2013/01 Family - Mount Baker |
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Mount Baker |
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With all the wet weather I’d caught up on this year’s vacation letters and had a heavy load of envelopes to mail. I could save a lot of money by mailing them across the border in Sumas. Sandie was also looking for a sewing machine which could also do quilts so we made a trip to Sumas and Bellingham for a day’s shopping. This was the beginning of the Americans’ Thanksgiving week and the place was already busy. Sandie found her machine and tried out the demo model but they had none in stock and had to order one.
We were going back after the holiday as there would be thousands of Canadian shoppers crossing the border for the Black Friday weekend sales. As we weren’t likely to get back into Canada on the same day with an up-market sewing machine without paying duty and taxes we decided to stay for a couple of days to get the 48 hour tax exemptions. Staying in a hotel would wipe out the benefit so we were headed for a couple of days of free camping. “Camping?!!” said the disbelieving US border guard, but he let us in.
After buying food and firewood we set off towards Mount Baker, using the GPS reading that I’d taken when we were scouting out campsites earlier in the year. The good news was that the location was just below the snow line. The bad news was that our GPS didn’t know about the old logging road we’d used back then so it took us up the main road and then announced we’d arrived. It was true that we could see the site from the road, but getting the camper down the cliff and across the Nooksack River would have been tricky! Luckily I sort of remembered the roads and turns and we soon found the proper entrance.
The sites had been upgraded with a new pit toilet, but they’d also been shrunk by dumping gigantic boulders at strategic points. Our guess was that this 
was to make it difficult for someone to leave a trailer in a site for the whole summer.
We had the place to ourselves and found a good spot looking out over the river. The evening was dry, but cold, a bit below freezing and a thick frost, crunchy underfoot. We got a fire going and cooked dinner, but had to retreat inside when the fire died down. The camper stayed warm and the battery lasted through the night. For entertainment we finished off our Christmas cards.
Next morning was still frosty but nice enough for us to walk around the neighbourhood and then to drive up the main road to Nooksack Falls. The road was busier than I’d expected. It dead-ends partway up the mountain, but I’d forgotten about the ski lifts up there. We had the falls to ourselves though, good as they are hard to see without risking your neck. There’s a memorial there for all the people who’ve died trying to get the perfect picture.
Further down at the closed Douglas Fir campground we took a walk along the Nooksack River trail through the ferns and under the mossy 
forest, a thousand shades of green. Closer to the campsite, there’s the new Boyd Creek trail, but we soon realized that it was built for teachers to bring kids in to experience the rain forest and to return most of them to their parents – all neatly barriered and risk-free.
The night was a little warmer, but not enough to melt the ice in the puddles. I was relieved that the battery lasted through another night as I wasn’t looking forward to going out to start the generator. We drove to Bellingham, mailed our Christmas cards, and collected Sandie’s sewing machine. The rain set in as we left town and got steadily heavier as we crossed the border and returned to Hope. We’d been lucky; we’d expected to be camping in the rain too.