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Tag Archives: Slate Peak

Mountain Summertime

If I could I’d be up in the mountains most of the summer. But that’s not practical. There’s work to do, a house and yard to keep up, and various other commitments in this life. Yesterday I played hooky from the computer taskmaster and headed to one of my favorite places – Slate Peak. I’ve made up my own hike and returned to it each year in mid-summer. Combining two trails, a bit of a cross-country climb and a walk down on a road I’ve come up with a nearly four-mile loop hike through the high Cascades of northern Washington. Last summer Mary from Montana joined me on this hike and you can see images from that day here. As you can see, it’s vastly different this year. Even accounting for the two week difference in dates the differences are huge. Yesterday there was no snow. Anywhere. Most of the little creeks are already dry. The wildflowers are far less numerous.

Here are the images from yesterday’s hike.

Down that steep talus slope, across the basin, up to the ridge to the next trail and then up to Slate Peak. Follow the road on the other side of the ridge back to the car.
Quit fooling with your pack and let’s get going!
Slate Peak
Oh gosh, she’s making another picture!
Looks like we’ve already gone a long way.
Gentian is one of my favorite wildflowers
I don’t know this one.
I used to know this one.
Paintbrush. There are so many variations in this colorful wildflower.
Paintbrush
Paintbrush
Painbrush
Painbrush
Mouse on a stick
Another one I’ve forgotten
Pretty umbel flower
Late for columbine
Pink monkeyflower
Normally this monkeyflower would bloom over a creek. This creek bed is dry
Downstream a few tiny pools for animals to get a drink
Waiting in the shade while I work my way slowly up to the ridgetop
This Common Raven has learned that people like to eat their lunch at the lookout
Sky thought she could put a sneak on raven
Raven simply unfolded her wings and was instantly airborne
Mount Baker, a semi-active volcano near Bellingham
Layers of mountains in the North Cascades
You can see a tiny view of Glacier Peak here. It’s another of our volcanic mountains.
North to Canada
Upper end of the Pasayten River which flows north into Canada
On the left you can see remnants of 100 year old gold mining operations
And looking down valley towards Winthrop you can see smoke from the Wolverine wildfire on the shore of Lake Chelan.

 

A Better Day for Us

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

End of Summer Hike

The days are growing shorter and this week the forecast promises cooler temperatures and rain again. Fall is coming. Summer is always the shortest season here in the Methow. Luna and I got up high in the mountains once more this past week to enjoy the sunshine and warmth before fall’s chill settles in.

I always have to stop and take in this view
That’s where we are going
A group of three ravens kept us company
Luna runs for joy
She’s wearing a colorful scarf because hunting season has started. I would not want anyone to mistake her for a bear or mule deer
We hiked across and down that talus slope and through the basin
Blue gentian – one of the few blooming wildflowers
A few creeks were still flowing, probably from the previous week’s downpour
Aster with pollinators
Two of these Red-tailed Hawks soared above us – kiting in search of food
There were few mushrooms along this route
And the view down valley from up high
Mountains looming above the ridge where we started
Slate Peak
Are we going that way?
Canada is only twenty miles away, thirty if you are on the nearby PCT.
A disappearing snow patch
Old, dirty snow
Ravens watch
We went up this trail to return to the road
Mt Baker
We made a little detour to the lookout before walking down the road to the car
I always like to take a walk through the silver forest. There are usually good birds
Another hawk
It could have been the same one we saw earlier
Tiny Campanula flowers

Slate Peak

Friends are visiting from Iowa this week and we are busy showing them the highlights of the valley and Ken is trying to take Paul to all the great fishing spots, despite the fact that steelhead season didn’t open when they thought it might. Little trout from streams and big trout in lakes will have to suffice for this visit. Yesterday we drove to Slate Peak and hiked around the basin below it and enjoyed the fall colors and migrating raptors. We saw Rough-legged Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Northern Harriers and some unidentified accipitor. Later the guys caught small trout in a beautiful mountain stream while Corly and I went to see spawaning chinook salmon in the Methow River. It was a lovely day.

