Wonderful day hike. Started at Schreiber Meadows at 11:15 a.m. and back to the car by 4:30 p.m. We almost didn't go because the ranger in Sedro Wooley was trying to warn us that crossing Rock Creek would be tricky. Not at all!! Yes, you have to boulder hop a bit, and the water is higher at the end of the day, but no problem. The trail is snow free to Morovitz Meadow, but after that it's still totally covered, though the snow is fairly easy to walk on. Beautiful views of Mt. Baker and all the peaks in the distance, with some fog and clouds moving in and out. The best part was that we only saw about five or six parties all day, and NONE of them went up to Park Butte lookout, so we had it all to ourselves. What a treat. A few weeks from now this trail and the lookout will be swarming with people. We glissaded most of the way back to the trail. This makes for an easy day hike (7 miles round trip), and not too far a drive from Seattle.

Sunshine, warmth, surrounded by snow and clear mountain scenery; what could be better on a near-Solstice weekend? Well, Nubian Solstice-celebrants would have been nice, but cool quiet mornings, dark starry nights, and warm breezy days were enough for this summit resident. The storms Friday afternoon were an exciting wrinkle in otherwise idyllic weather. Schreiber’s Meadow is nearly melted out finally liberating it from the shrieking snowmobile crowd. The bridge will not be showing up this year; the failed supports tell a story of savage water in the fall. No matter, the channel has shifted west of there anyway. Dry-foot crossing was sporting but possible in the mornings, before snowmelt was in high gear. Snow began in earnest about 500 feet below the upper meadows. Mornings and evenings were spent harvesting images in sweet light; days passed spying on the battalions of climbers marching for the summit prize. I counted more than 100 on Kulshan’s glacial expanse Sunday. Their camps blinked to life about 1a each night, chains of lights snaked upward under a star-prickled sky. My winter celestial companions, Pliedes, Taurus, and Orion, have been replaced by Scorpius, and Teapot steaming its Milky brew across the night dome. When I left yesterday, a large kite was flying from the summit. Surprisingly I saw no one on the hike out. Some mosquitoes are beginning to appear in this splendid warmth. Soon the sound of their whine may overwhelm the snowmelt freshets that give these mountains their name. Happy Solstice!

I had big ideas of spending a few days in fabulous sunny weather, surrounded by fresh powder, taking pictures, gazing at a cold-hardened starscape. I especially wanted to get up there before the area was invaded by shrieking snowmobiles. Well, best laid plans… I was able to park at about 2500’ which placed me about 6 miles and 3000' from the LO. Despite the prohibition, about 2-dozen razzers were fouling fresh breezes with oily fumes. I was encouraged by the prospect that the snowmobilers would be confined to the lower meadows due to the river barrier. The river was not very high, but the rocks were covered in ice; snowshoes with crampons helped here but my dog’s paws iced up after this crossing. I placed her booties on and she was good to go again. I was able to locate the trail but the tread was nearly completely filled in, making it necessary to head straight up the wooded slope. Two feet of powder proved troublesome at this point and my dog lost much of her boundless enthusiasm, even after I carried her pack. She convinced me to turn around, especially when the weather seemed to be less rosy than predicted. Given Saturday’s cloudiness/ showers, this was to be a fortunate decision. It may have been an exercise in futility, but at least it was exercise.

Skip, Core, and the two quadrupeds Max and Sasha and I headed up to see what Parke Butte looks like. I almost got Skip and the quadrupeds there last fall, but Skip is always magnetically drawn toward mountaineering objectives even when not planning to mountaineer, so we ended up climbing the Railroad Grade that time. This time the heat helped me convince him that the reported tarns on Park Butte were worthy of our inspection. The trail went w/o problems, except for a bit of doggy outward bound crossing the swollen runnoff from the Easton Glacier. Max did not like the log or the suspension bridge, and it took a bit of convincing to get him to cross at the more fordable areas. But cross he did and up we went. We were all getting a bit hot by the time we reached the bench with the tarns, so we decided to take a break at one of them. After properly lounging and dowsing, we headed up to the lookout, which had great views on Sunday. Sasha the super dog was freaked by the exposure from the walkway around the outside of the lookout - an uncharacteristic show of fear and vulnerability for her. We stopped at a different tarn on the way down and again dowsed and lounged some more, enjoying the views and the sense of no need to rush anywhere. One the return crossing of the creeks, I had to ford with Max at the log crossing to convince him to go, but I managed to get him across the suspension bridge between my legs (a 100 pound dog - was mildly exciting as he tried to bolt) and so with that the quadrupeds managed to confront their fears on this fine day and the humans managed to have a fairly relaxing outing, except for a few moments of wondering if we'd ever get Max across the creek.

Having hiked in this state for over 40 years, I am still amazed at the plethora of trails in our state that provide unbelieveable mountain experiences-some of which I really didn't know were there. My family, including a 10 y.o and 13 y.o,started on the trail at 19:00 Friday night and arrived at the upper Morovitz Meadow (2.5 miles) by 20:15. There was only one other camper at the meadow. Water source is good, although I would not use the stagnant, mosquitoe-ridden pond, but drop a few feet to the running snow melt below. The view from the meadow is spectacular of Baker, and the sunset turned the summit orange, then pink, and purple. The bugs were bad on a windless night! The next day we hiked the Railroad Grade to the very end of the moraine. The views of glacier, 20-story high chunks of ice, and summit views are breathtaking. The grade is slowly eroding and in a couple spots is less than one foot wide. The east drop-off is about 500 feet straight down. Luckily for my 10 y.o. the west dropoff is a gentle 20% slope to the meadow. The hike provides it all: exposed hiking, peak views, minor rock climbing, waterfalls, and meadows. The rocks are sulphur-ridden and contain large anounts of orange iron ore. The hardest thing was to keep my kids off the glacier. With caution at the top (about 6800 feet asl), I took them to the edge of a few cravases, and looked down in. The sight is mind-boggling-looking at the wind and melting sculpture of the Emmons glacier. It actually reminded me of a white version of Arches Natural Park in Utah. The mountain was steaming! 50-foot plumes were consitantly coming form this active volcanoe adding to the mystery and experience. My kids were ready for the summit, which from here looks like a 20-minute walk away with deceivingly gentle slopes. (It actually is about 2 miles with 4,000 feet elevation gain ending with a 30 % pitch to the summit).We did, however, walk the snow field up about 500 feet elevation gain(7400 feet asl), until I felt uncomfortable with them without iceaxe. We all swore to come back and summit and walked the snowfield down to high camp. The spectacular nature of the trek is buffeted by the highway nature of the trail on the Saturday. My complaints include: 1) Folks who do not yield to uphill traffic; 2)hikers eroding the trail by going off the way; 3)dogs on the trail--I am sorry but please, please, unless you are sight-challlenged-LEAVE YOUR PETS AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!; 4)People destroying the meadow by using closed trails, closed because the meadow has obviously been trashed in the past. The folks using the meadow are avoiding the exposure above. The USFS needs to police this area and post Trail Closed signs at highcamp (they are at the lower meadow); 4) Unfortunately this area is too accessible. It would be nice if it took a 10-mile hike to get there. ROCKMAN