Tripping in Annie #3 - South of the Skagit, west of the Sauk rivers

There's a relatively unused little hunk of MBSNF that's almost directly across the Skagit River from our home. We just spent a week there.

While it's not the most spectacular, high country area, it is very pretty.
 Since our preferred camping is boondocking where few (ideally no) other folks will pass by, it makes for a nice peaceful week's outing, without much traffic to disturb our navel gazing.

So in that spirit of peace, I'll mainly just post pics, with a few distracting comments thrown in.

Camp One:
We camped just before a washout on this road (NF1755).

Celebrating the official declaration of "We're Home!"

Exploring our new digs.

Enjoying a refreshing beverage after a long walk.

Next morning was clear, cold and frosty.

Which must have made at least one spider's feet very uncomfortable

We spent another day at this camp, walking and noting the onset of Fall.

 

  

Camp Two:
After a relaxed morning, we headed to our next camp. This was a quarry at the end of NF1740, a short, but steep climb above Finney Creek.

Higher altitude and more exposed than Camp One, so the Fall foliage was more like Fall foliage.

We explored the quarry, and generally took it easy the next day.

After our fill of exploring, we settled in to read some adequate books, drink some adequate wine, and look at the more than adequate scenery.

Camp Three:
We had originally hoped to settle at NF1715. It looked like a good possibility on the maps, across Finney Creek from the main NF17 with one direction washed out by another creek. But when we got there, we found it was an active logging area. So we backtracked, found an unmarked stub road right near where NF17 crossed Finney creek. It was OK for an overnight, but nothing special.

 But it was a short walk down to Finney Creek.

Camp Four:
We decided to move to NF1820 the next morning.
We found a nice spot right where the road crosses Deer Creek.

By all appearances, the road had not been traveled for a week or more before we went and disturbed the tranquility.
Time for more reading and more wine.

On the way down the road, we saw a pretty little lake off to the side. So we walked back to it, after setting camp.

Rounding out the day with a nice dinner.

Then it was Saturday, and we had to decide if we wanted to try and stretch to Sunday. A few 4x4's in a line came grumbling down the road, shortly after we heard gunfire by the lake. This proved it was the hunting season opening weekend, and reminded us why we don't like to camp on weekends. Forecast also predicted rain coming in, so we decided to wrap up and head home via the Saulk River and Rockport. We did a nice day hike at Rockport State Park, and drove home.

But we didn't leave before sitting and recollecting the nice time we had.