Today was both smoky and cloudy at Mt. Baker - quite a combination, providing for unique kind of haziness and visual effects.
Parking lot at Artist Point still had a couple spots left at 10.30 am. I began my hike at 10.47 am, to some sun breaking through clouds, casting bleak yellow light through smoke - although there was not much smell. As I hit the trail, I was immediately greeted by enormous amount of blueberries - something that would eventually become the greatest obstacle on my hike.
Moving along the hike was uneventful, except for a party of hikers with several large dogs not on leashes - one obviously ran away, so they were trying to call it back (and still didn’t think to leash what was left). The trail was very dry and dusty, with just a couple minor streams that would likely not be a good water source. Wildflowers were still blooming - even though withering, they were a nice surprise so late in the season.
At some point, I came across the most generous blueberry heaven ever - to be fair, with Ptarmigan Ridge being my usual fall hike, I knew that patch would be there, but amount of berries still came as a surprise. Who cares about views, even as grand as Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan, when there’s such abundance of delicious berries? Needless to say, my speed dropped to feet per hour for some time. A little rain would be nice to rinse the berries from dust, but doesn’t it make them more organic after all.
After consuming despicable amount of blueberries, I moved on and soon came to the ridge with open views of Mt. Baker, some lingering snowfields that can be totally avoided, and some almost unnaturally bright patches of green grass and yellow flowers.
As I passed the campsites around tarns - looking absolutely extraterrestrial in cloudy weather - the upstream from the valley between Ptarmigan Ridge and Mt. Baker started blowing clouds across the trail, hindering the views and reducing visibility and temperature severely. At that point, about 4.2 mi into the trail, I deemed it unreasonable to proceed (let alone attempt climbing The Portals), and turned around.
Return hike was quiet and only interrupted by unavoidable delay at the blueberry patch. I returned to the parking lot at 2.47, exactly 4 hours and 8.2 miles after leaving it - don’t let this timing represent difficulty of the trail, as it includes at least an hour of blueberry picking.
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