Back today from 2 nights at Mazama Lake in the Mount Baker area and a July 24 hike along Ptarmigan Ridge to Coleman Pinnacle. I'll post pics soon.

The hike to Mazama Lake from the Artist Point parking lot is indecently easy to get to a fabulous camp spot. The hike out is harder than the hike in and my 10 year old son and I did the hike out today in 50 minutes.

We spent 7 hours on our casual trip out Ptarmigan Ridge from Mazama camp and were treated to alpine splendour every step of the way (including some good snow sliding). A highlight (or lowlight) of the trip was topping the ridge and spotting a small forest fire down the Swift Creek drainage. On our return it had grown considerably and we stopped to watch a lone helicopter with bucket battling the now considerably larger fire. When we hiked out July 25th, the entire Baker/Shuksan area was heavily smoke filled suggesting that the fire was far from being contained.

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"Aging ... it beats the alternative"

Looking forward to the photos. It sounds like a nice trip that you had, other than the forest fire report.

Was that fire anywhere near Lake Ann area?

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A sensitive plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, And closed them beneath the kisses of night.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley~

The fire on the West side of a ridge well to the South of Lake Ann. It was moving up the ridge and the wind was pushing it North into an area of thin growth and rock bluffs. As long as it didn't top the ridge and drop into the next valley, I don't think the Lake Ann area would be directly at risk.

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"Aging ... it beats the alternative"

That is great news! You had a couple of us concerned about our long weekend plans.

Thanks for replying.

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A sensitive plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, And closed them beneath the kisses of night.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley~

A few pics from the trip:

Chain Lakes evening


Swift Creek fire


Swift Creek fire


Ptarmigan Ridge


Baker (it smelled like sulpher around here)


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"Aging ... it beats the alternative"

Good to see that fire is further down the valley. Nice pictures of Table Mountain from the Chain Lakes side! How were the bugs? See any goats on your Ptamigan Ridge hike?

"Baker (it smelled like sulpher around here)"

Must have been downwind from Sherman Crater that day. Did you know that Mt. Baker is the biggest source of SO2 polution in the Fraser Valley?


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"Function is beauty"

Hiker Boy: The bugs were a very minor annoyance (but we did put on bug juice in camp), saw no sign of goats ... except ... we saw a large animal crossing a snow field well ahead of us which we weren't able to identify because I couldn't get my hand on my monocular fast enough. Didn't look quite right for a goat but it could have been ...



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"Aging ... it beats the alternative"