Damfino Lakes - Excelsior Peak 08-25-19

Another misty damp Northwest day, another beautiful hike!  This was a totally new one for me in an area I have not yet explored.  I stayed the night at my cousin's house up near Mt Baker and she and I took the dogs the next day to hike Excelsior Pass/Peak from Damfino Lakes.

Apple Watch stats:  7.08 miles RT, 1724 ft of elevation gained.  Just under a quarter mile was missed, as I forgot to unpause my workout coming down off the peak for a bit.

The road to this hike is long, but a lot of it is paved.  The parts in between are pretty potholed - I think any car could do it, but you would have to be slow and cautious for sure.  The trail starts out meandering through beautiful woods festooned with lichen and moss, in which mushrooms were springing out in celebration of a cool wet summer.

You get to the lakes pretty fast and they were lovely, though small.

After not too much forest hiking you find yourself in meadows and slopes that were just recently covered in wildflowers.  Most of them were done, but we still saw a some last lupines, some daisy type flowers, pink monkeyflower and fireweed.

It rained for a few minutes but we manage to stay somewhat dry under some alpine fir and had a snack while we waited it out.  It didn't last long and we hiked the rest of the way up to Excelsior Pass and then along the ridge.  There we got some beautiful views of the ridges surrounding us and down into the basin below us - in between the clouds blowing through.  It was like a nature burlesque show - lift a wisp of cloud here and see a rocky ridge, part the mist there and see a wide alpine meadow.

The wind was pretty icy up there - definitely didn't feel like August.  We still had energy and the dogs were doing great, so we hiked up to the top of Excelsior Peak since it was there.  At first I thought this peak was an odd breast-shaped mountain with that nipple on top, but Holly knew the peak and told me it was a tent.  What a great place to camp. Although a bit wet and cold, the evenings had been clearing so they could see Mt Baker in all her glory and watch the sunset.

Holly brought these really great sausage sticks and was sharing with us, so she had Cedar and Luna's rapt attention.

Heading back to the car, we were treated to an unexpected didgeridoo concert!  Cedar disapproved, but they were really chill about him complaining.

Get out there and enjoy this beautiful world!