The Forest Service is closing Table Mountain and Chain Lakes/Ptarmigan Ridge trails Sept. 13-14 for maintenance. Work on the upper Table Mountain trail’s southern steep cliffs will dislodge boulders and rocks, endangering hikers on the lower switchbacks and on the Chain Lakes/Ptarmigan Ridge trails. The trailhead is located at Artist Point parking lot at the end of Mt. Baker Highway, Scenic Route 542. Call Mt. Baker Ranger District for updated information on trails or roads at 360-856-5700 or go to alerts and conditions on http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/.

Ptarmigan Ridge trail is still about 20-30% snow covered. Most of the snow is in a few shadowed places and around Camp Kieser and Coleman Pinnacle. The first high-angle snow patch is in the normal place at the end of the first switchbacks below the Chain Lake trail junction. We started at about 10:30 AM and by then the sun had softened the snow enough to made walking easy. There was a good boot track across all the snow. We found that our hiking poles were handy on some of the higher angle spots. But, we had no problems getting across any of the snow patches. Good boots are a really good idea. The trail has sloughed downhill in a couple of spots, but seems solid where it it now. There were some rock slides last winter and spring, so you have to clamber over a couple of boulders -- no big deal The climber's trail that goes to Park Glacier and the Portals is open for about a mile, then solid snow. Camp Kieser is about 80% snow covered, but there are good camping spots here and there. The lakes at Camp Kieser are showing a little open water, but are mostly still frozen. Wildflowers are in full glory in the meadows and hillsides -- lupine, bistort, asters, daisies. Blueberries are still a few weeks from ripening. Looks like a thin blueberry crop on the Ridge this year We saw a few goats in the distance and the normal bunch of birds.

We decided to see if Ptarmigan Ridge was open yet, so we drove up to Artist Point and parked among a dozen cars, most filled with non-hikers just happy to soak in the views of Mt. Shuksan and Baker. We put on our gaiters and grabbed our trekking poles and headed to the southwest corner of the parking lot (nearest Mt. Baker), where we had to climb up and over a rather large and imposing wall of packed snow just to get to the trail. The trail itself was about half-covered in snow; a family of four without poles were navigating it fairly well with their dog on a leash. The trail remains level till 1.2 miles, where the Galena Chain Lakes loop forks right. We decided to venture left a bit to see if Ptarmigan Ridge was accessible, but unless you have crampons, an ice axe, and lots of confidence, we only made it 1.5 miles down the trail before encountering what we considered a fairly precarious and extensive snowfield at 5200 ft. So back to the Chain Lakes loop, which itself was about 80% covered in snow, but as there weren't many exposed drop-offs, it somehow felt much safer to be hiking there. Plus, the views of Mt. Baker--when it decided to peek out from the clouds--was excellent and the lakes were beautiful with their cerulean blue chunks of melting ice. We descended below Table Mountain into the basin by traversing across a snow field then found the trail again easily on the opposite side. The first lake is mostly still ice-covered, and the trail is quite muddy and slick, and in some places, rocky. Iceberg Lake is nearly entirely frozen but Hayes Lake, on the opposite side of the trail, is completely thawed out. After passing between these two lakes, we had to navigate up a snow field again and it took us a few minutes to relocate the trail, which passes between Table Mountain and Mt. Herman. Then it was up Herman Pass, which was entirely snow-covered but as the snow was soft, it made kicking steps straight up the hillside a cinch. Topping the pass, our eyes were wowed by fields of fluorescent pink heather below and countless waterfalls cascading from Table Mountain to disappear into snowbanks. The switchbacks were mostly covered in crumbling snow until we got to Bagley Lakes. Many of the snow bridges are melting out; in one step, Ken post-holed up to his thigh so be cautious in crossing. Saw a mama ptarmigan and her two chicks running on the snow before us. One marmot, but no other wildlife. Bugs were minimal except at Iceberg Lake, where a few mosquitoes were biting. We saw only one solo hiker and a group of four doing the entire loop, which despite being 75-80% snow-covered, is nevertheless very doable with gaiters, poles, and waterproof boots. A lot of people hiked up the short distance from Heather Meadows Visitor Center and stopped at Bagley Lakes. We decided to end our day at the Visitor Center and sent Peter and Ken up Wild Goose Trail to fetch the cars, which only took them 30 additional minutes and saved us a climb. (In hindsight, since we had two cars, leaving one at the Visitor Center and one at Artist Point would have made a lot of sense.) STATS: Round-trip Distance: 9 miles (Chain of Lakes loop) Elevations: 5100 ft (trailhead at Artist Point), to 4400 ft at the lakes, back up to 5600 ft at Herman Pass Features: tons of waterfalls, beautiful lakes and heather meadows, views of Shuksan, Baker, and the No. Cascades Cautions: crumbling snow bridges, trail mostly still snow-covered

Word has it that there is more snow than normal for this time of year. Many snow fields (easy hiking) getting to the last knoll, about mile 4 before Coleman Pinnacle. The steeper snow banks form the trail head to mile 4 are passable - but I wouldn't be excited about crossing a few of them without boots and hiking poles. I had my axe - didn't use it. I wondered if I had my crampons if I could have continued up to the pinnacle? This was my first time up Ptarmigan so I wasn't prepared to be adventurous, unfortunately I didn't see anybody else do it so I could scope out a route. Lots of water - bugs were minimal and the snow is easily passable with boots and poles. The foliage scarce, between the flower and fall seasons, so it was all about the mountain. There was a herd of Goats around, they were down in the valley/gullies when I passed through - they left a gadzillion terds in the snow along the trail in one spot -- proof that they were within petting distance earlier in the day. someone said they number about 15 with 3 or 4 youngin's. Right now is the perfect time to do Ptarmigan until the snow starts.

Hit the trail about 1:30 the afternoon. Visibility was nearly perfect, temperature was warm but not hot and the light breeze was refreshing. The views were just as good as I had hoped and I could see all sorts of interesting ridges and peaks in addition to Shuksan and Baker. Though the parking lot at artist point was packed, there the trail was not too crowded. Locating and staying on the trail was fairly easy except for a few of the more barren patches where it was hard to distinguish in the rocks/gravel without looking for trail markers. Only one snow field was left and it was very easy to cross. Towards the end as I neared the glacier, mountain goats were visible on the slopes below Baker.