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Tag Archives: North Cascades

Birthday Dog

Well, what do you do when your dog has her sixth birthday? Get some friends and go for a hike! If you’d ask Sky, she probably would have voted for a lake but it was Saturday and the lakes were busy.

It was a new trail for us and we were all impressed with the flowers, the views, the pollinators and the huckleberries. It’s one we will do again.

Lots of pollinators on this cow parsnip flower
Blue gentian
Grass of Parnassus
The views!
The flowers!
Who uses this burrow? It looked active with a trail going to the creek and another going across the hillside, both starting at the burrow. It was about twelve inches wide and maybe eight inches high.
Pink monkeyflower
Columbine
Dignified?
Anemone seedheads
more gentian
Red willowherb, similar to fireweed
I’m not sure what brought that on
Lots of huckleberries
Sky picked her own berries
I think this is monkshood, Aconitum columbianum.

Late Spring Hike

Red Molly joined us for a lovely hike in the mountains earlier this week. The weather was darned near perfect – sunny and warm but not too warm. It is a dry hike so I carried water for the dogs. There is one spring just off the trail about 1/3 of the way up and Luna knows where to find it. It’s generally more of a mud hole but this time it held a little bit of running water.

Views were outstanding and the flowers are just starting at that elevation (6500 up to 8200 feet). Ladybugs were abundant. I don’t know why they converge at high elevations. I have observed them at this mountain top several times over the years as well as at other places in the Cascades. There are many kinds of ladybugs (technically a beetle, not a bug) and many of them are convergent. I have no idea what they are eating up there and when they will leave for more friendly habitats. I do know that later in the summer, they won’t be there, based on my observations which are not science-based at all. Is anyone studying them?

Here are the birds I saw on this hike: Dusky Grouse, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Clark’s Nutcracker, Common Raven, Horned Lark, Mountain Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Cassin’s Finch, Pine Siskin, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Savannah Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Western Tanager.

I like this hike. Here is the trail in the fall.

This forest burned in 2006
So energetic at the start
Roger Lake
First patch of snow
A well-used trail
Larches are just leafing out
What are you looking at girls?
Setting up for a timed selfie
No Molly, that’s not how we do it
Let’s try it again
Molly! Sky says this is how you do it Molly. Look at the camera
Oh gosh, someday I will remember to wear a hat.
Oh look, Sky got a stick.

Another Fall Hike

My friend Cindy came to visit from Grant County and she really likes to hike the Maple Pass trail so on Monday, that’s what we did. Us and over 100 other hikers. The place has become overrun with visitors. The restrooms were strewn with trash from the weekend. It was pretty appalling. I heard that someone else estimated 500 hikers on a weekend day. Egads. While this place is over-the-top beautiful, I may take it off of my list of places to hike. Cindy agreed and said she is ready to explore new trails next time.

Ice crystals pushed up through the packed dirt of the shaded part of the trail.
Luna was delighted to find new snow.
Almost to the top
Looking south with Glacier Peak on the left
Lake Ann
It wasn’t all yellow and orange.

Fall Colors at Blue Lake

This hike at this time of the year is nearly irresistible. How can you NOT do this? Just the drive to the trailhead is enough to make you stop and pay attention.

Liberty Bell is glorious with golden larches and a dusting of snow
Icy puddle on the trail
We always stop to enjoy this pond near the trailhead
It was 32 degrees at the parking lot and didn’t get warmer til we got up into the sun
Lots of color in the avalanche chute
Almost looks like the Caribbean

It Wasn’t Easy

But it was stunningly beautiful. Easy Pass. It’s another great hike right off of highway 20 through the North Cascades. It starts out in a green, moist forest, something we don’t get to experience very often. That is because it is west of the Cascade Crest where there is more precipitation and it’s not as hot. Much of the trail goes in and out of the forest giving some respite from the sunshine. We had a fair amount of off and on cloud cover in addition to somewhat hazy skies as a result of wildfires. At a certain point the trail really gets to work – sending you up and over seemingly never ending talus slopes. Ok, I’m not in very good shape and the steepness was pretty hard on me, both going up and going down. Even Luna and Sky were pretty tired. But the views were worth it. And there were creeks most of the way so the dogs had plenty of chances to cool themselves.

Fireweed
Lots of hikers out on a Sunday
Ferns growing out of rocks!
Luna’s resting spot
Granite Creek