High Divide adventure

Trudging up Welcome Pass

Yesterday nine Trailblazers went on our third "extra" hike of the summer, this time doing a loop from Welcome Pass across the High Divide trail and coming down Excelsior Pass. We left a car at Excelsior trailhead and all piled into one big van to the Welcome Pass trailhead. This is an almost twelve-mile-long trip, with the grueling Welcome Pass at the beginning, meaning that the majority of the difficult part of the hike is over quickly. You climb sixty-some switchbacks in 2.5 miles, ascending 2,800 feet. And the first mile is gentle, meaning that in the next 1.5 miles you climb 2,300 feet!

The views looking north from High Divide

Ah, finally we were at the pass! We traveled from east to west along the High Divide trail, and as you can see from the above picture, we had hopes of getting some wonderful views of Mt. Baker and Shuksan, if the clouds cooperated. Unfortunately for us, they didn't. But it was cool and very beautiful along the five miles we traversed along the High Divide trail. Not all the wildflowers are gone, either.

Aspen and flowers on the trail

The weather continued to deteriorate during our hike to Excelsior Pass, in terms of views, but the lovely vistas and lack of rain made up for it. We were all prepared for rain, since there was a distinct possibility, but we were actually very fortunate in that regard. However, the cold wind made us all bundle up quickly when we stopped for lunch. Much of the vegetation was wet from a recent rain, too.

Low clouds and wind as we continued on

We didn't have much for views looking out at Mt. Baker and Shuksan, which was a little disappointing, but since there were still so many wildflowers, not to mention ripe blueberries, along the trail, nobody was unhappy. We were really enjoying ourselves.

Mountains obscured by clouds

By the time we started our downward trajectory on Excelsior Pass, we had seen only two other people all day long. They were at the top of the pass, probably doing an out-and-back hike as we usually do. After about a mile of downward hiking, we began to smell smoke. It got more intense and we were not sure what was causing it. And then we saw it: a smoldering fire along the side of the trail.

Trying to put out the fire

We dumped all the water we had onto the fire, which had glowing embers on tree roots. We didn't have any shovels or any way to be sure we got it completely out, but some of the more adventurous hikers stomped on it as best they could. We took GPS coordinates and Al was able to mark the spot so we could tell the rangers where the fire is located. There is no cell coverage anywhere along the highway, so we discussed what to do as we continued down.

Al and Peggy hustled down faster than I could go, and once they made it to the trailhead, they flagged down a car. The driver was more than happy to head down to Glacier and report the fire to the appropriate authorities. This morning I got an email that Steve, who followed up this morning with the Forest Service, has an update. The Forest Service already had the GPS coordinates, which must have come from the driver of the car, but they wanted more information about the fire from Steve. As Steve said in the email, "I think we did our good deed for the year."

This fire could only have come from one source: humans, and probably from a careless cigarette thrown off the side of the trail on Saturday or Sunday. I suspect Sunday because other hikers would have smelled it and reported it if it had been earlier. It felt to me as if it had been smoldering and burning very slowly, but tree roots were finally involved and eventually the tree would have burst into flame.

After we were reunited with both cars, we stopped for dinner and made it home safely around 8:00pm. It was a long day, but filled with beautiful vistas and adventure. And, the rain stayed away until we were in our cars on the way home after dinner! The rain was actually quite welcome to us, as we thought of the fire that we hopefully (mostly) put out.
:-)