Stehekin: A Wilderness Journey into the North Cascades
Bake WA and National Park Service. 1977. Stehekin: A Wilderness Journey into the North Cascades
A long, crooked lake sparkles in the morning sun at the foot of glacier-capped peaks. Beyond the lake and between the mountains lies a river valley, lush and quiet. Together, the lake and the valley form a passage through the North Cascades, the mightiest mountain range in the Pacific Northwest. This passage has long been used by Indians, miners, and casual visitors, and, in the language of the Skagit Indians, it has come to be known as "Stehekin—The Way Through." Man is a recent and tentative inhabitant of this country. The few settlements are surrounded by mountains and are not reached by highways and railroads from the outside. The land interrupts the flow of human events. Water and air are the mediums of transportation, and the seasons mark the passing of time. And with time spent here, Stehekin takes on another meaning besides denoting a physical passage. Whether we are among the few who make our homes in the Stehekin country or among those who visit for a few hours or days, it becomes a spiritual passage through dawns and sunsets, storms and sunshine.