Waterfalls and wildflowers

Ten Senior Trailblazers headed up to Heliotrope Ridge in the Mt. Baker wilderness area today. Seven of us met at the Senior Center and the Ferndale three joined us at the Glacier Ranger Station. Once we started our hike, we were all ecstatic at the cool temperatures that greeted us at the trailhead. The temperature was in the mid-sixties. (It reached 90 degrees F in Bellingham yesterday, and we were ready for a change.) We knew this is rated as a "moderate" hike, which suited me perfectly after Monday's all-out trudge.

We also knew we would have some challenging streams to cross on our way to the viewpoint of Mt. Baker and the Coleman Glacier. The interesting thing is that every time we crossed one of these streams, a cool breeze blew down the valley and cooled us off even more. The higher we climbed the more the profusion of wildflowers and waterfalls made us gasp. Do you know what negative ions are? Some people believe they emanate from waterfalls, mountains, and beaches. (Check out the link for more.) Well, I think I experienced them today.

When we passed under this waterfall, there wasn't one person who wasn't feeling uplifted and glad to be right where we were in the moment. I know those of you who are in drought-stricken areas know exactly what you are missing. I hope some of the negative ions make their way through this post into your living room. But then we reached an impasse on the trail.

Once we reached this major stream, we could not find a good place to cross it. The roaring, rushing water kept us from finding a good crossing spot. This spot is far above the trail, but nowhere did we find a place that might make us feel okay to bring all ten of us across. It was actually even a bit cool when we each settled down on the side of this stream to have lunch, and then we headed back down to the trailhead. We had some magnificent views from here, even though we didn't get to the viewpoint.

That's Indian paintbrush in the foreground, and Mt. Baker and the Coleman Glacier in the background. The glacier was visible (in the upper left) but we just couldn't get close enough to get great pictures. I was happy sitting here having my lunch in the sunshine, a nice brisk cool breeze in my face, and some of my favorite people in the world sharing the day with me.

The wildflowers are at their peak of the season right now. Here you see mostly lupine, with a little bit of Indian paintbrush in the middle, mixed with valerian. We had discussions about what flowers we were looking at, but who cares? The day couldn't have been any better. We covered about six-and-a-half miles in total, going up and down somewhere around 1,750 feet. Compared to Monday's hike, it was a stroll, but the exciting stream crossings and all those negative ions made it seem, well, absolutely perfect!
:-)

Second extra hike of the season

Al, Holly, April, Mike, Terry (me behind camera)

Six of us went out the Mountain Loop Highway yesterday, for our second "extra" hike of the season, to Mt. Dickerman. We didn't know that Mike and April would be joining us, as they didn't have a way to get ahold of Al, seeing the extra hike schedule on the Senior Trailblazer website and having some interest. (Al keeps it up but it changes often; sometimes we don't go where we were originally scheduled for various reasons.)

The wildflowers were out in amazing abundance this year. We did this hike as our next-to-last extra hike last year on September 19. It was a cloudy day, which I found contributed to a comfort level we didn't have yesterday. The sun beat down on us relentlessly. As we made our way upwards, I noticed that the mountains were partially obscured in haze. (If you look at the pictures in the link from last year, you can see it almost seems like a different hike.)

Just like any other trek, it was a simple matter of putting one foot in front of the other and going one step at a time to the top. Every guidebook that I saw warned to be sure and take plenty of water on this one. Last year it was cool and cloudy and I didn't use up all my water, but yesterday was another story. I ran out about a mile from the cars, and although Al had stopped to filter some water in one of the few streams for himself, I didn't realize I was so low.

As Al headed over to get that water, I asked Mike to take my picture, and the result was this good one.  Funny, all the pictures I take need to be straightened, but Mike's was perfect right out of the camera. It was nice to meet these wonderful people, who are interested in continuing to go on the extra hikes with us. They are very experienced trekkers and had no problem with the nine miles and almost 4,000-foot elevation gain. In fact, as we reached the parking lot, Mike, who drove, ran (RAN!) across the parking lot to get his van, and then opened a cooler with water, V-8, and even one beer, which Holly commandeered, and offered them to us first. After that, we drove to Granite Falls and had a really nice meal together.

Our new friends, Mike and April

Once I got home, I realized that I was still thirsty and drank down quite a bit of cool water before taking a shower and relaxing. I got up this morning and was, amazingly, not a bit sore or tired. After a good workout this morning at the gym, I headed home to write this post. It was a GREAT day, and Mt. Dickerman was once again a thriller.

Another great day at the DZ

Dave, Donovan, me, Linny, 11 Aug 2012

Another great day at the Drop Zone yesterday! I didn't write a post on Saturday because by the time I got home at 5:30pm I was ready to drop. I know that Linny can make twice as many jumps in a day as we did yesterday, but I can't. She is only five years younger than me, but she's got more than twice my stamina. She had to leave at 3:30pm to go to her second job, probably worked past midnight while I was snoozing away in my bed. She's simply amazing. Whenever we land from a good jump, that's the word she always says as her feet touch down: "Amazing!"

