Join Thor, Bear dog, and me for a cloudy hike on the skirts of Mt. Baker/Koma Kulshan.
NOTE: I’ll continue my Virtual Italy Vacation series next week, with occasional interruptions in upcoming weeks for outdoor adventures in our beautiful Pacific Northwest.
I’m continuing to work on my hip-injury rehab, building strength, while also building stamina for heart and lungs after the various health issues of this past year. So once the road to Artist Point in our nearby Mt. Baker Wilderness finally opened for this year, Thor and I decided on the next challenge: Hiking the Chain Lakes trail. Normally I would consider this an easy/moderate hike along the ridge and then down to the mountain lakes, but I wasn’t certain how well I’d do this year.
After our weird climate-change heat waves this summer, we’re now in a cool and cloudy phase, but we decided to “seize the day” anyway. Way down there in the valley, you might catch a glimpse of Baker Lake.
Just to prove that our beautiful Mt. Baker (originally called Koma Kulshan by the indigenous people) actually exists behind those clouds, here’s a view from a previous year:
Going up to the mountains is a chance to time travel back in the season to fresh blossoms of fireweed, indian paintbrush, and more.
Over the crest and almost down to the first of the Chain Lakes:
A snowmelt stream replenishes the lake waters.
Above us, Table Mountain. The trail we just traversed cuts along that talus slope. The rocky stretches aren’t my favorite walking surface, but it’s worth it to breathe in that clean mountain air and openness.
One of our favorite picnic spots beside the snowmelt stream, now bursting with pink monkeyflower blooms:
More blooms in the boggy area beside the lake:
Another view of the flank of Table Mountain, from our favorite boggy grotto, again filled with lush greenery and wildflowers.
Bear dog loves all the opportunities for a cooling soak.
Hiking back uphill, we marveled at these tiny blossoms of stonecrop plants among the rocks:
Driving home on the forested Mt. Baker Highway, we decided to stop at Nooksack Falls, which we hadn’t seen in a long time. These 88-foot falls are part of the North Fork of the Nooksack River, fed by snowmelts off the mountains.
Another arm of the river joining at the bottom of the falls. All this water and greenery symbolizing our Pacific Northwest is dependent on enough mountain snowpack to melt and feed the streams and rivers until the next winter. This year, climate change brought us a disastrous heat dome in June that melted our snowpack to 0% reserves and damaged many regional crops. The future for our beautiful green nature is precarious.
A river pool above the falls:
Bear dog mellows out among the heather and sends his love to all! He got a lot of petting by other hikers, so he’s feeling that all’s right with his world.
Next week: Back in time to hike along the Cinque Terre coast in Italy.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Cafe is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?” The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
Oh, this hiking trail is gorgeous and inviting despite the hanging clouds! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Khaya. It’s one of my favorite hikes in our nearby mountains.