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 57 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Ever since I decided to go west for my big trip, I had dreamed of high mountain lakes with snowy peaks arching in every direction, with chilly air making every moment crisp, and with clear skies bringing all into perfect focus-- pure bliss. Today was the first of many great mountain lake days to come. Hiking here was far easier here than in the San Juans because the snow was packed down on the trail, but I brought my mini crampons for the downhill. I made it safely past a narrow ridge with narly black peaks across the gorge (pic 1), then up to Mills Lake (pic 2) then Jewel Lake then the Loch (pic 3) then down before the afternoon rain started falling. I hiked around some lower, more accessible lakes but the sky was now overcast and pictures no good. I drove up the open portion of the Ridge road amid a very light dusting of snow before heading back to camp for dinner and bedtime. I did manage to capture some fine Elk grazing in a meadows on the return trip and a g...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

Day 51 - Canyonlands Needles Pt 3

A deep connection to the nature surrounding you comes from the solitude of solo travel, but sometimes it is nice to have a companion! I ran into David, a retired telecom exec from Canada a few days ago on the Syncline Loop trail at Canyonlands Island in the Sky. Then I ran into him again halfway through my Chesler Park hike two days ago, then again later in the hike, finishing the last two miles together. David hiked his favorite trail, the Peekaboo trail yesterday, and said I could join him, but my heart was set on confluence trail, so we hiked separately. We did share a campsite though and exchanged travel stories. David was 55 and had retired at 50 from a high-level international job with Nortel and was now traveling full-time. We instantly bonded over our solo travel style. He outclassed me by leagues. He had trekked one month in Nepal, then another month in India, then some months in Asia. He had hiked and skied and adventured all over the western U.S. and Canada....

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