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

Chain Lakes

October 10 was forecast to be a sunny day and we have not had many of them lately, so I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go hiking in the Mount Baker area.  However, the sun never appeared, though the day was dry and the hike pleasant.  In fact, one of the few hikers I met asked where the sunshine was.  She, with her dog, had apparently had heard the forecasts, had the same idea and suffered the same disappointment.

I decided to hike the Galena-Chain Lakes loop, which takes one up from Austin Pass and Bagley Lakes through Herman Saddle and around the back of Table Mountain to Artist's Point and back down to Austin Pass or the other way around.  The hike was not difficult, a total of eight miles with 1700 feet elevation gain, most of that up from Bagley Lakes to Herman Saddle.  We had hiked to Herman Saddle several times but never all the way.

The disappointment of the hike was that neither Mount Shuksan nor Mount Baker were visible through the mist and clouds, except for occasional glimpses, though I did see Mount Shuksan on my way to the trailhead at Picture Lake.  The autumn color, however, was very good and the clouds made for some very atmospheric shots.

Picture Lake and Mount Shuksan

Mount Larabee and the Border Peaks

Bagley Lakes

autumn color on the way to Herman Saddle

 glimpses of the surrounding peaks

blueberries

more autumn color

Western Pasque Flower seedheads

more peaks and clouds

 at Herman Saddle

Iceberg Lake

 blueberries

Sitka Mountain Ash

 more autumn color

 Hayes Lake

Iceberg Lake again

Cascade Aster

 the streams that connect Hayes Lake and Mazama Lake

 Mazama Lake

Table Mountain

 where Mount Baker should have been

up again to Ptarmigan Ridge

Ptarmigan Ridge

 on to Artist's point

 threatening skies

 Stika Mountain Ash

Mount Baker Wilderness sign

 around the back side of Table Mountain

 nearly to Artist's Point

Fireweed

Artist's Point

 heather

 looking back across Upper Bagley Lake to Herman Saddle

 headed back down to Austin Pass

Table Mountain from Austin Pass

autumn color at Austin Pass