Skagit River & Diablo Lake

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Skagit River and Diablo Lake
(Puppies, Bunnies and Eagles)

Report from Marc
12/26/06

Puppies, bunnies and eagles may seem like a not-so-good combination, but these were three of the many perks of my trip to the North Cascades. This trip started much like many others, over a simple dinner conversation with some good friends. The topic: the Skagit River eagle experience. Now these were some of my white water friends so the first idea that popped up was to raft the river. Being a guy that likes to take advantage of an outdoor adventure, I quickly realized that there was a kayak adventure waiting to be had here as well.

The next thing you know it was the day after Christmas and I was in my van headed north with Sheila, Phil, and Wendy. Our first stop was to pick up our friend Sarah. One of Sarah's family dogs had just recently given birth to a litter of puppies. Here we were fortunate to experience the fun and joy of playing with puppies and watching their interaction with the house cat. My money's on the cat!

Onward we traveled to our put-in on the Skagit river near Marblemount. It was a cold day so the theme for this trip was "stay warm". This was accomplished with as many layers of "warm fuzzies" as we could wear and several hot Christmas beverages. Normally we're into running rivers for the adrenalin rush of blasting through rapids but the draw to this scenic float is the Eagles. Hundreds of them visit the Skagit river every winter. We counted up to fifty on just one tree. Unfortunately because of my lack of photography skills, and that I was using simply a point-and -shoot disposable camera, and the fact that too many warm Christmas beverages can be distracting, there are relatively few eagle shots. Under different circumstances, we could have had National Geographic worthy shots as we were so close to these fine birds.

After finishing our Eagle trip it was on to a cozy little cabin we had rented at the Skagit River Resort. We had not been here before so you can only imagine our surprise when we saw bunnies hoping all over the place. They were everywhere. They fed right out of our hands. A fun night of wine drinking, board games and great food led to a morning blessed with a fresh snowfall… the best kind with the big fat flakes.

As two members of our group had to return to civilization, we were left with Phil, Wendy and myself to contemplate the next leg of our adventure. The plan was to drive up the North Cascades Highway to Diablo Lake. Now any time you're planning to sea kayak on a lake at the top of a mountain pass in the middle of winter, it's always a hit and miss kind of thing. When it's a hit, it's amazing! We were blessed with snow capped mountains and calm waters. On colder occasions there are 50 to 100ft. frozen waterfalls, but for our time here they were still liquid. We had a great paddle with spectacular sunset colors (just after I shot the last of my film). We barely made it out of there by the time the gates to the boat launch locked. To be honest with you, I wouldn't have considered being stuck there overnight such a bad thing as it was truly a beautiful place to be.