Another hot, sunny day

Early view of Mt. Baker

Twenty Senior Trailblazers showed up this morning for our hike to Yellow Aster Butte, one we do every year, usually in July. Since the wilderness area is limited to 12 per group, Al broke us into two groups, one of 12 to hike up to Yellow Aster Butte on the regular trail, and the other 8 on the Keep Kool trail, which is the original route to the Butte. That trail is no longer maintained, but it's still traveled and quite do-able. I went with the larger group.

Carol on the trail, surrounded by wildflowers

You spend a great deal of time in full sun on this hike, making it very hot, but I was prepared with plenty of water, as we ascended the trail and admired the views. They were pretty spectacular, and the wildflowers didn't disappoint.

Pink monkey flowers surrounded by green and white

When we reached the saddle, where we had unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains, especially Mt. Baker and Shuksan, three of our group decided to climb to the top of the butte, while the rest of us found some scarce shade and enjoyed our lunch. We had a light breeze, but the biting flies were a real nuisance for most of the day. It was only when we were high in altitude and moving that they weren't a problem. But it was just too nice a day to let something like that bother us.

Mt. Baker from the saddle

The other group was approaching from the left side of the mountain you see in the foreground. We never saw them, but they were able to see us (as we found out when we ran into them at Graham's, our ice cream stop).

The tarn where some Trailblazers swam last year

The Trailblazers who swam in this tarn last year were in the other group, and if they swam in one, they didn't make it to last year's swimming hole. There are plenty others for them to enjoy. We didn't venture down to the tarn, although we discussed it and decided against it. It looks a little lonely to me.

Steve and Doug in front of St. Shuksan

And then it was time to retrace our steps and return to our cars. The flowers and the scenery were wonderful, but some of us were ready for a chance to cool down. The thought of ice cream began to sound awfully good to me. I did stop to take a couple more pictures of Mt. Baker.

Mt. Baker and wildflowers

Now it's almost 7:00pm, making this a very long day, although we covered less than eight miles and around 2,500 feet in elevation gain and loss. Enough to make me feel I've earned my glass of wine! It's too bad that I didn't get to spend the day with the rest of the Trailblazers because of the US Forest Service restriction of groups to 12. I'll find out later how their trip went, but it was fortuitous that we ran into them briefly just as they were leaving Graham's. I know that we all had a good day. Another successful trip into the High Country.
:-)