Railroad Grade

"the mountains are His own"

On September 2 I did the first and long hike of 2017.  Before surgery in May, I had not had opportunity and after surgery did not feel like hiking.  This hike to Railroad Grade was very nearly too much for me and we did not hike again until 2018.

Railroad Grade has nothing to do with trains.  The trail, which follows the edge of a glacial moraine, is named for its gentle grade and is one of the approaches for climbing Mount Baker from the south.  I hiked there with my wife and three others.

We went as far as the climbers' camp and enjoyed thee spectacular views of Mount Baker or Koma Kulshan, the White Watcher and Easton Glacier which left the moraine up which we hiked.  The trail is about 7 miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain.

 first views of Baker

Purple Monkeyflower

sedge

beginning of the Railroad Grade trail

(the first 2.5 miles are part of the Park Butte trail)

Park Butte

Sitka Mountain Ash

Gray Jay

Northern Checkerspot

Mount Baker

(Easton Glacier on the left and the trail along the glacial moraine just visible)

on the moraine and looking back

on the moraine and looking forward

Sitka Mountain Ash

 Park Butte across the valley

 Twin Sisters

more trail

near the climbers' camp

Washington and Grandchildren

"thou shalt see thy children's children"

Returning from South Dakota and the Black Hills with two of our grandchildren, we went first to Yellowstone and then on to Spokane where we stayed a few days.  While in Spokane we visited Manito City Park Riverfront Park and Riverside State Park.

Manito City Park

Riverfront Park

Riverside State Park

From Spokane we headed home and spent the rest of the summer taking our grandchildren here and there, though I ended up back in the hospital for a fourth time with an obstructed bowel.  Nonetheless, we were able to do quite a bit with them by way of showing them something of our beautiful state and all its attractions.

In the town where we lived we took them to the Northwest Washington Fair and they enjoyed riding our go-cart in the parking lot near our home.  The fair is an annual event to which we seldom go, having been there so many times.  The entry fee has become prohibitively expensive as well, but we wanted them to see some of it, and so paid the necessary fees.

Northwest Washington Fair

One excursion was to Whidbey Island, where we visited and walked the Deception Pass bridge before going on to Fort Casey State Park, the site of an old World War II fort and a beautiful lighthouse.  There they explored the fort, climbed to the top of the lighthouse and enjoyed a beautiful summer day near Puget Sound.

Deception Pass

Fort Casey State Park

One of the highlights of their stay was an all-day whale-watching trip out into Puget Sound.  We went to see Orcas and did see plenty of them.  The boat-ride is a pleasant experience in any case, but the whales were wonderful, too.  That was a rather expensive trip for the four of us, but in our opinion always worth what we pay for it.

 We took them to the Mount Baker area also, to Artist's Point, where they went sledding in July in the still-abundant snow in t-shirts and shorts.  In fact, the winter before had been a winter of near-record snowfall, so the road was only just open when we were there.  I'm certain that they had a summer that they will long remember, though they now live near us in eastern Washington.