Mt. Baker- Incredible as Always.

This post is a continuation of a re-cap of our trip to Baker Lake Lodge over the Labor Day long weekend. I will warn you ahead of time that it is picture heavy. If you have a slow connection, I apologize that I seem to have a habit of this. I hope you will bear with me, and enjoy the photos once they have loaded. :)

On Saturday (September 1st) we decided as a group that it looked like a good day to go on a hike. We all piled into cars and drove up as high up to Mt. Baker as we could- the Park Butte trail head. We had packed lunches, Sallad had bought forest passes which were needed for parking at the trail head, and we were armed and ready with water bottles and running shoes. We hiked through areas with trees, mushrooms and huckleberries galore, areas with ponds and fallen trees and open grassy areas with lots of tall grasses and blooming flowers.

A waterfall and stream we passed over by bridge. Huckleberries were easy to find, and very yummy!

Phone Guy, Princess and Chip enjoying the day. Mushrooms that reminded me of Super Mario Brothers.

Here we all come. A storm or two has created this large washout area of stones and water.

At one point we reached a large wash out area full of muddy glacier water. It was quite wide and we had to jump from stone to stone and try and cross it. It wasn't really what I would call a river. It looked like an old landslide of rocks with water rushing down it. More like a lot of small waterfalls and some streams and pools of water. Jamin, Lukey and Wiggle's family as well as the expecting parents Sam and Robyn decided to turn back at that point. (Hiking with three tiny children or a pregnant belly can't be easy. I am pretty sure they went back to the lodge and had wonderful naps as we continued on up the mountain.) As for the ones who found their way across, we felt accomplishment, but little did we know what was to come!

Lupine - they are beautiful flowers! Click on the rocky photo above to view larger. THAT was the water we had to cross!

Drooler simply loves, loves, loves water. As in he wanted to go swimming right then and there in the glacier water!

Our hike turned out to be a lot longer than we anticipated, and after a couple of wrong turns that must have taken place, we changed our route and headed for Railroad Grade, which we were told had a good view of the mountain. We continued on, switchback after switchback, root stair after root stair. Once we were out of the thick trees, every turn offered another spectacular view. At one point, there was a massive rock stairway which I thought would never end, but it made for a pretty neat looking photo.

Rock stairway.

Beautiful sky.

Heidi and Drooler and I had once had a conversation about Heather, and whether it really did make a good, comfortable bed like is often mentioned in old books. So what else could we do but pretend we were in the highlands and lay down on the sweet smelling bed to see if it really is as nice as our once read novels proclaimed. Well, we found that at first it was quite prickly, but if you were wearing a good amount of clothing it would be quite comfortable, because it supports you well. These photos are the most flattering of the set, you can thank me for leaving out all the ones where we pretended to be sleeping. :)

I love these photos. When Drooler is with me he is focused on the camera, he loves cameras.
When he is with Heidi, he is focused on her and it is so sweet.

An extreme close up of Heather in bloom. Some berries on a tree, I am not sure what they are.

We reached a ridge and stopped there to gaze in wonder and awe at the mountain as we ate lunch. I am not sure if it was Railroad Grade or not, but it was amazing. Beneath us was a deep valley with a rushing stream complete with muddy waterfall. There were campers up there with all their gear, and it looked like such a relaxing place to spend time. Some of the campers were either on their way to or their way back from the peak of the mountain. We spoke to one group who said it would take them 6 more hours to reach the peak once they reached base camp. It looked like we were so close, I can't imagine what it would be like to reach the peak. It takes proper gear and lots of training that's for sure! We saw one guide leading his group towards the mountain. He looked like a seasoned climber, and was wearing FLIP FLOPS for the part of the hike that we had just exhausted ourselves hiking!

Mountains in the distance.

Our crazy picnic spot. Along the very top of the ridge, basically sitting on overhangs of dirt.
I was quite nervous and never sat in one place for long. You can see how close we were to the glacier.

This is one of the two peaks of Mt. Baker. From the point at which I took this photo, I would guess it was another hour to the last base camp, and then 6 hours from there to the peak. This photo is poor, because you just can't grasp the "giantness" of this mountain or see all the crevasses and shadows because of the bright snow. You just have to climb up and see it yourself, I highly suggest you do!

Heidi is one strong mom. She carried him all the way down and he was sound asleep and comfy!

We hiked back down and headed back to the lodge to have a comfortable evening, complete with a yummy Lasagna dinner by Princess and Jenn. We relaxed around the fire and then had homemade pies and icecream for dessert. What a day!

Click on the map below to see our route. Follow the red dots. I am not sure if we stopped at the first or second base camp, but I know we were in that area, and that the snow looked very close!