area quite well. The first time I encountered the rain shadow effect was when a mountaineering buddy and I (living in Walla2 at the time) decided over beers on a Friday afternoon that we were going to climb Mt. Baker that weekend. But it was raining down in sheets as we drove north from Seattle, where we'd spent the night sleeping under the partially constructed I-5/I-90 interchange ramp. My buddy suggested we drive over Washington Pass to climb Silver Star instead. On the way up Hwy 20 the rain got worse and worse and didn't look promising, until right at the divide, the clouds started parting and there was Liberty Bell, rising up out of the deluge. As we drove down the other side of the pass, the clouds just evaporated and it was a bright sunny day. Amazing. We camped in a gravel pit and climbed Silver Star the next day.

A few years later, living in Burns, I heard of a forestry job up in the Methow so I put in for the job and moved up there, mainly because there was talk of a planned ski area with 3800' vertical and deep powder. The alpine resort never happened and instead I got to ski a Nordic system with over 200km of groomed track and a backcountry with nearly unlimited downhill opportunities. For me it was Shangri-La.