Driving to the top of a mountain

We live very close to the Cascade National Park and the Mount Baker Recreation Area. One of the things I've discovered being up here is that every populated area west of the Cascade Mountain Range has 'their' mountain. Our mountain (the Bellingham area) is Mount Baker. People are always referring to it such as: "Well, you can certainly see Mount Baker today." If you meet someone and ask for touring tips, it's always, always mentioned. "You know, you have to see Mount Baker." I'm rather amused because you can 'see' Mount Baker anytime you look up and east. It is impressive since it's about 10,800 feet tall and is surrounded by other equally impressive peaks that all top out over 9,000 feet. They are dark grey and the tops are still snow covered. The Mount Baker area is what you could call a casual skiing area. There don't seem to be formal ski resorts lining its base, and there are lots of references to places to snowboard, sled, snowshoe and cross county ski that are virtually if not totally free and accessible to whomever wants to use them. This is the kind of ski/winter sport experience you can get when the US Forest Service is managing the resource. You get the feeling that in the summertime, everyone is just waiting for winter to begin. We discovered that if you drive up into the Cascades around Mount Baker that winter has never left. We did have on mesh tennis shoes and ankle socks on the drive, but quickly realized that we needed to break out our hiking boots and wool socks just to walk around. You actually had to climb up a snow hill to get to the top for the pinnacle scenery

Western Washington is very beautiful and has great contrasts. This was very evident in our trip up the mountain. As you can see from the picture above, we found snow higher than our heads at the very end of the scenic drive (Hwy 542) on the 2nd of August. On this road we also found flat as pancake farmland planted in food crops, and Christmas trees, ice cold rushing rivers, towering fir trees, an old growth forest, and as we reached the end of the road - a hair raising highway driving experience as we wound our way up and up and up. You'll see from the accompanying pictures why the end of this road is called Artist's Point.

This Mount Baker Recreation Area, which is managed by the US Forest Service, was originally inhabited by the Nooksack Indian tribe who lived in bands along the Nooksack River. "Nooksack" is the English approximation of an Indian word for a type of edible fern that was a staple in the Indians' diet. This entire area was extensively logged (and still is - but sustainably) beginning in the 1880's. It took a 'donkey engine' (gas powered engine) that could cut up the big logs so they could get them off the mountains that really got the logging developed into a major industry in this neck of the woods. There was constant logging here all the way thru the 1920s. There's one small area, which today is a research station, where there is still old growth forest. It's a very small area, and I have no idea how it managed to escape the axes and saws. At this time of the year, the forest area was mosquito heaven. I could barely stand still long enough to have a picture made when we did manage to find the 'social trail' into the old growth forest. A social trail is one that people have established by simply using the same path over and over again, but isn't recognized nor maintained by the forest service. The log section to the right is in front of the Ranger Station. The picture to the left is a standing tree of about the same size. They are both about 700 years old. We exited the forest pretty fast due to the bugs.

Next stop was another contrast - a 100 foot high twin water fall where two forks of the Nooksack River meet. At this time of the year, the snow melt from the surrounding mountains are filling the creeks, and the river. There's lots of white water on the Nooksack, and some really treacherous white water rafting areas. Parts of this river are so difficult to raft, that it reminded me of the Animas River in Colorado which is a Class 5 (meaning only adrenaline junkies, teenage boys, and those with a death wish should attempt to raft it.) The water fall was loud and breathtakingly, but I really liked the fork flowing into the waterfall. This was some of my favorite scenery on a scenic overload afternoon. ( I'll send all the pictures under a separate email for those of you who want to see all the images from this day trip.)

This was a relaxing day of driving, pausing, ooohing and ahhing, picture taking, and marveling at not only the terrain contrasts but also the temperature contrast. It was 'hot' yesterday - yes, it's a relative term, but to these folks, it was hot - 78 degrees. When we reached the top of the mountain, it was 60 degrees. That's about as warm as it's going to get up there, and we feel like we had a perfect weather day yesterday. We topped off the day by finding the burger joint of Burlington. Even at 7 pm yesterday evening it was mobbed - and the burgers were good - not Cool Al good (best burger I've ever eaten), but good nevertheless.

Next trip will probably be a biking outing. We've been biking two mornings - looking for the best place for an exercise ride.