Eagle Fest

Bald Eagle Festival

Concrete, Rockport, Marblemount, Washington with a side-trip to Newhalem & Diablo

3-5 Feb 2006

We headed up to the Bald Eagle Festival a few weeks ago in hopes of seeing many eagles. Our adventure began with many visions of Seahawks instead. I'll defer to my journal entries for the account of this experience:

Marblemount, WA: 3 Feb 06

It's been raining torrentially for days. Seahawks are headed to the Super Bowl in 2 days. The city's full of excited fans; Seahawks flags waving proudly everywhere--even flying from the back of a tow truck, the Taco Del Mar fish is even sporting a Seahawks uniform and cradling a football! Don't tell Texas A&M but the XII. Man flag flies proudly from the Space Needle. Drove up to Marblemount for the weekend in hopes of seeing a Bald Eagle or two. Typically, the festival occurs after the high count for the season so we don't hope for many sightings--although we'd be pretty excited if we could see quite a few.

4 Feb 06: Sightings #1-#2 Awoke early to strong winds and incessant drizzle. Followed the river trail to see if we could find any Bald Eagles. Made it to the banks of the Skagit River to find one river guide patiently awaiting her 'floaters'--her passengers for her 2-zodiac river float to watch the eagles that day. A lonely tire swing waits for an adventurous kid (& parent) while the frigid waters of the swollen Skagit River rush by. High in an evergreen about 200m from us is perched an adult Bald Eagle. We gaze in amazement at his grandeur; then another Bald Eagle swoops down about 3m over the river and flies upstream in search of food (or shelter from the pounding rain?). Awesome demonstration of his power & strength. We have front row seats to witness it!

Sightings #3-#4: Drove out toward Rockport and saw 2 eagles perched in snags along the drive.

Sightings #5-#7: Stopped at the 'roadside attraction' and saw 2 more eagles perched in trees and one soaring high in the mist and fog overhead.

#8: Continued to Rockport and saw #8, a juvenile, perched high in a deciduous tree on the north side of the highway--about 4m from us!!! Quite close! Continued to Howard Miller Steelhead Park (where my Bald Eagle Letterbox used to be), crossed the bridge to Hwy 530 and saw #9 perched high a tree southeast of us. Noticed a large fallen cedar jammed at the base of the bridge. A Great Blue Heron studies us from across the river. From there, we head to Concrete High School for their great Salmon Bake and their big Eagle Days celebration.

5 Feb 06:

Drove East to Diablo--a tiny little village built to support the Diablo & Ross Dams that power Seattle and much of Western Washington. Drove over one-lane bridges--through alpine crags, snow-capped peaks and icy green-blue waters in the lakes and rivers. About two years ago the lone highway to Diablo experienced a land-slide of a monumental size and the small village was cut-off from civilization for over 6 weeks. The people who resided in the village were supplied by helicopter while crews worked frantically to clear the massive slide and stabilize the highway through the gorge. Families were separated at the time as kids in school were in Concrete--some 30 miles away from the village. Folks running to the 'big' grocery stores like Costco were unable to return home. It made quite the news! Some 2 years later, the scarred mountainside still shows signs of this slide as if it only happened yesterday.

Along our drive to Diablo we spy 12 Bald Eagles in various venues--from soaring high overhead, perched in snags and flying just feet above the raging waters. Spectacular!

Drove up to some gorgeous overlooks, high near the peaks. What brought us to the region was actually the allure of a few letterboxes that are hidden in the recreation area. We thought, despite the snow, we might be afforded the opportunity to at least hunt for one letterbox--that was hidden on a trail that required a 6-mile hike. Experiencing much cabin-fever thanks to the recent rains we were mentally prepared for a hike and were just salivating over the thought of a 6+ miler! High in the crags we spy Pyramind Peak (quite appropriate as we're currently studying Egyptian History in our home-school studies), Colonial Peak and many other North Cascade crags--such as Sourdough Mountain, Mt Baker, Mt Shuksan, etc. The day turns out to be absolutely gorgeous!

Cascades as viewed from an overlook high above Ross Lake. Cougar Island is in view in the foreground. Hint--there's a letterbox on it. Too bad we don't have a boat on our trip. So frustrating to be so near a letterbox, yet so far away at the same time!

We drive as far as we can along the highway and reached the 'winter closure' sign just 8 miles before our hike's trailhead. :( So, no letterbox for us this wintry season up in this neck of the state. We opt, instead, to play in the deep snow drifts. RnrB frolics in the snow--I attempt to squeeze in a mega-Tae-bo workout in the gorgeous venue! Nothing compares to a great workout in a beautiful setting--that you have ALL TO YOURSELF!!!

This is Pyramid Peak peaking through the clouds there. Beautiful!

We give up on our letterbox hike and return back to Diablo. We explore the tiny village and stumble upon this historic Powerhouse Log Cabin known as Davis Powerhouse. It was built here in 1900 by Glee Davis--the water which turned the waterwheel funneled down from a hand-hewn flume 2,000 feet from a small dam on Stetattle Creek. It powered the electric lights of an 11-room road house. It generated 3-3/4 kw; an incredible feat for its time. Today that would power the cooking elements on a single electric range!

Disappointed that we couldn't hike to the letterbox, we opt, instead, to take a hike along Stetattle Creek. RnrB and I enjoy the sights and sounds along the rushing waters and spend much of our time rock-hounding in the waters looking for gold, garnets and granite. The rocks & pebbles in this creek are much different than the ones we typically find--so we really enjoy seeing new and unique colors in the stones. We leave the area with a few flecks of (fools?) gold and a handful of interesting chunks of granite, gneiss and quartz.

We spend the rest of the daylight hours exploring the area. On our return drive, we stop in Newhalem to explore something that caught my peripheral vision while driving by. I noticed this metal fencing structure jutting out from a granite-outcropping. I decide that I just have to investigate it. So we park and I dash the 1/2 mile to the odd site and notice that it's Mr & Mrs Ross's (after whom the lake & dam are named) final resting place--in the shade of the mountains! What a glorious spot!

We race back to 'electricity' to catch the Super Bowl. Too bad--our team didn't fare so well--we should've spent the time on the trail. ;( Running Eagle Count: 9+12=21

6 Feb 06: Time to head home. We gingerly take our time. We start the morning by returning to River Trail in search of more eagles. We see none. We figure they're scared because the sun came out and it's WARM! Something we're not very used to in the area. I opt to do more Tae-Bo on the river bank--just because we have the area to ourselves, it's beautiful, I need exercise & why not? Bunnies sneak up on us and study us as if we're the oddities in the area.

We continue to Marblemount where we enjoy Buffalo chili for lunch. Great! Then, we opt for the 'road less traveled' on our drive home--taking us through Darrington and Arlington. We enjoy beautiful farm-laden scenery in the foothills of snow-capped crags. We see 8 more Eagles along our drive. We sneak out of the mountains in the city of Arlington where we stop to look for 3 letterboxes. Our first letterboxes in the region in at least a year and a half! Success!

Moss-laden tree in a public park in Marblemount. While exploring the area we noticed clean-picked salmon carcasses along the trails about 300m from the river's edge. Bald Eagles must've carried them off to 'safer' feeding grounds. Interesting!

Bald Eagle Count for the weekend: 29 Half of the number we saw over New Years Eve weekend--but still worth the trip!

All in all a unique trip for the region. Great views, great wildlife and time well spent with family. Three great letterbox hunts to regions previously unfinished. Tae-bo on the banks of the Skagit River and high atop the snow-capped overlook of Ross Lake. Cascade peaks all to ourselves! What more could one ask for??? Have a blessed week!