I’m glad my phone remembered the long weekend I appended to a business trip to make the most of the brief but spectacular summer in the Pacific Northwest, because it feels like forever ago, and I’d almost forgotten.
First stop, Seattle. That’s where the business part happened, and maybe I caught up with an old friend who lives there too. I can’t remember if we saw each other this trip or not— there were so many business trips. What’s certain is that one free evening I visited the Chihuly museum and saw these strange and beautiful glass pieces.
After the finishing the work stuff, I rented a car and drove out of the city into North Cascades National Park. I appreciate now why my PNW friends put up with nine months of rain— the summer really is as spectacular as advertised.
My hiking destination was Hidden Lake Lookout, an historic fire tower perched high above an alpine tarn. This is a popular out and back hike 4.5 miles each way and with 2900 feet of elevation gain. I started early, and the hike was spectacular— up through a spruce forest, up through an open meadow of wildflowers, into the alpine zone and along the ridge until finally reaching the fire tower, perched improbably atop its rock pile with the blue coin of the lake below.
On the way back down I lingered in the meadow— I’ve never seen such rich profusion of wildflowers, and spotted a few favorites whose very names raise my spirits: columbine, foxglove, Turk’s cap lily… and many others I don’t recognize.
Unfortunately I turned my ankle on my way down through the wildflower meadow. It wasn’t a bad sprain, but the last part of the hike was less enjoyable as I walked out carefully on the sore ankle. I’ve done that twice now, and both times on the West Coast while wearing low top trail runners or approach shoes because my actual hiking boots took up too much space to bring in my luggage. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson now— if I plan to hike, I need to bring the actual boots.
With a sore ankle I wasn’t up for another big hike the next day, so instead I drove out to the end of the Mt. Baker highway to visit Artist Point, stopping at Nooksack Falls along the way.
I didn’t appreciate when I was there just how narrow the seasonal window is to drive to Artist Point between when the snow melts (typically July) and starts falling again (typically October). I found the roads clear, but a remaining crust of snow on some of the walking paths to overlook Mt Baker and Mt. Shuksan
I have a fondness for Mt. Baker, which I climbed several years ago as part of an intro to alpinism course offered by the American Alpine Institute.
I finished the day at nearby Heather Meadows, where I ambled slowly along the Fire and Ice trail, reading all the plaques along the way and just enjoyed being immersed in this landscape.
