An interesting morning was spent exploring the Winthrop enviorons. Firstly the town itself has re-invented itself as an early 1900s Western town with wooden sidewalks, hitching posts, old fashioned signwrighting as mandatory, wooden sidings, corrugated iron roofs and so forth. It looks kust like the set from a Wild-West movie apart from the absence of horses and stetson (being worn, plenty to purchase) and presence of modern transportation..
Above the town is the Schafer Museum which was quite an amazing and interesting collection of historical buildings and memorabilia from the area's history, from the gold-mining and apple growing past.
A few miles from Winthrop is the original Smokejumper base and we were privildeged to have a personal tour and explanation of this fascinating facility. The base is very self sufficient, as they make, on-site, all the specialized equipment, jumps suits, packs, etc and repair (but not make) all the parachutes.
Then it was time to get back on Hwy 20 for the scenic route across the North Cascades, stopping at the all the available viewpoints before we turned off and headed north to Bellingham, to be with family for the next few days.
177 miles today, total trip 5654. States: Washington.
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