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Bear Creek Walk

October 31, 2014 – 3:27 pm
Posted in hike, Uncategorized
Tagged Bear Creek Trail, Cougar Flats fire, fall colors, hike
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The girls (dogs) and I walked along Bear Creek earlier this week. It was the one weekday without rain in the forecast and I’m glad we took advantage of it. They were right – we’ve had rain four of five days this week. Of course, we need it and it does help me get inside tasks done but really, folks around here are unaccustomed to gray drippy weather. And it has brought much needed snow to the mountains.

This particular area of Bear Creek burned in the Cougar Flats fire in July – part of the infamous Carlton Complex, the biggest wildfire in Washington’s history. I remember at that time saying to a friend of mine “all of our favorite spring and fall walking areas are on fire”.

I was happy to find that the landscape around the trail suffered mostly a ground fire and most of the trees look like they will live! The fire stimulated new growth in plants that would have been dormant in the mid-summer heat and I saw sunflowers, yarrow and a tiny vetch in bloom. It’s nice to see their color at this time of year. And the trees are providing lots of color as well. The deciduous trees are all shades of orange, yellow and green and the pines that are partially burned are even pretty with their dark orange needles.

Ken and I walked this trail on New Years. You can photos from that day here. Sky was still a puppy then.

This area will be beautiful in the spring.

Dalmation Toadflax – and invasive, non-native weed.

Sky scampers across Bear Creek

A tiny puffball mushroom

New growth – maybe a willow?

Burned out tree root hole

I think this is a tiny buckwheat

Douglas Sunflower

Tiny vetch

Yarrow

Innovative foot bridge

Perhaps part of an old foundation

Luna looks good in yellow

Pitch

This tree bled pitch before the fire and it’s still doing it.

Beaver Creek

Fall Hike

October 2, 2014 – 8:03 am
Posted in hike
Tagged fall colors, hike, Tiffany Mountain
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I have to admit I wanted summer to come to an end as soon as possible but now that fall is here I am sorry I missed out on so much hiking this year. The summer was sort of a lost season. I look back at posts from June and early July and it seems like eons ago.

Now life is better and the weather is perfect for hiking. A person does need to remember to take her extra layers and if it’s sunny she will be putting them on and taking them off regularly.

The girls/dogs and I hiked to Tiffany Mountain earlier this week. It started out gloriously sunny with bluebird skies so as I climbed through the burned trees I soon had to shed my jacket. In the open I was able to see migrating raptors including a Golden Eagle! Mountain Bluebirds and Clark’s Nutcrackers entertained me along the trail. As we made the final push to the top, the wind picked up and gray clouds rolled in. It tried to rain or snow or something wet and cold. We hunkered against a rock and I tried to make some selfies with dogs and quickly had lunch before making the descent. It warmed up again as we neared the trailhead but never got as nice as when we started. I found a few lingering small flowers and some slow butterflies.

After the hike we stopped at Boulder Creek. Along the way we saw an aspen with unusual coloring. Instead of its leaves turning yellow, they were a reddish-orange. I have seen this occasionally in the past but it is pretty uncommon.

I always wonder when these burned trees will fall and hope it’s not when I’m on the trail

The round top of Tiffany Mountain

A natural watering hole

American Pipit

The Pasayten Wilderness in the distance

A distant smoke from a fire on the Conconully side

Tiffany Lake

Alpine larch trees with fall colors

Clark’s Nutcracker

Growing lichen

Fireweed seeds. We hope some will grow on our place.

An unusual aspen showing reddish orange fall foliage

Boulder Creek

A Better Day for Us

July 26, 2014 – 8:03 am
Posted in North Cascades
Tagged dogs, Harts Pass, hike, North Cascades, Slate Peak, wildflowers
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As the Cougar Flats fire began to explode I was high in the mountains with my friend Mary from Montana. The weather was hot that week – 100 plus degress so we were anxious to get someplace cooler. We packed a little lunch for us and the dogs and headed to Harts Pass. Indeed, it was a glorious day in high country and we were lucky to enjoy it.

We started out on the Buckskin trail descending into the basin below Slate Peak

How to get a Labrador retriever’s attention

Hey – did Gus get a cookie?

My, what a big tongue you have Luna

Tiny bubbles in the creek

Smoke on the horizon down valley

Glacier lily

Pretty white flower that looks like miniature bear grass next to shooting stars

Two women and three dogs with a self timer? That was a challenge!

