John Muir

 

On the eighth of August, I headed off to California to hike the northern 110 miles of the John Muir trail. Eleven of us headed across Florence Lake

with our guides Laura and Pat

to the other side where we met our mule skinner Rob and his six mules.  We were allocated 15 pounds of personal property for the 10 days.

And so  Jacob, my hiking companion and tent mate,

we said good by to civilization and began our climb into the High Sierra.

Where $400.00 a day buys to a tent spot on the rocks

and restrooms with great views, but minimal facilities.

Snow Lake

 

One last hike before I headed out on my 12 day trip along the John Muir trail.  I headed up to Snow Lake and then onto Gem hoping to get a little work out in the heat.  I don’t normally like hiking in the heat, but I was trying to acclimate to it before I went to California. and I was successful.  It got very hot, but beautiful

 

I went on past Snow Lake, pausing only long enough to eat a sandwich before I moved on. Saved my Oreo cookies for the trip back incase I needed some energy encouragement. Gem lake was largely deserted except for a couple of people camping and a few thousand mosquitoes.  turned out it was good to acclimate to the mosquitoes too.

There was quite a bit of snow around Gem lake.  It looked as though the lake had been melted out, (well almost melted out) for less than a week.

I climbed a ridge and got some nice views to the east. going right to left you have Snoqualmie and a little bit of Ludlin peak, the nice phalic shape of Mt. Thompson, the tiny little pyramid of Chimacum Peak and then I think three queens.

I made my way back to look down at Snow Lake and thought, “that’s really a long way to walk back to my car”

but in less than three hours I was back at my car and ready to have a slice of pizza at  Red Mountain Coffee on Snoqualmie Pass.

Snow Gem Lake pictures

Mason Lake

 

Well, I’m still two months behind on my postings, but I hope to get caught up this week. The end of July I headed up to the Ira Spring Trail to Mason Lake. Ira Spring helped write may of the classic hiking books with Harvey Manning, but Harvey wouldn’t speak to Ira at the end of his life.  Harvey didn’t want to see more people in the woods and Ira did. As an aside, several young hikers stopped me a couple of years ago and asked if I was Harvey Manning.  Not entirely a compliment since their books have been described as hiking with grumpy old men, but I was over sixty and I did have a beard, so I looked the part

It was hard to believe that this was the hot part of the summer. Clouds and snow on the ground at 4500 feet.  Global warming seems to be cooling us down.

But all of the moisture and cool weather made for nice green meadows. The bear grass thought it was great.  Hopefully, the Oregon grape and huckleberries will ripen before winter sets in.  Otherwise there will be some very hungry and irritable bears next spring.

The lake was peaceful and quiet and the breeze kept the mosquitoes away.

and there were sever nice rock formations along the shore. (When the clouds are low, your vistas are very short range.  ) And the mosses and lichens seemed very happy with the weather.

It wasn’t great weather, but I didn’t get wet, I didn’t get lost, and I was able to set at the lake with out mosquitoes.  Three out of the four things I always hope for in a hike.

 

 

photos from hike

Lodge Lake

 

I headed up to Lodge Lake, which I normally do as a snow shoe trip since it s a relatively short hike, but today I felt lazy.

On the way up, I passed by Beaver Pond.  I guess there might have been a beaver here a hundred years ago, but now it mainly inhabited by skiers.

And the ever present mosquito which weren’t too bad unless you spent twenty minutes tromping through the brush to get a better picture of the pond.  At this point I thought “do I really need another picture to add to the five hundred or so I already have of Lodge Lake.”  Ah, but it might be the perfect picture. (It wasn’t, but that was not entirely unexpected.) But the flowers were out in full force

lake had some interesting things growing/floating/rotting, what ever.  Nature isn’t always as nicely laid out as your flower beds. Except at my house where nature has laid out my flower beds and I still contend that the dandelion is an under appreciated flower.  what other flowers can you make wine out of?

And there was a lot of green. If you were a grazing animal or something that hunted grazing animals, this would be the place to be.

More Photos

Kachess Beacon

 

I headed up to Kachess Beacon because  it is a ridge walk and the breeze should keep the mosquitoes away. It was also my belief that being on the eastern side of the Cascade divide, it would be sunny.  As the poet said: “The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, gang aft agley."

 

But the fog kept your mind of the view and looking at the flowers.

The stone crop were particularly nice.

I carefully worked my way back down the ridge, it was steep

and after avoiding twisted ankles and bruised feet, was safely back at my car and headed towards Mountain High Burgers in Easton. (That might be the only reason one would stop at Easton.)

More photos from hike

Lake Annette

 

Well, I’m two months behind on my postings, but that is what happens when life is busy with hikes, trips to the John Muir Trail, and the birth of a grandson.  But I will try to catch up before I leave for Spain.  I know, retirement is tough, but someone has to do it.  On the sixth of July, I headed up to lake Annette to see if the snow was melted out.

It had, which is good because I ran into a church group looking for a dry place to camp. When I met them, they were standing beside the trail looking a 1000 feet down into a ravine, wondering where down there the sleeping bag of one of the campers had rolled to.  I had a better day than they did.  It was a shaded walk through the trees

along hump back creek

with all sorts of nice shady spots to set and contemplate.

Once I got to the lake I held my sandwich in one hand and swatted away the mosquitoes with the other hand.  The mosquitoes won the battle and I had to move on.

But I didn’t have to move on very quickly and so it was a casual stroll back down to my car watching the shadows on the trees

while enjoying my Oreo cookies, which I had not been able to eat in peace wile at the lake.

Mt Si

 

I was going to go hiking up Little Si, but when I got there, the parking lot was full, so I headed up the rode to Mt Si.  The parking lot is big there, but there was still only enough room to squeeze in a couple of cars.  Having a ten year old used Toyota, I’m probably a lot more comfortable with squeezing than the owners of the new cars I parked next to. There were blue skies and the temperature was a hot 72 degrees, but the trail winds through the trees and in the shade.

It is a nicely grade trail for the first 100 feet from the parking lot and then changes into the usual steep up hill rocky path.

 

The ferns have responded from the snow melt and wet spring. They were lush and covered the hill hide in large groves.

acres and acres of them.  Just like the ones people use to pay $15.00 for in the 80’s to hang in their bathrooms.

The salmon berries were growing and hadn’t been harvested by the hikers yet.  I’m sure they will be but a memory in a couple of weeks.

And there were the many pleasant places to stop and gawk. Here is the view from my lunch spot.

I haven’t hiked Mt Si in ten years because it is a lot of work, full of people and has a view of North Bend, which is okay if you can’t afford a vacation to Houston to see the oil derricks, but not as rewarding as say Mt Pilchuck. But Pilchuck is currently under eight feet of snow and so Si was starting to look attractive.  And it is a great walk through the trees.