Just one of those days

Twelve Trailblazers going to Church

Just one of those days when you get to have a little bit of everything! Last year, we had three tries before we could even get to the Church Mountain trailhead. And you never know what you're going to find when you get to Church Mountain meadows. I wrote a post three years ago to show the difference in the conditions at the meadow one year apart, in July. You can see the picture here (be sure to enlarge it to get the full effect). Today, in mid-June 2014, we had a day with sunshine, rain, clouds, mist, and lots of snow to walk on at higher elevations.

Honeysuckle in bloom

Not to mention, at lower elevations, lots of wildflowers, too. We not only saw honeysuckle, but columbines, lupines, fairy flowers, star flowers, and even a few more. However, after we had gone a fairly short distance, our sunshine disappeared and it began to rain. We thought it was the beginning of a downpour, so we stopped to put on our rain gear.

Rich in umbrella and rain skirt

Rich, new last week, has returned to give us an idea of his way to deal with rain: an umbrella (we didn't even have Mikey along today) and a skirt he made to wrap around his pants. We are nothing if not innovative in our ways to deal with rain. But the rain didn't last long as we plodded upwards, finding our first snow at about 4,600 feet of elevation.

Snow crossing

Before we reached the meadows, we had a few snow crossings where avalanche chutes caused the snow to accumulate. But we sort of expected this, knowing that by the time we reached the meadows, we would be in full snow.

Mel at the Church Mountain meadows

These meadows from this point onwards will only become more and more beautiful and green as the summer progresses. But today, we had little sun at this point and went a bit farther along before stopping to enjoy our lunch and head back down. We didn't expect that we might get much farther than this. But we did go a little farther just in case the sun might break through and give us a few of the mountains.

Our lunch spot

It wasn't raining, and there was little wind when we stopped here for our lunch, making use of our blow-up seats to sit on the snow. In the distance we could see the clouds breaking a little here and there, but mostly this was the view we enjoyed as we ate lunch. I thought you might like to see what we twelve had for lunch today.

Quite a variety. Mine was the only one eaten with chopsticks :-)

And then we headed back down the trail, knowing that we might eventually make it to the top later this year, given the condition of the snow at this early date. On the way back down, we saw the misty clouds move in here and there, mixed with sunshine. This picture was quite representative of the conditions of our lovely trail as we made our way back to the cars.

Our trail on the way back down

We traveled a mere three and a half miles (more or less) to our lunch spot before turning back, making our day's total around seven. But in those few miles, we gained and lost around 2,600 feet in elevation. So it was a really nice day, with a little bit of everything in the mix. I am now back home enjoying my wine and soon to have my dinner. Here's a picture of me that Jonelle took while we were having lunch. I kind of like it.

Happy to be here, having fun with my friends

Yes, it was another good day, another good hike into the Mt. Baker Wilderness, and it's not even summer yet! I hope you have a great time until we meet again.
:-)