We were trying to outrun the bruised, rain-plump clouds that had been tailgating us since the Canadian border when we finally hit Highway 20, which snakes through North Cascades National Park like an asphalt river. The forecast wasn’t particularly optimistic—clouds and forest fire smoke—but we didn’t care. In the North Cascades, fall ignites one last burst of tourism before winter closes in. Not for antique stores, cider stands, or coffee shops though—in these parts, leaf peeping is not an economic driver. In fact, there isn’t much at all for the one hundred miles between the park border and the historic town of Winthrop on the mountains' eastern slope. Just scenic lookouts, trailheads, and mountain goats.
I wasn't here for any of that though; I was here seeking out the famous golden larch.
Where I live in Whistler, BC, fall colors are fickle. I’d always envied the East Coast’s annual (and dependable) display of the nostalgic warmth of autumn. For me, fall is usually marked by the onset of an unshakable feeling; a tension that sits somewhere between anticipation for snow—and therefore skiing—and pining for a summer gone too soon. This year, true to form, I was reluctant to accept winter's arrival, so I headed down to Washington's North Cascades for one last weekend of hiking.
It was the Friday of Labour Day weekend, our road trip playlist was cranking at full blast, and I watched happily out the window as the Washington landscape slipped past. Signs of urban life had gradually given way to mountainscapes as we sped towards our home for the night, and we passed a herd of elk grazing in a field alongside the road while the sun began to set. The quaintness of the area mixed with growing excitement about the weekend ahead had cast a familiar spell over me. I was busy romanticizing the idyllic, rural mountain lifestyle when a large, star-spangled banner shouted "FUCK BIDEN!" from where it was draped over the entirety of someone’s front porch, snapping me out of my reverie. Not quite far enough from society for a politically neutral landscape yet.
