August 29 - North Fork Sauk River (plus 2 more)

With cloudy skies and a 40% chance of rain in the forecast for today, I chose to hike the North Fork Sauk River Trail because it's a good rainy day hike.  There are lots of very large trees to block the raindrops, the trail has limited views anyway because the trees are so thick, and my turn-around point was a wooden shelter that I could sit in to eat lunch if it was raining really bad.  

As I drove the Mountain Loop Highway to reach the trailhead, it poured.  As I got closer, though, the rain stopped and the sun shone through the clouds.  I started hiking under dry skies with the sun popping in and out.  I considered myself lucky because usually if the forecast calls for even a 10% chance of rain, I get dumped on the whole hike.

The hike in was rather uneventful.  I passed some huge cedar and Douglas fir trees, listened to the river rush by and the birds chirp, crossed Red Creek on a fun bridge, and made it to the Mackinaw Shelter and campsites in good time.

Red Creek Bridge

Mackinaw Shelter

The shelter is a neat little structure, and many people have carved their names in the wood.  I found some dating back to the '70s.  From the campsites, I took a little side trail down to the river and ate lunch.  The river was running really low, but all of the dead trees in the river showed evidence of flooding in the past.  Then I explored the campsites a bit and found lots of mushrooms.

North Fork Sauk River

A mushroom bigger than my Sasquatch foot

On my way back out, I ran into a couple of rangers who were hiking in with their big crosscut saw to take care of a large tree (about 4 feet in diameter) that was across the trail.  They asked me lots of questions about my hike - how far I went, if I saw any other trees down, why I was hiking in this area, etc.  I think they just wanted a break from carrying their heavy loads.  

When I was within about a mile from the trailhead, the rain started falling, just sprinkles at first, but getting heavier as I reached the car.

On the way home, I also stopped at two other short trails that are in the area.  The first was the Harold Engles Memorial Trail.  Harold was a Forest Service Ranger for many, many years and worked to preserve this grove of old-growth cedar trees as the rest of the North Fork Sauk River Valley was being logged.

 

This is hard to read, but it tells Harold's story

One of the trees saved by Harold

My next stop was the North Fork Sauk Falls trail, which descends down a series of switchbacks and steps to a waterfall.

North Fork Sauk Falls

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 35.25

Dollars to go: 775

Hike-A-Thon 2014 has only a few days left!  Make a donation today!

Everyone loves a good backcountry toilet

August 26 - Ptarmigan Ridge (and a few others)

This trail has been on my hiking wish list for many years, but my efforts have always been thwarted, either by a heavy snowpack rendering the trail unsafe to travel without specialized gear or by cloudy weather thereby blocking the big mountain views on this trail.  This year the snowpack melted out relatively early and today was a sunny day without a cloud in the sky, so I took on the nearly three hour drive to Artist Point at the end of the Mount Baker Highway.

When I arrived, there were only about 5 cars in the parking lot, and I hustled to get on the trail to beat the crowds that I knew would be coming.

Not a bad view from the parking lot

This trail more or less follows a ridge straight toward Mt. Baker.  There are some ups and downs, but only about 1,100 feet of elevation gain overall, a nice change of pace from yesterday's hike.  The most challenging part of this hike is that there are very few trees for shade, so it got really hot by the afternoon.  There were also a few snow patches to cross, but nothing too steep or dangerous.  Despite that challenge, the views were great in all directions the whole way.

Mt. Baker

Mt. Baker (You can faintly see the trail in the lower left corner of the picture)

Luckily I saw this trail's namesake bird, the ptarmigan.

The highlight of the trip was seeing a herd of about 15-20 mountain goats just hanging out in the valley below Mt. Baker.  They were eating some plants and relaxing in the sun.

Mountain Goat herd (I realize they were kind of far away)

Mt. Baker and Mountain Goats

Close-up of Mt. Baker's glaciers

While hiking back out, I crossed paths with tons of people.  I'm glad I got an early start.  When I made it back to the parking area, it looked like this.  On a Tuesday!

Artist Point Parking Lot

Several trails extend from this parking area, and after finishing up on Ptarmigan Ridge, I headed across the lot to the Artist Ridge Trail.  This short trail has great views of both Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan, but I felt like I was in a big city surrounded by flip-flop wearing tourists with big cameras hanging around their necks.  It's not the type of hiking experience I prefer.

Mt. Shuksan from Artist Ridge

From Artist Point, I switchbacked down the road a couple miles to Heather Meadows and hiked the 0.7 mile Fire and Ice Trail.  This time I was the one in flip-flops, but there was only one other person on the trail with me.  I like this trail because it has interpretive signs along the way that describe how volcanoes and glaciers shaped the landscape here.

