Wandering Through Wickersham

We reluctantly turned down invite for the standard after-Thanksgiving dinner, an event we have rarely missed. And it wasn’t just because of worries that gravy was running out, believe me. Passing on those leftovers, knowing how good the fodder was the first time around, involved deep personal sacrifice.

But close friends recently purchased a second home out in the wild (not quite Krakauer-like, but close), with the motive of having a locus closer to their Vancouver-based offspring and grandchild. And they had graciously invited us for the weekend. A classic hard-to-refuse offer.

As you might imagine from prior trip-posts, my route-planning emphasized two-lane highways. Paved if necessary. We did sacrifice ourselves to the Infuriating Interstate for a good-long spell, I confess. But one can only submit to so much of a bad thing. I had an alternate route for the last trip leg, a back road long pre-dating the Big Blacktop. As a result, here’s another series of small-town names from that non-Interstate stretch to cherish, towns that in some cases are barely there.

I have fingers crossed that folks in this sparsely–populated area can continue to hold it together. See how these roll off your tongue:

Sedro Woolley (the big one of the bunch, if you can imagine, pop. 9,000, I believe mentioned in both Kerouac’s “Desolation Angels” and Tobias Wolff’s “This Boy’s Life”)

Thornwood (Kingsolver/McCullough: what a chance for collaboration! Film rights to David Lynch? Okay to credit me, but please don’t divulge location.)

Wickersham

Doran

Saxon (I might have overlooked Anglo)

Acme (no roadrunner sitings)

Comar

Standard (as compared to?)

Clipper

Van Zandt

Deming (pop. 210)

Warnick

I admit we scarcely noticed a few of these crossroads-markers, and wholly missed the others. But I delight in the names. These seem a little more in the quirky category and not quite as mellifluous as the near-poetic group we ran through last Summer in circuit through SE Washington, Idaho, and Montana. But this too is very scenic, even idyllic country, green a far more predominant color, with alternating farmstead vistas, steep wooded hillsides, and occasional jaw-dropping views of nearby mountains.

Van Zandt features “Everybody’s Store,” locally and even regionally famous as a classic “corner store,” of the sort most north americans have not encountered in years, situated from what I could tell where there is little other commerce. It is indeed a fascinating place, and our own bashfulness (well, and time-commitment in connection with locked gate at friend’s place) almost certainly got in the way of some fascinating dialogue. I failed to get an exterior picture, but this captures it pretty well. Inside, I was only slightly more adventurous, wary of being offensive. It's different when one is an obvious tourist-rube and can hypothetically make excuses for the most inane or even possibly intrusive of picture-choices. In our own backyard, being snapped by a mere outsider might be more troubling. Or at least that is my concern.

They feature an amazing assortment of things, from local produce to gourmet wines and cheeses and numerous other exotica (and, well, in a back room chockaclock with rental tapes, perhaps the “x” there could be swapped for “r” – but I suspect barely, considering the locale - Crocodile Dondi maybe, P. Anderson not so much).

But, re-boarding the tour-bus, we eventually found our way to the platz, just outside Glacier. Now we’re talkin’; gazeteer has pop. at 90, though laughably out-of-date as single gated subdivision alone - not the only one - probably accommodates more than that - though these are not full-time residents.

The new cabin is a real charmer, and besides the BC proximity has the feature of being right on top of any number of mountain-adventure locales. I climbed Mt. Baker a couple times many years ago via an access road only a few hundred yards up the highway. The Mt. Baker ski area is probably only 20 miles up the road. Still pretty undeveloped territory – sure hope it can stay that way.

We made a minor foray in that direction to view Nooksack Falls, a great spectacle with added interest in that it apparently was previously a modest hydro project. More adventurous hikes with incredible views of major semi-dormant volcano abound. This is great shoe-dirtying territory. I’m considering applying for a Real Estate license! Well, um, not really.

And, by the way, the proprietors of this-here cabin put on one hell of a breakfast. Almost European in scope. Bedazzling, as you can see!