Yellow Aster Butte #699,Tomyhoi Peak

A three o’clock departure, three hours to Seattle, plus another three hours got me to the left side turn-off to the Yellow Aster Butte trailhead, about twelve miles East of Glacier, immediately past the road maintenance buildings. The five mile ride up from 542 is an unpaved one lane road with places where two vehicles can squeeze past each other, but there are a few stretches where I wouldn’t want to meet up with an SUV. The parking at the trail is limited, so I angled in at the side of the road to make room for others.

The plan was to head to the Northernmost part of the continental United States and to stay West, so that global warming and the year’s worst heat wave couldn’t claim me. Hitting the trail at ten was later than I hopes, but most of the one and a half miles up 686 to the junction just below Gold Run Pass thankfully is shaded. Despite my slow-going and it being a Friday, I passed five other groups headed my way: still that’s less than I expected.

After 686.1 to Yellow Aster Butte cuts West from the trail to Tomyhoi Lake (686), it’s a delightful two mile path along the shoulder of the ridge, with nice views South and West to Baker. At this time of year, the tread passes through fireweed, lupine, beargrass, anemone, cow parsnip, valerian and bistort; and crosses a few short snow fields. Rounding the Southwest flank of the butte, the pretty tarns appear in the basin to the North, and maybe a quarter of a mile later, the path splits, with the righthand fork climbing the butte, and the lefthand one descending steeply in short switchbacks to the tarns. Remarkably, I nearly had the pick of lakelets when I arrived, so I chose one on the Western wall near a snow bank. Camping so close to a tarn was somewhat at odds with advice I received from an outbound skeeter-shocked hiker, but I hoped a breeze might help, had come equipped with an arsenal of DEET, and felt the proximity to water might be necessary in the event that someone turned the oven up above roast.

After lunch, a sampling of the few ripe blueberries, and a splash in the tarn, I turned my attentions to a day hike. Excelsior Ridge to the West and Yellow Aster Butte to the East looked attractive, but I threaded my way to the North end of the basin, and climbed the steep boot track to Tomyhoi Peak. What a great choice. The views were utterly spectacular: South to Baker, Southwest to Shuksan, North to American Border Peak and Canada, down to Tomyhoi Lake and Yellow Aster Butte, and East across rows and rows of North Cascade Peaks to the horizon. Parts of the route to the peak are not for the faint-hearted, but every step was splendid. Given the panorama, I dawdled my way down to camp, where one stunning sunset illuminated the skies. Even the mosquitos were awed. I celebrated cocktail hour and dinner with the bugs, toasted the moon, listened to laughter lifting from the other tents, and then went to bed.

On Saturday morning, I gave the mosquitos one last sampling, and hiked down with plans to try the Skyline Trail in the afternoon. The red faces of hikers coming up, and the surprising intensity of the morning sun should have given ample warning that I was in for a hot time.