Park Butte 2013

On the trail to Park Butte

Ten Senior Trailblazers (well, nine Trailblazers and Char, Rita's friend from Illinois) piled into two full cars and drove to the trailhead at Schreiber's Meadow, a long drive from Bellingham. It's the beginning of three different trails that we regularly hike during the summer: Scott Paul (which we did three weeks ago), Railroad Grade, and Park Butte, which we hiked today. This is a four-mile-long trek to an old lookout, which is still maintained by the Skagit Alpine Club and can accommodate overnighters. It was built in 1933. The Park Butte link will tell you all about it.

The lookout at Park Butte

We ran into two people who had stayed up there last night, and they said it was incredibly beautiful, with the full moon and clear skies. There were many other hikers other than us on the trails during this beautiful summer's day. Although it looks like a difficult climb up to the lookout, the trail takes us around to the left and the only scrambling to get to it was the last ten feet or so, well worn by many previous hikers.

Up the last few feet to the lookout

Once at the lookout, we pulled out our lunches and enjoyed the incredible 360-degree views. This railing goes all the way around the lookout, and although it's a bit exposed and gives one the feeling of vertigo, it's actually quite safe.

Diane, Char, and Rita having lunch

I sure did enjoy my lunch, after getting awfully hungry on the way up. Sitting on the porch and looking down at the views and across at Mt. Baker, I realized how lucky we all are to have the ability (and good leadership) to get us all to these wonderful places in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

View from the top

Just before we began our return trip, the clouds began to come in and provided us filtered sunlight instead of full sun. It caused the temperature to drop a few degrees, and since we were headed down instead of up, it was downright pleasant as we began our trek back go the cars. First, however, I talked everyone into letting me take a picture using my self-timer.

Char, Mike, Amy, Rita, Peggy, Jonelle, Diane, me, Al, Steve

Although you can't see our beautiful backdrop, it was simply stunning, even with the clouds as they rolled in. The views we had of Mt. Baker just continued to amaze us all, and I snapped picture after picture, but I think this might be the best one I got.

Lupines and Mt. Baker (picture enhanced by Kay)

Although the flat light made Mt. Baker sort of blend into the sky, the lupines in front jumped out at me and MADE me take this picture. I was really impressed with how much the flowers added to the picture itself. The temperature was perfect, and the trip down seemed almost effortless. However, we did notice that there were many groups of climbers on Mt. Baker, and Steve pulled out his binoculars so we could check them out.

Gazing at the climbing groups on Mt. Baker

There must have been a couple of dozen of climbers on the mountain today, and lots of our fellow hikers were headed to the three destinations one could reach without technical equipment. It was a busy day out there, but one I didn't mind sharing with everyone who was on the trails with us today. Oh, and there was one more exciting thing we discovered: the wild blueberries are just now getting ripe!

How many blueberries do you see?

Yes, it was not easy to hike back down the trail without stopping now and then to sample these incredibly tasty blueberries. I thought about maybe coming back someday soon and gathering as many as I could put into a basket, but of course I won't do that, because now here I am back at home and drinking my wine, and the last thing in the world that I want to do is get up and go out!

Another wonderful day in the wilderness with lots of good friends, good food, and just about perfect weather. We climbed over 2,000 feet up and down, and hiked almost eight miles to give us a day we won't forget any time soon.
:-)