Lookout Mountain Ridge

Al, Maggie, Peggy, Sue, Diane

Ten Senior Trailblazers went out on a new (to us) hike today, since our regularly scheduled one is in the midst of a logging operation. We drove to Sudden Valley and started at a trailhead at one end of Cain Lake, which took us along a southern ridge to the top of Lookout Mountain. We had been warned that it is "challenging," since it takes you along an old road, which turns into a steep, muddy trail that has been recently discovered by the mountain biking crowd. (Mountain bikes have a tendency to tear up a trail, to put it mildly.)

An old snag in the forest

Since it's been awhile since we had any significant rain, the trail was in good shape, other than having some very steep sections that were just loose dirt because of the trail bikes. We managed to make our way up, but without the trekking poles, I wouldn't have been able to navigate it. I tried to get a picture that shows just how UP it was. This is the best I could manage.

Gathering our strength for the steep uphill ahead

No, it's just not possible to capture how steep it actually is. We kept on going, even though we speculated about how difficult these sections would be going the opposite direction; since it's an "out and back," we knew we would find out. They were hard indeed, but at this point, going upward, we were pretty sure we would be getting some nice views.

Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters to the right

Yes! By the time we emerged from the forest onto the access road to the mountain top, there they were, our old friends, with a few clouds to make them even more interesting. We thought about stopping here and having lunch, but we decided to hike along the access road to the south summit, which, we discovered, doesn't have a view. After discovering this, we went back to the Mt. Baker view for lunch, but not before exclaiming and enjoying the view towards Bellingham and Lake Samish.

Me. with Lake Samish below me

What a beautiful view we had from this vantage point! I just spent some time trying to figure out exactly which direction is behind me (I am so bad at this). It's got to be west, since the mountains in the previous picture were to the east. We had a few high clouds, but nothing much, really. It was simply a beautiful day.

After lunch: Sue, Maggie, Peggy, Diane

We had a quick lunch and began our downward journey. Many of us were a little worried about all that loose dirt and possibilities for falls. But it turned out just fine; in fact, I had more trouble with my knee on the downward sections of the road than I did on the trails. We just went slowly, and everybody made it just fine.

On the way back to the cars

As usual, the return trip seemed much longer than the journey upwards. We covered almost ten miles today, with an elevation gain of at least 2,700 feet up and down. That's about the same distance as last week's hike, but with significantly more elevation gain and loss. And it turned out that everybody was in moderately good shape at the end, including me! Another successful day in the mountains with my BFFs!
:-)