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Tag Archives: North Cascades

Black Lake Hike

The girls and I hiked to Black Lake on Friday. This hike is more about the trail than the destination. It follows Lake Creek which is really roaring with white water now. I was pleased that the girls stayed away from the rushing stream. The area burned about ten or fifteen years ago and is a recovering forest with standing silver snags, numerous species of shrubs and wildflowers and in some places there are thick stands of small pine trees and aspens. Every year lots of those silver snags fall, often across the trail, and it hasn’t been logged out yet. According to the information at the trailhead, there are 48 downed trees along the route. This certainly slows a person down. Most I could get across; some I had to go under and in at least one case I had to go around a big log.

Another feature is a series of beaver ponds near the lake. These efficient engineers have dammed up a tributary creek and created some really good habitat but also have flooded the trail in places. It proved to be a bit of a challenge for me to get across a series of downed logs over the pond to return to the trail.

The flowers and bird song slowed me down too. I was able to identify four different warblers by their songs alone. I stopped many times when the trail was away from the stream, so I could listen to the birds and photograph the flowers. Needless to say, I did not make good time on this hike but like I said, it’s more about the trail than the destination.

Luna looks happy to be in the wilderness
First log across the trail
Later she would go under logs like this
Paintbrush
Paintbrush
Two kinds of lupine
Serviceberry
Paintbrush
Cute tiny flower
maple
Lewisia tweedii
Tweedy’s Lewisia
Mountain ash flower with pollinator.
Mountain ash flower with pollinator
Mountain ash flower with two pollinators
Wild clematis
Wild clematis
Oh gosh, I’ve forgotten this one
Elderberry
Beautiful little flower on a thorny shrub
Douglas sunflowers
penstemon
penstemon
ferns unfurling
columbine
fungi
A log that was cut out of the trail last year
Talus slopes like this had pikas in them
Aspens growing out of the galus
Big boulder in the trail
Avalanche debris strewn across the trail
Hmmmm
Lake Creek
Beaver pond
Beaver pond
Black Lake
Cooling off

And here’s the list of birds I heard and saw:

Ruffed Grouse

Mourning Dove

Calliope Hummingbird

Hairy Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Hammond’s Flycatcher

Dusky Flycatcher

Warbling Vireo

Common Raven

Black-capped Chickadee

Pacific Wren

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

American Robin

Nashville Warbler

MacGillivray’s Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Song Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

Black-headed Grosbeak

Red-winged Blackbird

Pine Siskin

Dogs Just Want to Have Fun

Early snowfall in the North Cascades makes everyone happy around here. After two low snow years, we are hoping (against predictions) for lots and lots of snow for fun and to replenish the depleted aquifers and streams and maybe to give us a reprieve from wildfires next year.

MA and I loaded the dogs and various layers of winter clothes and drove to Rainy Pass where we found ten inches of snow on the ground and hardly any tracks. We were the first to walk to Rainy Lake. It looked like some folks had gone to Maple Pass – nothing we wanted to try in winter conditions. The dogs and especially Luna were delighted to see snow again! It seems like so much more fun for them to run and romp hard with a soft white blanket to cushion the crashes.

At the lake I attempted to re-create a portrait of Sky that I made two years ago when she was a three month old puppy. You can see the original here. It’s similar but she is looking the wrong direction. My fault!

Like a Christmas card.
Quincy and Luna
Frida
Everyone in one image
But mom, she took my stick
So quiet in the snow-covered forest
Rainy Lake looks cold
Please throw the stick
We’re not so sure about that idea
Throw the stick
Like two years ago
I’ll get it!
The older dogs slowed down on the way back
What’s over there?
An attempt at a four dog portrait

Cutthroat Pass Hike

This is another great fall hike! We started at the Cutthroat trailhead and hiked five and a half miles to the pass where we connected with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and hiked down another five or so miles to Rainy Pass where we had left a second car in the morning. We did not have the blue skies and sunshine of the previous week’s hike and that made the dogs a lot more comfortable. Also there were numerous stream crossings, especially on the Rainy Pass side, where the dogs could wet their whistles. At the pass we saw quite a few PCT through hikers who were nearly to their goal on their hike from Mexico to Canada. The ones we talked to said they should reach the border in just four more days. They were all cheerful and looked healthy and hearty. After such a long journey on foot, I think I expected them to look gaunt and tired.

