As strange as it is to say, and as long as we've lived here, we have yet to poke around on Mt. Baker. That is until we were invited by our friend G., a newly retired geology professor, to join a party going on a hike. It was great fun. Below are some of the photos and a little essay about where we went and what we saw. Enjoy.
First we stopped in a little town's partially built skate-board park. The skate-board park is a story in and of itself, ask us in person sometime. "Anyone know what this is?" G. asked. "Coal?" someone ventured, remembering her childhood. "Yes." G. then explained where it came from and the controversy of the skate-board park.
Our next stop was the Horseshoe Bend Trail.
Here we walked along the upper parts of the Nooksack River. G. explained what different plants were, including the invasive species. As this was a inter-generational hike, we then spent some time playing in the River, too.
Nothing like a little sister photo-bomb!
Of course, it is not until we return to trail head that we geek out on the signs. Lots of cool information.
After eating lunch at a camp ground across the Mt. Baker Highway, we headed up the Highway to a certain "secret" spot. This "secret" spot is a wedge shaped section of Old Growth Forest that the loggers and logging companies left to show what the area used to look like. It is a "secret" because they don't want anyone doing any poaching-type logging, but it is open to visit, and respect. There was one old fir tree that the 12 of us holding hands just reached around. Very cool.
After the Old Growth Forest, some of our party headed home and to naps. Our JLIME family became a JLIMME family with the addition of the older sister M. who wasn't ready to stop exploring. She sure was a delight.
So, next it was onto the almost the top: Heather Meadows.
Ha Ha! L. and J. caught each other taking pictures. L. with our camara, and J. with his phone.
We're not sure if the photos really show this well, but yes, those are skiers at the bottom. They had been hiking up and skiing down the gully.
Summer snowball fight!
J.
finds these two photos interesting. In one he focused his camera phone
on the waterfall, in the other upon the landscape. He can't remember
which is which, now, but the camera pulls out different shades of green
with each shot.
Again, J.'s camera phone picks up different colors.
Pretending to have "survived" the hike. Too funny.
From Heather Meadows we drove on up to the top to Artist Point. Look at all the snow still there in late July!
And the clouds cleared ...
revealing ....
Mount Baker.
Leaving Artist Point
On the way back down the Mt. Baker Highway, we stopped by to see Nooksack Falls.
So ended a delightful day on the mountain!
Thanks, G., for inviting us.
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