Days 115 and 116 - North Cascades Mount Baker

After a relaxing morning of coffee and TV in bed, followed by a nice breakfast, I drove Bill and Roman to the airport and drove north toward the North Cascades mountains.

I took care of a few chores in Seattle before leaving the city: food resupply at Costco, oil change and brake check. My first stop in the North Cascades was the Mount Baker area. I had seen Mount Baker, the white sentinel, from way back in Vancouver and was excited to see it up close. But I didn't have time today... Instead I saw the lake and settled in to a campground to convert the van back to a camper and get organized.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit lazy. I drove around the lake for an hour taking in the various viewpoints and then found a shady spot to take a midday nap. Finally motivated to hike at 4pm, I drove up a winding dirt road to Mount Baker. The hike up to Park Butte was pretty, going through an alpine meadow and then steeply up a dense forest.

I had low expectations for this hike but they were blown away once I turned up the Railroad Grade trail towards a climbers camp near one of Baker's glaciers. The trail went up a narrow ridgeline, constantly charging up closer to Baker. And what views!!

Mount Baker on the right. Happy hiker on the left:)

Panarama looking out over the Cascades. I think I saw Mount Rainier 75 miles away.

As I continued to climb, the views got even better. This range, curled blue above the green forest trees, caught my eye.

And then, at the very top, just below the climber camp, while looking west, I saw the ocean and islands-- maybe Vancouver. Epic!

The North Cascades are vast and beautiful; this sunbathing marmot (on the rock) agreed.

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Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 42 - Escalante Stevens Arch

The Stevens Arch is so massive that legend says daredevil pilots would fly through it. I was excited to see it! Having napped most of the afternoon, I awoke promptly at 545, packed up my things and hiked down to the Escalante River as the first morning light was pouring into the canyon. Hiking around more waterfalls and ledges and along the stream before anyone else was up was nice. My written directions said to look for sandy hill to my right which led up to my only exit from the canyon-- the Crack-in-the-Wall. I ran into the confluence of the Escalante River, a point which my guidebook noted was passed my exit route, requiring a ten minute backtrack. This was fine though because I had tons of time and wanted to see the Stevens Arch. I crossed the knee-deep Escalante River several times before the Arch came into view. Like a window in the Roman Colloseum, the Arch seemed almost engineered by man in this tall curving canyon wall. I hiked under the arch and couldn't eve...

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