Went to the area for the first time today. The drive to the trailhead is really fun, the gravel road is very well maintained. The parking lot was huge but there were only maybe 10 cars there even though it was nice and sunny. Blueberries are all around, they start right from the parking lot. The trail is gentle until the creek crossing, then it starts switch-backing for maybe a mile until you enter the meadows and see Mt Baker. I walked first on the moraine on the Railroad Grade trail for a little while. Lots of marmots and the views are spectacular! Would not recommend that portion of the trail to the people with vertigo issues though. Then I went to the lookout on Park Butte trail. There were still some nice fresh wildflowers. The switchbacks weren't too bad and soon you reach even more blueberries and even better views. The lookout is also fun to visit. On the way back the weather turned bad: it started raining and there was plenty of thunder. I was glad I had my rain-gear. Met hunters for the first time on the trail and I wasn't crazy about it. Right after leaving the parking lot I met that hunter walking around right next to the trail with a loaded gun (which was gigantic) and pointing everywhere. It was the creepiest thing I've ever seen on a trail. When I was leaving the lot in the rain there was another hunter with huge gun just starting his hike. I honestly don't think hunters and hikers should mix on the same trail, it made me feel very uncomfortable. Oh, well, at least I didn't look like a bear to them.

Eydies' hip dysplasia is still acting up so Chris went with me again. We got to the lookout first and opened it up. Mostly cloudy today so views were limited. We headed back down once the lookout started filling with people and took the Scott Paul trail back down for the first time. A worthy trail! the deep woods protion is awsome. Wild floweres are stiil blooming up here!

park butte rail road grade has been in my "bucket list" hiked on a friday, leaving the trail head around 930AM. not nearly as crowded as i was anticipating. all i can say is stunning, awesome, holy of holies, ineffable, unfathomable, wow! definately the railroad grade is the way to go. panoramic views including baker (of course) glacier and the list goes on. it is steep and if you don't feel like going all the way to high camp you are still well rewarded. not for those who don't like a knife edge with a drop off - but it is perfectly safe. the only sad note is the obvious shrinking of the glacier....it is dramatic

HaT #5. This was a struggle from the beginning, not because it’s a particularly difficult anything (drive, hike, etc.), but because I’m finally feeling how hard I’ve been pushing myself all month and my body is just really wanting to stop and rest. I woke up before the 5:30 alarm and since I wasn’t falling back asleep, I figured I may as well get moving (which was good because it still took me a while to get myself in gear). Out the door at 6:00 and on the trail by 8:20. En route, a beautiful sunrise with Whitehorse, Three Fingers and Pilchuck all visible beneath the high cloud layer. One of these days, I’ll see the sunrise FROM one of those mountains, but not today. The weather forecast was not promising (either the night before or at pre-dawn), offering cloudy skies and a 30% chance of rain. But it didn’t look like any other area in the mountains would offer anything better and I needed the miles, so I stuck to the plan. What greeted me was a morning full of clear blue skies and crisp temperatures followed by an afternoon of moody skies but nary a drop of rain (on me, anyway). Not much to report here (I guess I’m not in story-telling mode). The trail is well-maintained (looks like some fresh work has been done on the Park Butte trail) and the views are pretty much non-stop most of the time. I was up to the lookout early enough that it wasn’t too crowded (3 horse riders and 2 hikers outside on the wrap-around balcony, another 3 hikers inside the lookout – 1 other hiker had already come and gone) but I passed a steady stream of people on the way back down. I didn’t stay long at the LO (the weather was starting to turn and I knew I still had a long trip ahead of me) and was back down to the Scott Paul junction in no time. It was a little disheartening here to know that I had completed less than half of my miles for the day, but I persevered and was richly rewarded because of it, plus I was lucky enough that not one drop of rain fell in my vicinity (even though the clouds often looked like they were promising to dump and I could see showers off in the distance here and there). This brings my final Hike-a-Thon total to 46.9 miles with an elevation gain of 10,246 (1.9 vertical miles). I may be short on miles but I went up quite a bit more than I had intended. I can still pat myself on the back for a job well done!

I went up Railroad Grade before Park Butte because I had not been on that trail before. Railroad Grade is a scary trail on an unstable ridge. But I haven't heard of any accidents there, so I pressed on until Mt. Baker was so close I could feel it. Heading down and across the meadows, I made my way to the basin on the way to the lookout and found campers there at the tarns. The weather was ideal and there were swarms of hikers coming up when I made my way back down. The trip out took much longer than it should have because I kept stopping to pick blueberries. What a fantastic day!