 

Luna is practicing on the edge of Slate Peak for her upcoming agility trial

 

The last of the blue sky days

 

Smoke from the lingering wildfires creates some hazy conditions that doesn’t quite block the view of Mt Baker

 

Ken and Corly are dwarfed by the Pasayten Wilderness stretching off to Canada

 

Ken and Paul have been friends for 25 years and though they seldom see each other it’s as if they were together all the time!

 

Luna

 

This is the basin I hiked through a month or so ago. See that here.

 

Slate Peak Lookout

 

These sedimentary rocks show that while we were over 7000′ elevation, this land was once underwater.

 

Lunch from the Rocking Horse Bakery, Mazama Store and a local orchardist served on a lichen covered rock!

 

Does Luna really like Paul so much or is she considering his lunch?

 

Lichens

 

Fall colors in an old burned forest

 

No shortage of cameras

 

If a tree falls in the forest…………

 

Not Yet Fall

It’s been a few weeks since I had a nice hike in the mountains. I had grand plans for a hike every week this summer and have fallen far short of that goal. Yesterday’s hike was a good one. With the passing of Labor Day and the start of school, it sems that summer is over. Nights are cooler and days are way shorter. The light is marvelous and the air is crisp making for perfect hiking conditions. Luna and I drove most of the way to Slate Peak and then took the Buckskin trail down into the basin below the lookout. We left the trail and rambled through the basin and then up to the ridge where we found the West Fork of the Pasayten trail and returned to the road and walked back to the car. It was not a long hike but it was long on views and surprisingly, quite a few flowers. There were also lots of migrating birds – in particular I noticed Cooper’s Hawks, American Pipits and White – crowned Sparrows. Also many finches in flight that I could not identify.

 

Almost to Mazama on highway 20 I saw this free range or feral piano, abandoned by the side of the road. There was a package of castors to replace the broken ones. I’ve seen bbq’s, out dated tv’s, couches, even old satellite dishes; but this is the first time of seen a piano on the side of a road.

 

Luna is wearing red because it’s hunting season and more than once I’ve benn told that she looks like a black bear.

 

This photo needs some arrows to show our route. Our trail drops down there in the shade on the bottom right of the image and then you can barely see it crossing the talus (rock) slope to the left before it drops down into the meadow. We crossed through the larch trees and on the other side of them left the trail to ramble up through the basin and to the ridge, where we joined the second trail and it took us to the road just below and to the left of the lookout on the high point.

Red leaves show that there’s already been a frost. It was 42 in the sunshine when we started our hike. I was glad I had a jacket and wool gloves.

 

Luna is already out on the trail.

 

In the meadow there were lots of flowers. Here is a paintbrush (Castilleja sp) with blue gentian in the background

 

I love the dark blue gentian, a late summer flower in the high country.

 

Looking back at the trail as we enter the trees.

There was a family of Cooper’s Hawks calling loudly and flying around in this area.

 

Moss shows that the area is still wet despite the fact that we’ve had no rain in a month or more.

 

I could not resist this tiny scene

 

How many months of lupine are there? Seems like I’ve been seeing it since April!

 

Pink monkeyflower and its shadows.

 

More paintbrush. I saw at least three different colors of it.

 

Someone’s burrow. It is pretty good sized. Maybe a marmot? I think they live in rocks. A wolverine?

 

Another view looking back. We’ve left the trail and are heading up now.

 

And looking down valley. Within a month all those larch (tamarack) trees will turn golden and their needles will begin to drop.

 

A much-needed rest in the shade.

 

Now we are higher than when we started.

 

My cell phone has a compass app. I wonder how it works even without a cell signal? Any ideas?

 

Looking north towards Canada. The stunted spruce and other species of trees at high elevations are sometimes referred to as krumholtz – crooked, bent or twisted

 

Luna was happy to find two lingering snow patches

 

And up to the road. It was almost a mile walk back to the car.

 

Views to the west from the road. That’s Mount Baker in the middle.

 

And a last view of the lookout

 

We stopped in a silver forest to look for birds. Mostly Yellow-rumped Wablers. Also a Townsend’s Solitaire.

 

An aster next to the creek.

 

Ahhhhhh.