Cougar Divide

Yesterday, I set out from Bellingham with two other Senior Trailblazers. We met at 11:00 am in the morning to head up to the High Country. We hoped to get over to the Canyon Creek road, which has a crew working on it every weekday, except during their lunch hour when you can gain access to the road. But after stopping at the Ranger Station and asking about the conditions, we decided not to try it.

Instead, we went up the Wells Creek road up to Cougar Divide, a long, one-lane road winding up over 12 miles, which descends first to Wells Creek and then starts a long climb up to Cougar Divide. We were stopped on the road by snow before we gained the trailhead, but we left the car and set out with our trusty packs and trekking poles. We slogged up over two miles on snow, with full sun and no wind.

When we finally started up the snow, we could see that eventually we would have an incredible view. Little by little the view got more and more amazing, and we could see all the mountains around plus Mt. Baker. That's Mt. Shuksan behind us to the left. I took this picture with my self-timer and tripod, which are now indispensable parts of my backpacking gear. Although there were only a few little clouds now and then, we were so happy when we got any break from the sun at all. Occasionally a light breeze kept us a little cooler as we trekked up 1,000 feet to the ridge. It was snow the whole way until we got to this rock outcropping. (Click any picture to enlarge.)

Here's a picture of Karen sketching Mt. Baker. We didn't even start our hike until after 1:00 pm, so as we were heading back down the snow, the shadows of summer began to lengthen. But with such a clear sky, lots of daylight, and with little to no wind, we didn't hurry back to the car.

Al took this picture of me while we were looking around at the 360-degree view. I thought it would be fun to put some words on the cloud that look like a thought balloon, but I didn't get around to it before deciding to write this post. Tomorrow we will be heading up for another hike to the High Country with the full group, so this would have been lost if I didn't get it up today.

On the way back down the highway to Bellingham, we decided to stop for dinner at the Beer Shrine. As you can see from the sign, it's a beer joint and Wedding Chapel, all in one. We got there a little after 6:00pm and it was quite busy already, on a regular Tuesday night. They make their own local beer and we had a smashingly good pizza (which I didn't get a picture of, darn it). As Al said, we were all hungry enough to eat anything that wasn't fighting back. But I would be happy to eat here again, since it was outstandingly good beer AND food. Tomorrow, another day in the woods with the whole group! With the weather expected to be hot, it should be a good turnout.
:-)