As we were waiting to load the plane for one of our jumps, we commented on the cute outfit on this young man. I went over to investigate. It turns out that his friends gave him a bachelor party, and part of the event included taking him to the Drop Zone in costume as a cheerleader, where they would all make tandem jumps together. They were quite amenable to me taking their picture, and I was on the ground when they came in under canopy. I knew it had to be them because they were making quite a ruckus. I ran out to the landing area and got this picture after their jump.

The "cheerleader" is the one in the middle. They were all bouncing with the exuberance that only comes from men that young, and they were quick to get the guy back into costume after the removal of their jumpsuits. I waved goodbye to them as they left, all thrilled to have made their very first skydives (and probably their only ones).

All in all, it was a great day playing in the sunshine. As you can see, their wasn't a cloud in the sky, the temperature was in the mid-seventies, and a light breeze assisted our landings. Couldn't have had a much better day. I'm ready to take it easy today, since tomorrow I'll be heading back south with my Trailblazer friends to climb Mt. Dickerman, a fairly hard hike. You know I'll be taking pictures!
:-)

Railroad Grade 2012

Al signing us in at the trailhead

Ten of my favorite people, who belong to the Senior Trailblazers, met at the Senior Center this morning to plan our hike to Railroad Grade this morning, with the sun shining immoderately and even with some fairly warm temperatures. Last year when we did this hike, we didn't have nearly as nice a day. Check it out here.

There is still snow in the High Country, but today we didn't have to worry about it; the hike is moderate through Schreiber's Meadow as we trek towards the place where we need to make a decision to go right to Railroad Grade or left to Park Butte. Once we turned toward Railroad Grade, we began to climb until we reached the really amazing trail that ascends towards Mt. Baker. This is a climbing route, and here is the description from Ken Wilcox's book, Hiking Whatcom County:

At a junction in the broad meadow (2.2 miles), continue straight for Baker Pass and Park Butte, or head up the stone staircase to the right to view the snout of the Easton Glacier by way of the Railroad Grade, a lateral moraine leading smoothly up to the glacier. This is the climbers' route, and the home of hordes of hoary marmots.

Every one of us decided to take the precipitous trail, which has a few scary spots but is basically pretty easy to follow, moving ever upwards towards the climbers' camp (which we didn't reach). The clouds came and went, but the breeze kept us cool.

Here we are on the Grade, following our leader, Al, who decided to try to get a bit farther towards the camp than he has ever done before. We followed, some of us anxious to stop for lunch, but our two new hikers (Ross on his second hike with us) and Liz (on her very first one) decided to follow Al. Although as you can see from this picture it looks like a short stroll over to the glacier and Mt. Baker's summit, it's actually quite far and a technical route.

This is Ross, showing how close to him Mt. Baker looks. But it's really quite a ways. Five hikers followed Al as he decided to add another fifteen minutes to the hike, while the rest of us retreated and stopped to have some lunch. It was after noon, but they went another quarter mile before turning around to join us. You can see them coming towards us here.

Those are the Black Buttes behind them, with lots of beautiful wildflowers in front. Once they reached  us, they joined the rest of us who had already satisfied our appetites and were spending some time just looking around at the incredibly beautiful place we had reached. The light breeze and the cool temperatures, the view and the company made us simply grateful to be there. And then we started to head back down.

You could tell that this was not a really hard hike for us hardened Trailblazers, because the conversation continued all the way to the cars. By the time we got there, we had covered around seven and a half miles there and back, and covered around 2,300 feet up and down. It was another really satisfying day, and I am so grateful to be feeling not even a little bit tired as I sit here writing this post. When I think of the fact that I am four years older than when I started hiking with this group, I realize that I am stronger than I was back then, when this hike wore me out. I'm ready to make another "extra" hike next Monday! Stay tuned!
:-)

Summer wildflowers

Church Mountain trailhead 19 July 2012

Although we haven't had much of a summer yet, the wildflowers are just now coming into their peak weeks in the High Country. Last year we had spring and summer wildflowers all come out at once, since the snow didn't leave until very late in July and early August. Any spring flowers that had a chance to flower had to wait until then, and all the summer flowers came out at the same time. We had an abundance of wildflowers well into October. I look forward to this year's crop. Here's where we stand at the beginning of August.

Last Thursday I captured this picture of red columbine mixed with tiger lilies on the trail up to Hannegan Pass. They were right there on the side of the trail as I plodded uphill with my nose toward the ground, not wanting to slip and fall on the rocks. Which of course I did anyway, but I waited until I was on the way back down. My knee and right leg are still a bit banged up. Here's a closeup of that pretty tiger lily in the middle:

When I looked at this closeup as I downloaded my pictures at home, the two drops of water looked a little like bug eyes on an extraterrestrial creature. It had rained that morning but by the time we started our hike the temperature was perfect, although the humidity was on the high side. Then the sun came out, and we marveled at the raindrops on these grasses.

