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 Hiking to the glacier
Washington Trails Association
Archives
June 2004
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GET OUT!... Life is too short to sit in front of your computer. So we are taking the advice of a Life is Good t-shirt and "getting out". Our outdoor interests in the summer are hiking and biking. In the winter we love to downhill ski. And we've talked about trying snowshoeing but haven't done it yet. We will post our current plans of hiking or biking or skiing around town and the local area. Want to join us? Check out this page for updates on what's going on. Any questions? Email Gary. He's the man with the plan. The name sounds like it's in Africa but actually it's in the Alpine Lakes area of the Mt Baker Wilderness. Probably the best thing about this hike is most of the elevation gain was done on 4 wheels. We drove up a forestry road to the trailhead and we were already at 4400 feet. On foot we only ascended another 400 feet. The plan was to hike at least to Sawyer Pass, which is a meadow at the top of the ridge. And then if there was time to hike over to Fisher Lake for more views. The trail up to the pass and beyond was very obviously marked. But we searched, with map and compass in hand and we could not find the more primitive trail that goes to the lake. So the pass was as far as we went. On the pass are several places where you could pitch a tent. We hiked half in the sun, half in overcast, with just a rain drop or two. At Sawyer pass there was snow still melting so it was a little bit like a soggy bog. The mosquitoes were biting and we forgot our deet. So we now bear a few welts on our arms, legs and shoulders, etc. In the 6.8 mile roundtrip hike we ran into about 8 or so patches of snow. It's July 3rd and there's still snow up there!  Anita is peaking around a shrub but being careful because the next step is a mud puddle.  From reading the description for this hike on the Washington Trail Association's web site you would think there are a lot more views. There was a part of the trail that cuts across the mountain-side where we were out of the trees and indeed the view was beautiful. Today, not so much because it was a little cloudy. I tried catching some sunlight on the mountain across a valley. If I'm reading the map correctly this is Sobieski Mt.  The entire hike, from trailhead and back to the trail head was about 4 hours. posted by Gary at Monday, July 03, 2006 |