Starting up the trail, not yet to Cutthroat Lake
Unexpected water on the trail
I love this enormous slab of rock. Can you see the face in it?
Quincy looks good in red
The start of our walk through the magnificent yellow larch trees
Left to Canada or right to go south. We went south.
Luna celebrated her 9th birthday the day after this 11 mile hike!
It’s so hard to get everyone to pose all at once!
Tails
Through hikers enjoying a grand view at lunch time. I wonder how many of these grand views they’ve had since spring?
Seems like one small earthquake could change the face of that mountain
Looking south into the central Casades
Lots of switchbacks make for an easy grade.
The golden larch season is fleeting. It’s best to enjoy it while we can.
Out of the larches and into the dark forest.
It was so nice to see small creeks in this drought-stricken year.
Frida blends into this creek

Maple Pass Hike

The Maple Pass/Heather Pass loop hike may be one of the best, easily accessible fall hikes in the North Cascades. The fall foliage colors are outstanding. Combined with endless blue skies and surrounding mountain peaks and throw in a couple of brilliant tarns and it is sure to take your breath away.

My friend Cindy drove 2 1/2 hours to join me and all along the hike she kept saying – look at that, isn’t that just the prettiest sight. She was right. We did this seven-mile loop in a clockwise direction. This took us up the steepest part and down the more gradual sloping trail. We find that this is better for our feet, ankles and knees. Most other hikers went the other direction. We heard lots of pikas and got good looks at one of them. At the top of the ridge, a dark falcon went whizzing by us at top speed. It was so close we could almost feel the wing beats.

This is a lot of images. You should see what I left out!

Mountain ash
Climbing
Oh, it’s SO beautiful!
Lake Ann, one of two small mountain tarns we saw along the way
Red huckleberry foliage along the trail.
Ice crystals that emerge from the ground on cold nights.
Western larch needles. Larch is the only conifer I know that loses its needles every year.
Views, views, and more views.
See the tiny pika on the rock? Pika is the smallest member of the rabbit family. They live in talus fields like this and gather dry grasses, making little hay piles under the rocks, to eat in the winter.
You can see the downhill part of the trail above Lake Ann
The last stretch to the top
We walked up all those switchbacks.
Glacier Peak in the distance
Like being on top of the world!
Perfect lunch time view
And it was National Black Dog Day!
Already going downhill. The elevation slips away quickly on the downhill side.
Even Sky seems impressed by the color
The trail up was just on the other side of that ridge.
Last light on the peaks.
Still Smiling!

Blue Lake This Week

It seems crazy to have two posts in a row about hiking to Blue Lake. And what if I said that I’d been there another time in between these two hikes? Getting to the Blue Lake trailhead is an easy drive, all on pavement and the trail is not too long – less than three miles – to a superb destination. It’s pretty heavily used but if you time it right, it is a sweet spot.

Highway 20 to the west of us had been closed due to a wildfire at Newhalem in the North Cascades National Park. That meant that most of the traffic across Rainy and Washington Passes was non-existent! Ken wanted to go this weekend and even though I’d already been there twice in the last two weeks, it seemed like a good idea. Weather had moderated and our lives were returning to normal as the wildfires burning all around us were becoming contained. The highway opened while we were hiking.

It seemed too chilly to have her in the water very much. She was disappointed.
Stuff grows out of rocks
More stuff growing out of a rock
Stuff grows out of old wood
What is she saying to me?
Chipmunks on her mind
Smaller larches are already changing color
Fall
I like this rock
Last flowers
Willow gall
Fireweed
Fireweed
Two trees had fallen over the trail in this weekend’s heavy wind storm
Baby grouse at the trailhead as I arrived at the parking lot
Grouse – Dusky or Sooty? I think Sooty.