They looked like little diamonds perfectly placed on the blades of grass. Although this is not technically a picture of a wildflower, I think it deserves to be appreciated by as many observers as possible. Not too many people appreciate thistles, either, but I thought this batch of pretty pink thistles deserves to be admired as well. One person's weed...

Finally, we saw little patches of phlox by the side of the trail, sparkling in the sunlight and delighting us with their beauty. Phlox is usually in abundance in the High Country in late summer, and finding this patch in early August reminded me that summer is not only incredibly beautiful in the Pacific Northwest, it is also fleeting.

I read the other day that once we reach August 2 (when the majority of these pictures were taken), we begin to travel toward the fall weather, meaning we are not likely to have another heat wave like we experienced last week. The joke I heard to illustrate the brevity of our summer weather: one visitor to Seattle asked a native about what we usually do here in summer, and the native replied that if it falls on a Sunday, we go on a picnic!
:-)

Finally got hot here

Yes, it's finally hot here in the Pacific Northwest. It's our first heat wave of the season. We had been below normal all of June and July, but now it seems we're catching up. The bad part for me is that I'm just not used to it! Yesterday I went to Skydive Snohomish and got in three good jumps and left around 3:00pm. I had sweat pouring down my face and back as I packed my parachute, but the skydives made it worthwhile. It got to 86 degrees F there and today is expected to get to 91. It never cooled down much during the night, and I woke a couple of times, tossing and turning, trying to find a more comfortable position. It was the unaccustomed heat.

The garden is enjoying all this heat, and as you can see here, so are the critters! That's a kale leaf, or was one some time ago. I harvested one whole kale plant this morning and we'll enjoy what the pests left behind. Just look at that blue sky behind the leaf; it's already hot and it's not even noon. However, we've got cooling marine air coming in tonight. It's one reason I like to live here; it doesn't stay hot for long. Usually.

I caught a glimpse of my first delicata squash hiding under the bush. There are plenty of blossoms, which I hope will become squash as well. You'll be seeing their progress before I finally get one ready to cook. The Internet tells me I'll be harvesting these sometime in September, most likely. This little squash might not make it that long. I've got so much to learn about gardening. The monster plant is growing so big and fast I can almost see the tendrils creeping along, looking for more space. Next year it will get MUCH more room! This growing your own food business is an education...
:-)

Almost too good to bear

What a day! Six Senior Trailblazers started up to hike the Keep Cool trail and decided, once we saw it had been raining during the night and early morning, to change our destination to Hannegan Pass, since it's more open and has better footing. The change was serendipitous, to say the least. The clouds were low, as you can see here, and it was on the cool side. This hike can be very uncomfortable in full sun, but we started out with a nice cloud cover and no rain. We didn't know how high we would get before running into snow, but we decided to give ourselves a chance to at least reach the pass.

I was amazed by the profusion of summer flowers: lots of Indian paintbrush, tiger lilies, lupine, penstemon, thistles, and more. We hiked in relative comfort as we gained altitude, and the snow was amazingly absent until just before Hannegan Pass. Last year, we went up to the pass on August 11 and there was much more snow, as you can see here. However, there was still a bit of snow today.

Hannegan Pass

Once we gained the pass, we thought it might be fun to head up toward the peak, without having any idea that we might actually go that far, considering the time factor and the snow. We noticed, however, as we headed upwards, that the skies actually began to clear.

Peggy looks like she's standing on the edge of the world. Doesn't it feel like it's getting warmer? Yes, it was. The blue skies continued to come and go, and the view just got better and better.

Considering our low expectations for the day, thinking we would have low clouds, little view, and perhaps a bit of rain, as the day went on we got more and more excited and had some trouble making ourselves turn around and head back down. Get a load of this scene with glacier lilies. Remember they don't last long, just a few days or a week after the snow melts.

We finally did decide to head down, after we had covered almost five miles, meaning that we would have an almost ten-mile day. I asked Al to take a picture of this week's contingent of female Trailblazers, and he did. I offer you this to show that we were all having the time of our lives.

Me, Peggy, Linda, Karen, Amy

And then, on our way down, we heard from some other hikers that a BEAR had been sighted just below us, and to keep our eyes out for him. Someone knew it was an adult male, and sure enough, we saw him!

Yes, there he was, snacking away on whatever it is that bears eat. He saw us, I'm sure, but he was unconcerned as he continued making his way through the open field. I was thrilled to get this picture. After a short while we decided that maybe we should tiptoe away (he was about 75 yards away from us and looks closer through my telephoto). As we headed back down to our cars, the skies continued to clear, and we got a wonderful view of Ruth Mountain.

It was one of the best days I've had (I know I'm saying that a lot lately), but it's true. We didn't think today's hike would be one that we will remember forever. It was. We covered almost ten miles and 2,600 feet up and down. Sometimes when your expectations are lowered, and you go anyway, you end up with a day that is, well, almost too good to BEAR!
:-)