Join Thor, Reo dog, and me as we return to the mountains, and I celebrate my recovering energy with a brisk swim in a snowmelt lake.
A couple of weeks ago, I revisited an old blog post of a hike to one of our favorite places — Bagley Lake in the Mt. Baker Forest. After another recurrence of my never-smoker lung cancer this summer, with subsequent radiation treatments, my energy was feeling pretty tapped out, and a recent attempt at a short mountain hike fizzled out. But a couple weeks ago, as we were still enjoying late-summer sunshine, my energy was definitely better, so Thor and I decided to seize the day and return for another attempt at Bagley Lake and higher.
Our usual route was blocked due to removal of an old CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) dam on the outflow stream (barely visible in photo above), so we descended to the lake via the upper route over old lava beds from volcanic Mt. Baker.
We lucked out with a perfect early-September day, and amazingly almost no other hikers — a welcome change from increasing hordes the last couple of years that have caused traffic jams on the trails. Unfortunately, the change might be due to the nasty Trump belligerence driving away our Canadian neighbors.
Bagley Lake beckoned us below:
At the bottom, Reo jumped into the outflow pond below another CCC project — the rock/concrete bridge crossing to the opposite shore and the trail that climbs toward higher Chain Lakes. Sweet dippers — water ouzels — bobbed on boulders and swam in the stream.
A climb up to our favorite picnic spot offered a view of the top of Mt. Shuksan…
…and a view of Table Mountain above a steep rockfall.
Hiking around the base of Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker involves a lot of rock scrambling beneath and through avalanche chutes.
We celebrated the day, enjoying the colors of turning foliage against that blue blue mountain sky.
Back down to the lake:
Here we have previously seen river otters, but not this day.
Carpe diem! Warm sunshine and clear water called for a swim to cleanse body and spirit. That rush of snowmelt cold and whole-body tingling always calls for my traditional cry: “I’m alive!”
Reo shares my love of the water, as he gets delirious with joy to plunge in and join me.
Typical deposits of volcanic columnar andesite on the way back up:
I was getting tired on the way back up, as my breathing capacity at altitude is diminished, what with scarring and only 1.5 lungs, so I pulled out my secret weapon: Thor’s gift of “Boost” bottled compressed oxygen. Taking a few shots of O2 really helped!
Tired and happy to be hiking again, I relaxed as my Hero Thor drove us back down the winding highway. A last glimpse of Mt. Shuksan:
And a stop at the ranger station and one of the beautiful “Ent trees” — giant big-leaf maples covered with moss:
Beneath the tree is another memory of the Depression-Era CCC — a statue recently installed memorializing those hardy workers who built many of our national park structures.
Next week: Another hike at Mt. Baker. Carpe diem!
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the breathtaking wilderness of Sara’s native Pacific Northwest. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