Table Mountain

One of the Chain Lakes

A short way down the road was my final stop for the day, Picture Lake Trail.  This half-mile trail loops around a small lake that offers perfect reflections of Mt. Shuksan.  As the name suggests, many people take pictures here.  This is one of the most photographed scenes ever and is used a lot.  I've seen it on a butter container and someone on a North Cascades Institute trip told me that this scene was used to decorate a hotel room in Mexico near Popocatépetl (a volcano).

Mt. Shuksan

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 47.75

Dollars to go: 775

Only a few days left!  Please me a donation by visiting my Hike-A-Thon Sponsorship page!

August 25 - West Cady Ridge to Benchmark Mountain

Today's hike was a big one - 14.5 miles roundtrip and 3,700 feet of elevation gain.  However, it didn't feel that long or that steep, which indicates it's a well-designed and well-built trail.  

I was greeted at the trailhead by a group of hunters who informed me that the parking area was filled with Search and Rescue crews the day before.  I wasn't able to figure out what happened or even which trail SAR was on.  (There are three trails that take off from the same parking area.)

I headed up the trail, which starts out in heavy forest and climbs, climbs, climbs until breaking out into some open meadows full of wildflowers and berries.  This is prime bear habitat, and I was diligently watching for signs of bear as I continued to climb up and down through meadows and forests, past small ponds and tarns, while taking in the views of the mountains all around.  I got to the top of Benchmark Mountain and hadn't seen any sign of bear.  I did find 11 cents and a dirty band-aid on the trail, though.

I enjoyed my lunch and relaxed a bit before the long climb back down.

Glacier Peak

On my return trip, I passed a couple other groups of hunters and a pair of hikers, all of whom inquired about bears.  I still had no sightings to report.  I had given up on seeing a bear and just enjoyed the scenery instead.

Wildflowers on the trail

Glacier Peak

There was one meadowy area that was packed with ripe blueberries, so I whipped out my trusty Tupperware container and starting picking.  (The blueberries have been used in a coffee cake which is cooling on the counter as I type.)  My container was nearly full and my fingers were stained bluish-purple when all of a sudden I heard a loud noise coming from just around a bend in the trail.  I obviously startled a woodland creature who went crashing through the bushes.  I am 75% sure the creature was a bear who was eating berries and didn't like my presence.  I could only see a brown blur through the bushes, but it was darker than any deer I had ever seen.  With all the crashing and loud noise it made, it definitely seemed heavier than a deer, too.  But it sort of sounded like it had hooves.

Regardless of what it was, I stood still until the animal made its get-away, then I slowly rounded the corner, made sure I was in the clear, and then scooted quickly down the trail.


Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 60.45

Dollars to go: 775

Your donations are greatly appreciated!

August 24 - Green Lantern Trail

After going to the grocery store and doing laundry, I had about an hour to spare before Big Brother came on, so I took a sunset walk on the Green Lantern Trail around nearby Silver Lake.  There were some people fishing on the lake, some ducks were swimming around, and lots of lily pads lined the edges of the lake.  The only drawback was the sound of traffic whizzing by.

Silver Lake

 
Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 74.95

Dollar to go: 775

Visit the Hike-A-Thon website to make a donation.  Thanks!

August 22 - Centennial Trail

After yesterday's long drive, I was looking for a hike closer to home, but I still wanted to get in a decent amount of Hike-A-Thon miles.  I decided to give the Centennial Trail a second chance.  I wasn't really impressed with the trail last summer; however, this rail trail is about 30 miles long so I figured I would give another section of the trail a chance.

Centennial Trail map

Last year, I hiked from the trailhead in Snohomish north to the trailhead at the old Machias train depot.  This year, I started from the Machias train depot intending to hike north to Lake Cassidy.  Somehow I got all turned around at the trailhead and started hiking south.  When things started looking familiar, I realized I was heading the wrong way, but I continued on to the Pilchuck Trailhead to use that as my turn-around point.  I then retreated to the Machias trailhead, proceeded north to the 20th Street trailhead, and then back to Machias.  

Morning Glory

 
I still wasn't terribly impressed by the trail.  It parallels roadways, so there's always traffic noise, it passes behind a shooting range, so I got to listen to gunshots for a while, and there's tons of bicyclists whizzing by, so I constantly heard them say, "Passing on your left."  The northern part of my hiking route passes some small family farms, so I got to see some horses and goats and listen to some roosters, and there's a couple small creeks that the trail passes over.

Pilchuck River (?)

