Well folks, our tandem twosome is done for the season in the North Cascades. Done working, that is. They finished up their third session of 12-day trips, brought all their gear out of the backcountry, cleaned, inventoried, and stored it all, gave their reports, and were on their way. If you would care to check out a little bit about that, you can check out the North Cascades Institute blog, Chattermarks here.
After wrapping things up for the summer, the couple still felt as though they hadn't had quite enough of the mountains, and especially not together. So together with Kevin's former college roomate, Ryan Thomas Morra, they planned an epic 5-day, 4-night trip up into one of the most beautiful regions of the North Cascades, Copper ridge. It proved to be a trip that was, in Ryan's words, 'un*believable". So go ahead and feast your eyes on some of the greatest vertical relief in the lower 48 states...
Ryan, Tasha and Rebecca, Packing up and getting ready at the Hannegan Rd. Trailhead.
But not so low as to preclude some excellent photo opportunities in the slide paths and scree fields.
Ryan, basking in the vertical relief of the North Cascades.
That night, the Quartet crossed over Hannegan Pass and started down the Chilliwack valley, making camp at copper creek; a lovely valley campsite with clear rushing waters to lull them to sleep.
Where, it appeared, the world's most ambitious beaver made it's home (this hemlock is about 16" in diameter)
The Chilliwack is a fairly small river, but can swell quite high in the summer runoff. This Cable Car was installed years ago, before the Park was created, to make crossing the river safer at these times.
Kevin and Ryan (and Frankenpack) stand on the bridge over Brush Creek, which will lead them up another valley to Whatcom Pass.
The Brush Creek Valley did not disappoint, with views of alpine ridges, glaciers, and high mountain peaks all the way.
As they got closer to the pass, Whatcom Peak and its Glacier- studded flanks became clearer and clearer.
Some people say that you are more beautiful when you are happy. Some say it is more so when you are in mountains. Perhaps here we have proof of both.
Once they got to Whatcom pass, our friends dropped their packs and ran south to a vista of the Challenger Glacier. Ryan and Tasha stand observing Challenger as it puts on a show for them, calving off huge chunks of ice that shattered and cascaded down the rocks below, thundering up across the basin to where their ears.
Here, you can see some of the blue ice and the cliffs where the calved chunks were smashed apart as they fell from the face of the glacier.
Packs back on and ready for the last stretch of climbing up to Tapto lakes.
The lakes are nestled just below the ridge of Red Face Mountain, flecking the landscape with their cool, clear waters.
Not a bad place to set up camp, eh?
with Whatcom Peak and its associated glaciers towering in the background.
Ryan was nice enough to fix everyone a delicious dinner of Macaroni and cheese that night. They were all really excited about it until...
He served it up on a big slab of granite buried in the ground!!!!!
Alpenglow (the name for the red-hued sunset light as it shines on the high mountain peaks after it has left you and your friends in the dark) on Whatcom Peak.
The next morning, camp was broken and bags were packed and the foursome headed back down to Whatcom pass to start their trek to a mysterious place called Bear Creek back down along the Chilliwack.
Just before the trail split to head to Bear Creek, the group encountered a hanging bridge over Indian Creek, a major tributary to the Chilliwack.
No pictures were taken past the junction or at camp that night. Mostly because the rain started coming down in earnest and the brush across the trail made it seem as though no one had even walked on it in the last five years. In many places, the tread was completely covered with moss. Nevertheless, camp was set, a fire made, and warm dinner prepared... all good things.
Tasha decided to experiment with hot tea on the trail, which she kept warm with her cankle sock stretched over her metal water bottle.
The one thing that the forest around bear creek did have was HUGE trees. Above, you can see Tasha standing on the trail where one was cut to allow passage of people.
The foursome, next to a downed mammoth that they didn't have the time to date (it would have taken a while)
To get up Copper Ridge, the group had to cross Indian Creek again, as well as the Chilliwack, which had spawning sockeye salmon swimmming in the cold clear waters!
They filled the creek, and freshly laid eggs were visible on the pebbles just above the water line where the creek had been just days before.
Rebecca, enjoying the warming and drying powers of direct sunlight after a soggy night at bear creek.
Once across the rivers, the group hike up and up and up and up around 3,500 feet to copper ridge on the other side of the Chilliwack valley.
The crew couldn't pass up a shot of this huge boulder, cracked and split presumably by water settling into cracks and freezing again and again over the years.
Just before Copper Lake, the group crosses a little stream. Unfortunately, they have no pictures of the lake itself as they were preoccupied both by its beauty and by the making of camp in the cool alpine air. The next morning, they woke to freezing rain, wind, and grey skies... not the most photogenic scene.
This is Kevin at the trailhead, wearing almost all the clothes he brought with him, all of them wet. The group had a slow morning, unable to motivate very well in the freezing rain, and still managed to hotfoot it 11.2 miles across a ridge, over a pass, and down to the trailhead by 2:30 in the afternoon.
This is Tasha, doing an impression of a bowl of cereal that has had the milk poured over it just before the phone rang and you had to talk to your needy friend for 10 minutes while it just sat there, getting, well, you know.... soggy. 
The editors thought that this would be a better picture to leave you with.
Did we say that Ryan and Kevin were roomates for 3 years?
Sure wish I could have made it, sounds like so much fun! Glad you all had a great time!
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