More Road Trippings

Once we had done ambling around Fairhaven, we piled in the car and headed for Burlington, where we turned east on State Route 20 -- The Northern Cascades Scenic Highway. We had a pleasant, sunny run through the fields and small farm towns of the upper Skagit valley -- Minkler, Lyman, Birdsview, and the ever risible Concrete -- often tooling along by the banks of the Skagit River itself, with the peaks drawing nearer through the massed trees crowding the verges.

There's something odd about the waters of the Skagit. All along its length, the water is an unnatural, almost unearthly shade of bright jade green. No, really. Jade effing Green. I mean high end, jewelry quality, semi-translucent, No-Shit-There-I-Was Chinese jade. Green. Like a 1978 fall season pantsuit from the Pruneyard. Practically teal. I couldn't get a decent picture, alas.

Google fu tells me the color is due to glacial flour suspended in the water --basically it's glacier-ground, fine mineral dust suspended in the water, reflecting and refracting light. Anyway, it's quite pretty. In a spooky sort of way.

Before we hit the upslopes, we stopped at the Cascadian Farms fruit stand, set back in acres of blueberry bushes, covered in berries so big you could see the blue from the road. The farm lets the you pick your own, but we opted for a punt of the ready-picked ones, since they don't allow pets and there was no shady parking for the dog. I also bought a shake made with their own organic strawberry ice cream. My word. Possibly the best strawberry milkshake ever. Those were some happy damn' cows, I tell you what.