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 76.95

Dollars to go: 775

Donate today and help protect trails across Washington!
 

August 21 - Lake Stuart

With my goal of hiking more new-to-me trails this summer, I find that I'm having to drive a lot farther to reach the trailheads.  Today's hike was no exception.  To reach the Lake Stuart trailhead, I had to drive to Leavenworth (a little over 100 miles away).  From there is was about 12 more miles, the last 4 of which were on very rough road.  On the way to Leavenworth, I drove through an area that was burned by the Chiwaukum Creek Fire earlier this summer.  In some places the fire burned right up to the banks of the river right next to the highway. 

Since I got an early start, I reached the trailhead by 9:30, filled out my permit to hike in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and started up the trail.  It immediately became apparent that I was hiking on the east side of the Cascade crest; the forest was much drier, everything wasn't covered in moss, and the tree species were different (pine trees instead of cedar trees).  Along the way, I tried to use the plant identification skills I gained at the North Cascades Institute class, but there weren't too many wildflowers blooming.  There were a lot more mushrooms growing along the trail than I expected.  I even encountered a blue bleeding tooth fungus which oozes "blood" when squeezed.  It's kind of weird. 

Mountaineer Creek

First View of Mount Stuart

Paintbrush

At the lake, I found a nice, wide, sturdy log that extended out into the lake on which to enjoy my lunch and the views before making the long trek back.

Lake Stuart

Lake Stuart and Mount Stuart with Stuart Glacier showing

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 86.95

Dollars to go: 775

Please help me reach my goals by donating here!

August 19 - Lowell Riverfront Trail

After a day spent doing some work at the district office, I headed to the nearby Lowell Riverfront Trail for an afternoon stroll. 

The trail parallels the Snohomish River for a ways before turning further inland.  In recent years, some new trails have been built in the park which loop through the wetlands, so I had to check those out on today's trip.

Boat Launch

Snohomish River

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 96.95

Dollars to go: 775

Donate here and support the efforts of Washington Trails Association!

August 18 - Heather-Maple Pass

The Heather-Maple Pass Loop has been on my hiking to-do list for several years, but its a long ways away (about a 3.5 hour drive).  As soon as I saw that the North Cascades Institute was hosting a class there, I signed up!

The U.S. Forest Service in partnership with the National Park Service are launching a multi-year plant restoration project on this trail, and the NCI class was all about the project.  The trail is heavily used and over the years many unofficial trails have been created through the meadows as people try to find good viewpoints and lunch spots.  Right now they are in the intial planning stages of the restoration project, so they are inventorying all of the plants that grow along the trail, identifying areas that need to be re-planted because the plants have been trampled to death by human feet, deciding which of the unofficial trails to close off, and collecting seeds so that new plants can be grown in a greenhouse and then transplanted to the trail to fill in the bare spots.  It's quite a process.

Our hiking group had about 12 people, including two Forest Service botanists and several staff members of NCI.  We stopped frequently while hiking to identify the plants and trees along the trail and to determine if the marmot out in a rock field was dead or not. (It never moved, so I think it was deceased.)

Heather Pass

Plant Talk

The views from the trail are great and extend in every direction!

Lake Ann

Corteo Mountain

Looking down on Maple Pass with Corteo and Black Mountains in the background

A bunch of mountains that I can't name

In 2010, hunters poached 2 black bears in the National Park from this area, hence the sign

Another shot looking down at Maple Pass

And now my video debut on the blog!  (I hope it works.)

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 99.95

Dollars to go: 775

Support Washington Trails Association by donating now!

August 17 - Sourdough Creek and Deer Creek

This weekend, I went on a trip to the North Cascades Institute for a class on a plant restoration project that the Forest Service is starting.  The NCI Learning Center sits right on the shore of Diablo Lake in the heart of the North Cascades National Park Complex.  After getting checked in and settled in my room, I headed out on a couple of the trails that branch out from the Learning Center.

My room

 First on the agenda was the Sourdough Creek Trail.  

The trail travels through the woods, eventually paralleling Sourdough Creek and ultimately ending at a view of a waterfall.  The elevation gain on the trail was very gentle, and the trail was in great condition, so I was able to make it to the falls and back in 45 minutes.  (I had to get back in time for the orientation for the class.)

Sourdough Creek

Waterfall (there wasn't much water flowing)

View from the trail

After getting back, I had a few minutes to spare before orientation so I hiked the quarter-mile Deer Creek Loop.

Deer Creek Trail

Hike-A-Thon Goals

Miles to go: 102.45

Dollars to go: 815

Please help me reach my goals!  Make a donation here!