Thursday, November 4, 2010

Middle Fork 2010

Today the Senior Trailblazers were scheduled to hike up to Pine and Cedar Lakes, close to home in our area, but today was predicted to be incredibly sunny and bright, after yesterday setting or tying records all over the state. So, I was not surprised when sixteen of us showed up and decided to go, instead, on a 25-mile-long drive up towards the Mt. Baker area to Road 38. It follows the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River up an old logging road. We drove up a long ways and then parked our cars to hike four miles up the road. We knew we would have incredible views. I've done this hike with the Trailblazers before, but never when we actually had a view! Above you can see Mt. Baker on the left and the Black Buttes to the right, with some of the Trailblazers in the foreground. There's also a very interesting lenticular cloud over the mountains that looks like it might be a space ship.
This picture of the trio (space ship, Baker and the Buttes) was taken as soon as we could see them clearly. As you can see, early in the day that cloud was all by itself, but as the day wore on, it was joined by others. Another view we had on this hike was of the Twin Sisters. If I had not known because of help from our experts, looking at the Sisters almost head on, I would not have recognized my favorite girls.
The North Sister is in front, with the South Sister behind. You can see that the clouds are beginning to increase. Once we reached our lunch spot, we could see the Olympic Mountains in the far distance, but we also could feel that our beautiful warm and sunny day was beginning to disintegrate, as the clouds moved in. It was a few minutes before noon when we had finished our lunches and begun our hike back down to the cars, parked on Road 38. The road begins to climb steeply from where we started hiking to the end of the road. We walked it, of course, gaining 2,000 feet in those four miles and then, after lunch, turning around and hiking back to the cars. The trail stretcher was out in full force: it was a lot farther down to the cars than it was going up. It's a strange phenomenon which could have something to do with being tired, but you didn't hear it from me.
You know you can click on any picture to enlarge, right?
On the way back down Road 38, Al noticed that the gate to the Middle Fork Diversion project was open and asked how we would feel about walking down to take a look. The four of us in his car were willing, and I got this incredible picture of the Nooksack flowing under this tree during our extended visit to the diversion. (There's more pictures of that part of the trip on the Flickr site on the RHS under "Trailblazers Fall 2010.") This post is getting longer than I intended, while I sit here drinking my wine and thinking about our wonderful day today. All of us are well exercised and happy we went to the High Country, once again, rather than Pine and Cedar Lakes, which we will visit next month. It was a great day.
:-)

20 comments:

  1. Yes, we had another sunny, warm day! After some appointments this morning,. we got our exercise working in the yard.
    I love your photos today, especially the tree with the stream.

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  2. those are gorgeous pics of the mountains and that last one of the water...wow.

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  3. I absolutely love the mountain shots.

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  4. What a cool place to hike! Gorgeous pictures.

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  5. Stunning photos. And what a dramatic place to hike!

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  6. Truly great photos...the last one extremely special, DJan!

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  7. What stunning views, and yes, I thought it WAS some kind of a spaceship ;)
    The last picture is so full of raw energy, so exciting, and I just bet you couldn't hear yourselves think with the noise of the water.
    You amaze me with your strength and determination !

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  8. Another great morning for you, Jan. I envy your stamina. Where do you get it from? That picture of the mountains and the "space ship" made me smile. Way to go!

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  9. Incredible pictures! Wow, that last one took my breath away - I wouldn't want to fall in that stream!

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  10. Don't you ever get tired of beautiful scenery? A person can only take so much. Jeeesh!

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  11. My coffee table books of mountain photos are great, but being able to hike to the places you see would be even better. I'm jealous.

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  12. Glad to hear your group got a chance at the high country this week, the weather has been beautiful. Love your shot of the tree and Nooksack.

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  13. Awesome and magnificent views! I'm impressed with a 2,000 foot climb in 4 miles. Yikes! I think I'm going to die when going uphill one mile.

    Love your hikes -- vicariously I am with you.

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  14. Look at that perfect little cloud over Mt. Baker. It looks like a space ship! Could it be a little puff of steam from the mountain?

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  15. D-Jan,these are great views,what a nice way to spend the day.I admire you for climbing 2000 feet up and then back down again.Wow!Love the last picture,it's scary to look down that river.

    Have a good weekend.

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  16. Now you have a great cloud photo for Joan's next contest. I love the one with the single round cloud.

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  17. How wonderful that you can share such invigorating and scenic hikes with us. You earned that repose at the end of the day!

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  18. That last photo is particularly striking, but all of them are awesome. What a gorgeous day you had. What are ya'll going to do as the weather worsens?

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  19. Interesting pictures. The water in the last one looks very lively. First I thought it was ice, then I looked again and saw it was water.
    Blessings, Star

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  20. Excellent photos..and it was a clear day for the most part! Thanks for sharing another great hike:)

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