Mary and the Labradors!

She found a rock that looked like her home state of Montana

Mount Baker

Gus was insistent on trying to climb the stairs despite the sign that specifically said not to.

The smoke grew as the day went by

The Pasayten Wilderness looking north to Alaska

North Cascades

Silky Phacelia

Maybe my favorite wildflower

A Short Jaunt on the PCT

July 11, 2014 – 7:03 am
Posted in North Cascades
Tagged Harts Pass, hike, North Cascades, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, wildflowers
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Every summer I try to get up to the Harts Pass area as early as possible to catch the start of high mountain wildflowers. I have to wait til the road is open and passable. There are always new washouts over the winter and the Forest Service works hard to get it open for use. Hot weather has settled into the valley so it was a great relief to get up high and enjoy the cooler mountain air and sweet little creeks flowing with melted snow. The dogs were excited to be in snow too! The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) crosses through this region and can be accessed at several trailheads. We picked the one that goes generally south towards Grasshopper Pass from near the Meadows campground. It was a good choice with a cool breeze and enough water to keep the dogs hydrated and snow to cool their feet and bellies. The snow and water won’t last long with this hot weather. It’s too early for the through hikers to be here – they are the ones that start at the Mexican border and walk all the way to Canada. We had the trail almost all to ourselves except for the marmots, pikas and ground squirrels. We saw only three other day hikers. The wildflowers were over the top beautiful!

The trail starts out across this big talus slope

Happy hiker

Happy dogs

Slate Peak lookout can be seen on the far left

Anemone occidentalis or western pasqueflower

Western pasqueflower

Phlox and pasqueflower

Buttercup

Walking on the PCT towards Grasshopper Pass

The meadows really are that green!

Cairn

What is Luna thinking about now?

Pack with a view

Inukshuk

Antennaria rosea

Tiny bell-shaped flowers of heather

Jacob’s ladder, Polemonium sp.

the heart of the North Cascades

Shooting stars

Lewisia columbiana

I like Lewisia

There was lots of Lewisia!

Oh look – Sky found a stick!

How many kinds of plants?

Silver snags from an old forest fire

Silky phacelia

Jacob’s ladder

The snow is soft

Alpine larch trees with their fresh green leaves

Ballhead waterleaf

Frida enjoys a cool creek after the hike

Tiffany Mountain on Thursday

June 21, 2014 – 6:36 pm
Posted in hike
Tagged Clark's Nutcracker, hike, ladybugs, Tiffany Mountain
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How many of my posts start with ‘The dogs and I’? Well here is another one.

On Thursday, the dogs and I hiked to the top of Tiffany Mountain. It’s a favorite hike I do most years. This is early in the season and I’ll do it again, maybe next month when the wildflowers are in bloom. Well, when most of the wildflowers are in bloom. Some were blooming on Thursday but the snow has only recently melted leaving behind last years brown grasses and the starts of some flowers. Even the larch are not fully leafed out.

On the rocky mountaintop there was some extra color from Ladybugs! Technically, I think they are Lady beetles but whatever you call them, there were thousands, probably millions of them. As I understand it, they migrate up in the fall and hibernate under the big rocks and emerge when the weather starts to warm up. It wasn’t really warm in my opinion. 52 degrees at the car when I started and colder still on top with a stiff breeze. The sun came out as I went down and it was warm enough to lose the jacket before I returned to the trailhead.

Along the road to the trailhead, scarlet gilia, various penstemons and lupine were blooming

Roger Lake from the trail

Roger Lake in the distance

Spring beauty

Clark’s Nutcracker. These birds have excellent spatial memory, which enables them to cache up to 33,000 seeds in the fall, and then locate a large percentage of those during the winter. Information from http://www.birdweb.org

Looking back down the trail

A good rock for a break. About halfway up and it has a nice depression that collects water

Sky wonders if we are really going to the mountain top. Or maybe she is watching Luna.

Someone named this rock. I think they call it Troll Rock.

Buttercups

Sweet yellow flower growing out of a crack in a lichen-covered rock

The top is over 8000′ elevation and there it is.

Sky waits while I catch my breath

Hmmm, another one I need to learn.

Clark’s Nutcrackers cache seeds from whitebark pine trees and here under a rock outcrop, there were two whitebark pines growing. I wonder if the nutcracker planted the pine nuts and forgot them.