Hiking Up Two Volcanos

We have been in places where there is no internet or phone service.  So some of these posts are a little behind. I'll try to catch up whenever we get internet access.  Here is a brief summary of our hikes at Mt Baker and Mt Reinier.

Hiking up Mt. Baker

Mt. Baker is a volcano with a peak of 10781 feet (3286 meters).  Although we could not hike to the top since we do not have the equipment or the permission and even if we had, we were in no physical shape to hike at the altitude on a glacier.  My plan, however,  was to drive to the little town of Glacier, Washington about 10 miles from the Canadian border on the north side of the North Cascades National Park and hike from Mt Baker Vista point (about 4500 feet) to the edge of the Roosevelt Glacier, on the western side of Mt Baker at about 6500 feet.  At the time of the day (we would have reached it at about 4:00 p.m.) we would have had some fantastic pictures of the mountain.  But noooooo….  It turns out that the service road up Glacier Creek was washed out and not open. 

Given the time of day, I decided that we could hike up the Ptarmigan Ridge on the East side of the mountain and still have some good shots of the mountain top.  But after looking at the ridge, about a mile long, and what seemed to be a mountain slide waiting to happen, there was no way that Adrian and I were going to be caught up in that.  So instead, I decided to take a hike up toward Mount Shuksan, a peak about 10 miles east of baker at 8131 feet.  We could still get to n edge of a glacier at about 6800 feet and at least the waste a day of hiking.  It was a great and easy hike.

 Along the hike to Mt Shuksan

 Ridge trail to Mt Baker

 Zoom in on hiker on Ridge Trail

The following day I decided to circle around the mountain (a trip of almost 2 hours) and approach Mt Baker from the southern side.   We got up late and drove to a little town named Acme, WA.  The population of the town must have been under 100, but it had the ACME DINER, the best breakfast we have had in a long time.  The entrance to the southern part of the park is not marked very well and unless one knows what to look for, it cannot be found.  We finally stopped at a farmers coop gas station, around where the entrance should be and asked the clerk working, an older lady, and she said “well yes, its right across the road just take that road there north and you can’t miss it.”  A National Park with no marking from the main road!?  About 20 miles later, with 10 of those miles of unpaved forest service roads, we got to our destination , about 5 miles (“as the crow flies”) below the bottom point of Easton Glacier.  We were at 3400 feet and had to hike to about 6000 feet – yeah right!

We got started about 1:00 p.m.  and about a mile into the hike (before we started up any serious elevation) we had to portage across Sulphur Creek.  This is glacial melt with a water temperature of what seemed to be 32.0001 degrees – COLD!  But we took our shoes off, and crossed it.  There were several other people that were crossing back some of them stating that it was a very strenuous climb.  But we weren’t about to turn back.  The portage was rough because of the sharp stones and the fact that we did not bring sandals to walk on the rocks. 

 On the edge of one of the Glaciers

 Skiers coming back from Baker Glaciers

 Crossing a cold stream on the hike up (met a couple of hikers coming down)

 On the way to Mt Baker

The climb was tough, going up a couple of thousand feet in about half mile.  On the way up there we met some hikers with skies coming back down; they had hiked up early in the morning to take in some skiing on the glacier.   These are the times that being a crow would have come in handy and simply go from point to point “as the crow flies.”  We finally go to a meadow at about 5500 feet and we still had about 3 miles to go to the edge of the glacier.  However, it was 5:00 p.m. and we had to start back if we wanted to get to the place we started before it got dark.

 View from about 6100 feet

 Mt. Baker From edge of Glacier

 Crossing the stream on way back down

Of course, the hike back was a lot easier and faster and made it back to the ice cold Sulphur Creek by 6:00 p.m. and because of higher melting rates during the warm day, the creek had a higher flow.  But we made it across.

We made it back to the car and to the town of Burlington, WA were we had dinner.  We decided to stay at Burlington for the evening mainly because we were too tired to drive back.  The following day we were on our way to Mt Rainier – a peak 4000 feet higher than Mt Baker.

Mt. Rainier Hike

We could see Mt. Rainier from down the street where Rebeca and Rob live.  At a distance of over eighty miles it was a tall peak piercing through the clouds.  Unfortunately we had to drive through Seattle and all the suburbs to the north and south.  It was the biggest traffic mess I have been in a long time.  It took us almost two hours to go a little over 40 miles to the town of Auburn where we would take the road to Mt. Rainier.  The mountain was in sight throughout the trip getting bigger and bigger as we got closer.  Once we got past the town of Enumclaw, we entered the forest area and the mountain was difficult to see through the high pine trees.

Our destination was a National Park campground, Ohanapecosh, at about the 2000 foot level.  Probably the most beautiful campground in the country with the old growth pine forest  towering over 200 feet in the air and a crystal clear mountain river flowing through the center with pools of water that one can dive from the 20+ foot boulders lining its sides.  

 Making breakfast before hike

 Our Campsite at Ohanapecosh

This would be our base camp for the next three days from where we would hike some of the tails at the lower altitudes and hike to the edge of a couple of the Glaciers.  The first trip was a casual stroll around Sunrise on the eastern part of the Volcano about 5800 feet.  The trail we took only had a rise of about 1000 feet, but it proved to be tiring.  The total hike was less than three miles.

The second day of hiking included three hour hike from Paradise point on the southern side of the volcano,  a short second hike to see some waterfalls an mountain streams.  The map below shows the path we took.  It is the same path that people hiking up to the very top take.  They get to Camp Muir about 10,000 feet (about three miles from our highest point) they rest of the night and make it up the top after hiking about 12 hours on ice.  

We later came and bathed in the coldest river anyone can imagine.  The water could not have been much above freezing, and I swear that it was only 32.00001 degrees F – well, at least it seemed that cold.

 

Path of Climb to the edge of Paradise Glacier

 

 At about 6300 feet

 Mt Adams - Far peak at the Center of Picture

 There was some minor climbing

Nisqually and Wilson Glaciers view from 6300 ft

 Nisqually Glacier and zoom in on waterfall in center (below)

The Nisqually Glacier has receded about 2000 to 3000 feet.  About 27 years ago, I took Rebeca, Adan and a nephew, Steve, hiking in the ice caves of the Nisqually Glacier in what it is now the valley below.  It is now just a rocky valley.

 The Ohanapecosh River

 Going for a swim (and a bath since there are no showers in the camp)

 

Our next trip is camping on the Pacific Beach in the Western part of the State of Washington and a trip to the Olympic mountain range (Olympic National Park and hike up Mt Olympus.