North Lake 09-15-2019

Another new hike for me!  This hike is all about water anyway with two lakes, a nice sized tarn and many smaller pools along the way - but today was POURING down rain.  It still only comes in 2nd place on my wettest hikes ever though.  Tubal Cain Mine is still in the lead for that dubious award.

Apple Watch stats:  7.39 miles RT, 2903 ft of elevation gain.  The actual trail is likely just a touch over 7, but I did a tiny bit of backtracking when I hiked past a turn. 

This trail starts out meandering through some lovely woods to Independence Lake at about 3/4 mile in.  This is by far the most popular destination on this trail, and I had hiked this a couple weeks previously with Dave and the adventure dogs.  Today though, with the rain, there was only one car at the trailhead and I met a man and his two small children hiking out from where they had camped overnight at Independence - and no one else.  The rest of my hike I had the wilderness in all its gloriousness all to myself!  Muahahahaha!!!  ALL MINE!

Water streamed off of every surface - every fir needle, every leaf, every stone dripped and rushed and flowed with it.  The trail was mostly a stream itself and I often found myself hiking up and down small temporary waterfalls. 

The actual waterfalls along the trail were amazing.  They roared and frothed and really celebrated the start of a wet northwest fall.

Around 2 - 2 1/2 miles in there is a left you need to take.  It goes up a rocky slope that doesn't look anything like a trail.  If you go straight though, the trail is super clear.  This leads to what I'm guessing is the 2nd most popular destination along this trail - a lovely deep tarn.  The trail comes out on the rocky banks of it and it looks like a great place to picnic or swim on a warmer day.  I had recently taken a map reading class, so I not only brought my map - I actually looked at it for a change!  I could see that I should not be right at the edge of this tarn, but up the slope a ways cutting upward.  I remembered seeing a cairn back by the non-traily looking rocky slope, so I backtracked to there and from that direction the trail was a bit clearer.  It's rarely easy to find a trail on rock though, and the rain covering everything made it harder to discern.

On the rocky shore of a pretty lake I wasn't supposed to end up on the edge of

Up the slope above North Lake, it again got pretty rocky and the trail was difficult to follow.  In addition, I don't think this section of the trail gets used as much so it was really overgrown.

Overgrown trail

The lake was a long ways down!  I thought about staying up above and enjoying the view, rather than risking a slip/fall getting down to it in the wet, but I was SO CLOSE.  So I got there and was glad I did.

North Lake itself was beautiful.  The far side was a slope with trees, but the trail meets up with the lake in a jumble of huge gorgeous boulders and to my left there were sheer granite slabs, shining in the rain.  I ate a quick lunch using a boulder as a wind block and then headed back up that hill. 

There were mushrooms everywhere from a wet summer and the fresh rain. 

One big bolete was bigger than my head, so I scuttled under the brush to get a picture next to it for size (since I didn't want to pick it for no reason). 

Another mushroom had been apparently growing next to a small stream, and the rainwater had flooded it. 

There were quite a few bears head fungi which is a choice edible.  I took a larger but less pretty one home and added it to a nice seafood chowder later.  Yum!

Don't wait for good weather - get out there and adventure!

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!