Butler Brown Flats

We drove a couple more hours and stopped at another National Forest site just on the edge of Northern Cascades National Park, and headed in early the next morning. We got a gorgeous camp spot right on Diablo Lake covered in rainforesty canopy, and spent the rest of the day prepping for some more backcountry camping.

In the morning we pumped up the kayak and loaded her up before setting off down the lake. Again we found it pretty hard going as this thing doesn't cut through the water like a hard shell and has a tendency to go sideways! Still we got to our camp spot about 90 minutes later although we had a choice of 3 beautiful spots it was a no brainer to take the one looking directly back down the flooded valley.

The next day we were supposed to be paddling to the over side of the lake and doing a short hike but the seams on the boat were coming apart ominously so we were forced to spend the day lazying around in the sun punctuated with many short dips in the slightly chilly (Jo says freezing) lake. Although we were roughing it I'm sure we probably cooked the poshest backcountry meals in the whole park with Thai curry, pasta, bangers and mash washed down with red wine, then pancakes in the morning (which were a bit of nightmare without oil!)

On the 3rd morning we tied up the bursting seam as best we could and set off back to Elvis. Despite the amazing weather over the past few days this morning a storm was starting to roll in and it was pretty windy. Although we were both only paddling on one side every 10 strokes or so we were turned about and had to do a couple of reverse strokes to straighten us up again. The boat was sagging a bit sadly but it wasn't too bad and with the cross wind we actually made it back much quicker than we'd gone out (fortunately - don't want to think about the wind being in the other direction!).

Once back onshore we loaded up Elvis and in an hour we were on the western coast. We've now touched the major compass points of the country, and still have nearly 3 months before our visas run out.Read more