Skyline Divide, August 16 2009

As planned, Duncan and I hiked Skyline Divide today. We left the condo at about 6. On the way up the road, we had a sudden surprise with a giant boulder in the road. My guess was that it had rolled down from the slope the night before, because the dirt around it was a different color than the dirt of the road, and there were no tracks passing it on the right. I was the first to pass the boulder in the road! Yay!

We left the car at about 6:53 and headed up. The trail is mostly in good shape with the exception of about 10 feet of deep, reddish mud right at the beginning. Two miles, up and up. And up. Then suddenly, we broke out onto the ridge and there was Mt. Baker. Sure, it seems close from there, but we headed onward just to see how much closer I could get before I got tired. The magic number is two more miles. We passed the first big knoll, then the second, and headed to the third for a fantastic view of Mt. Baker.

Mt. Shuksan, on the other hand, was being a big fat butthead. It was very hazy toward the north and east, so I didn’t get any decent pictures.

On the way up, my GPS unit wasn’t working well. My track log said I had gone only .4 miles and gained only 100 feet of elevation, but I knew that couldn’t be right. Suddenly, in a clearing, my altitude reading went from 4300 feet to 5500 feet, so I’m guessing that I had no reception at all until then. So I actually have no idea how far I hiked today, but I think it was about 8.1 miles total. Once I got to the 2 mile mark, it started working fine because there was no tree interference. First I headed south, then when we got back to the junction at the two mile mark, we headed east to pick up a geocache. I didn’t find it at first because there was some muggle hanging out on the other side of the trees, so Duncan and I headed down the trail to the knoll overlooking the Canadian border mountains. I found the cache on the way back.

I saw only 10 other people on the ridge, and we left at noon. Everyone else on the trail was still on the way up.

One of the people on the ridge was Becky. Poor, poor Becky. Suckiest life ever. She is forced at gunpoint to hike up to Skyline Divide every day and stand there with that view and help people with questions. It must be horrifying to stand there, daily, and look at that skyline. Becky confirmed the overnight appearance of the boulder on the road. It wasn’t there at 4:30 the day before.

I got to the ridge in one hour and twenty three minutes. Is that good, or should I be ashamed of myself for being fat, old, and out of shape? It seemed really steep to me…

Other things of note: the bugs were not biting. I had a few land on me, and a few ran into my face, but no bites, and no DEET usage. Hallelujah. That could have something to do with the fact that it was only 48 degrees on the ridge when I got there at 8:15ish. Maybe the chill was too much for them. On the other hand, it was also very windy, so maybe that helped keep the bugs down.

As previously noted, we left the ridge at 12:08, and got back to the car at 1:07. Lots of people. I counted 27 parties of two or more people and numerous dogs, two of which were rather aggressive and shouldn’t have been on a trail with so many other dogs. (Stupid owners.) We hopped in the car and started down. About halfway down I saw something small and fluffy looking in the road, so I slowed down. I thought it was a rabbit, but it turned out to be a grouse or a ptarmigan. It was just lying in the road, sunning itself. I actually pulled up next to it and talked to it (well, I talked at it) for about half a minute before Duncan realized he wasn’t the center of attention and jumped up to investigate. The bird and two that I didn’t even notice in the bushes took off. We continued down, passing the boulder and its new tracks in the shoulder. I went to Graham’s for a burger and we came back here to eat, drink, cake (is “cake” a verb?) and take painkillers in preparation for tomorrow’s hike.

Beer bottle #37: “Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew.”

I’m amazed at how many of my pictures have UFOs shaped like mosquitoes and flies.



Skyline Divide, August 16 2009