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Into the Skagit

Day 6 · Completed

Bertelsen Winery

Starbird Road, Mount Vernon, WA

Across to southern Skagit County

This day on the route

Date
The day
Walking
Walked
15 miles

Day 6, September 12: 15 miles walked, from Arlington to the Bertelsen Winery area on Starbird Road. No business-hosted activity or terrain guarantee is implied.

Route overview, not turn-by-turn directions.

Gouache view of flat golden fields beside a country road and drainage ditch. A tiny walker in coral heads toward farm buildings and distant mountains.
Southern Skagit countryside on the planned stage to Bertelsen Winery. Illustration.

On September 12, her longest day yet, Jeana walked 15 miles out of Arlington to Bertelsen Winery on Starbird Road. The family-owned winery opened in 2014 on a hillside in southern Skagit County.

Day 6 took her from Arlington into southern Skagit County. At 15 miles it was the longest day of the walk so far, and she managed it on a day pack again: the family who had taken her in the night before ran the heavy one up to meet her at the finish.

Bertelsen Winery describes itself as a family-owned business on a hillside in southern Skagit County. It opened to the public on May 1, 2014, and gives its address as 20598 Starbird Road. Its wines come from Washington vineyards. The hillside setting places this anchor above the surrounding lowland landscape.

The winery could not put her up, for insurance reasons, but it made a donation to the Foundation. So Becky came and collected her again, and she and her daughter Jenny made up a bed indoors.

From the road

Fifteen miles, the longest day yet

Fifteen miles out of Arlington, and the longest day of the walk so far. She managed it on a day pack again — the family who had taken her in the night before ran the heavy one up to meet her at the finish. Somewhere in the last stretch the road crossed out of Snohomish County and into Skagit.

The winery at the end of it, Bertelsen Winery, could not put her up, for insurance reasons, but it made a donation to the Foundation. So Becky came and collected her instead, and she and her daughter Jenny made up a bed indoors rather than start pitching a tent at that hour. Fifteen miles is a long way to walk before you are allowed to stop.

Jeana wanted something said about that family. She has spent this week asking strangers for food and for somewhere to sleep, and she thinks the asking is only half of it.

As Americans, we have an independence that tells us not to receive from others, but their gifts to me were plentiful and they also received many gifts through the act of giving. That’s the beauty of the reciprocity of true generosity.

Jeana Moore
Jeana Moore in her hi-vis vest, smiling shoulder to shoulder with Becky under the eaves of a porch.A close-up of a goose decoy standing in sunlit grass, its black head and neck marked with a white cheek patch and its body moulded into rows of feathers.A white board lettered Arlington in tall black capitals on a red wooden wall, above a paned window in which a sign reading Arlington Hardware shows in reverse.A painted crosswalk across an empty road, a metal pole with a pedestrian signal and a banner painted with a locomotive, a weathered timber frame on the left, and a hand-lettered sign reading G-Sale in the verge beyond.Clear, shallow river water seen from above, pebbles showing through it beside a pale gravel bar, with tree reflections rippling across the surface and a rocky bank at the top.Dense green trees and shrubs crowding down to a rock-lined riverbank, with dark water filling the lower third of the frame.A river running away into the distance between a wide grey gravel bar on the left and a steep bank of tall trees on the right, under a pale cloudy sky.A single gravel track bending away below, between a dark mass of trees on the left and a grassy, overgrown bank on the right, with fallen leaves scattered along it.A red gambrel-roofed barn and a cluster of farm buildings beyond a wide green field, with a stack of white-wrapped bales on the left and a big pale sky above.A paved trail passing under a tall concrete arch, with trees and undergrowth crowding both sides.A cluster of red farm buildings and a tall silo with a domed cap, beyond a fenced pasture and a slope of dry grass, with dark forest behind.A fern growing out of the gap between a wall of grey boulders and a concrete curb, beside a road where a vehicle approaches with its headlights on.
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A broken, weathered tree stump standing in dense woodland among drooping evergreen boughs, with ferns and leafy undergrowth thick around its base.Close up, the split grey trunk of a tall broken stump, its wood weathered into long cracked strips, with ferns and leafy shrubs growing around its base.Drooping evergreen boughs hanging across the frame in front of a shallow, rippled stream running between banks of rounded grey stones.A brown and black goat pushing its nose through a wire fence at the edge of a field.A two-lane road crossing a bridge, a galvanised steel railing running along the near side, with tall trees ahead under a blue sky and one car far off.A still, clear stretch of water seen from above, mirroring the tall trees on its bank, under a bright blue sky with streaks of white cloud.A gravel two-track lane with grass down the middle, curving away under tall trees with sunlight filtering through the leaves.A brown sign reading Stewardship Forest, with an emblem of two dark tree silhouettes in a white circle, fixed to a metal mesh gate over gravel.A blue sign on a perforated metal post reading Salmon Stream, with white reeds rising from wavy lines, a white fish below them and the small print Snohomish County Public Works, Surface Water Management, in front of dense green leaves.A slender dark snake with pale stripes running its length, lying in loose S-shaped bends across gravel and a weathered piece of wood, among small green plants and dry grass.A roadside bank of green shrubs with patches of leaves turned bright orange and red, under tall dark conifers, the edge of a road along the bottom of the frame.A single leaf in close-up, its pointed lobes blotched orange, red and yellow, with a tiny spider resting on it against a blurred green background.A broad fenced pasture of pale grass below a dark line of conifers and a forested ridge, with low shrubs in the foreground and a wide grey sky above.A green road sign reading Welcome to Skagit County, against trees and a pale sky.A two-lane road with double yellow lines dipping downhill between trees and power poles towards a band of pale water and a low hazy shore, pink flowers spilling over a stone wall on the left.
Distance walked
15 miles
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Sources

Local history and background reading for this stop.

  1. About Bertelsen Winery — checked Sep 5, 2026
The flyer: STOP BLOOD CANCER set in tall letters over a dark plum page, a quote, and a QR code beside a text-to-join line for the U.S.One standing face of the table tent: the same headline and quote on the left, a large QR code on the right.

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A coffee counter, a church foyer, a break room, a race table. Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk, and a number to text for anyone who would rather not scan — no app, no wifi, nothing to hand back.Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk — nothing to install, nothing to hand back. The number to text printed beside it is for joining NMDP, which registers people who live in the U.S., its territories and the freely associated states. If you live anywhere else, find your country’s registry.

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