Cabin Trip with the Chakos

Zeem also joined in for a great way to spend one of the last 75 degree days of summer. Seven of us headed up to my parents' cabin near Darrington. I headed out early because I wanted to check out the Oso Loop road and do a quick check on the mileage from the river to the cabin. The Oso Loop Rd. is a really nice two-mile offshoot from Hwy 530 with windy turns and two overpasses that cross the Stillaguamish. Ever since riding the motorcycle up to the cabin for the first time last year, I wanted to check out the road through Oso, and it did not disappoint.

I got a few chapters read in Clifford Simak's "Way Station" before the Wife and Dr. Chako (and au pair and kids) arrived. We took a brief tour of the cabin and surrounding areas before Zeem arrived. Per usual trips to the cabin, we didn't spend much time at the cabin proper. From the cabin to the river wound up being 1.5 miles, and the seven of us made the trek while picking blackberries along the way.

The water was a bit on the chilly side, but we still spent a good three hours at the river. The rope swing is still intact, and there were plenty of skipping stones to occupy our time. Dr. Chako has got some skipping skills, and we each had throws that skipped clearly a few times, then started the trail of nearly impossible to count skips as the stone slows and eventually falls from the surface. Older son gathered up enough courage to try the rope swing, getting a nice rope burn in the process. Sandwiches, grapes and delicious chocolate chip cookies rounded out our riverside picnic. A fisher upstream caught a HUGE salmon, but nicely released it back into the river so it could lay some eggs, or at least pee on some eggs.

After three hours of fun in the sun, we hiked back up to the cabin and rode into Darrington for beer, onion rings and fries. An almost perfect end to a fun last days of summer trek. What would the perfect ending be? Ice cream!

The ride back to Seattle was kind of crazy. I was zooming on 530 and passed a few cars on a long straight stretch. The instant I got back into the right lane two motorcycles flashed past me going around 100mph. I thought, "crazy bastards" then realized with them ahead of me, there is no way a cop will pull me over. Maybe not the smartest approach, but it made for a fun and stress-free ride to Arlington.