- Big Bear Mountain (summitpost.org)
Big Bear Mountain is among the western-most peaks of the cascades, which makes it clearly visible along the skyline from many locations around the northern Puget Sound (Everett, Marysville, Arlington). It is located approximately 1.3 miles SSE of Three Fingers, and is the closest peak to the south of Three Fingers. It is a fairly remote peak within the Boulder River Wilderness area and is not very easy to access. This is why it is seldom climbed. On the plus side, if you are looking for solitude you can be just about guaranteed to not see anyone else on this peak! The route has it all; a road walk, brush bash, large creek crossing, old growth forest, steep climb, and (usually) a steep and somewhat exposed summit scramble on snow.
- Columbia River (Wikipedia)
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: Wimahl or Wimal; Sahaptin: Nch’i-Wàna or Nchi wana; Sinixt dialect swah’netk’qhu) is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river forms in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles (2,000 kilometers) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven states of the United States and one Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by volume, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any North American river entering the Pacific. The Columbia has the 36th greatest discharge of any river in the world.