Lime Kiln Trail — Sunday, Apr. 25, 2010

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

This low-elevation trail was a great first hike of the season for us. I took my three children, ages 9, 6 and 4, from the trailhead to the kiln and back. We got decent start at 10:30 a.m. and at our snail's pace we were back out at 2:30 p.m. The weather was cool and dry in the morning and heated up towards the afternoon. Definitely pants weather with multiple layers on top. The trail has some mud and a bit of standing water but it was fine. After the lake, past the log bridge, there was a single washout of the trail over a gully. There is a downed log that helps to grab as you cross it. I set each child on the mountain side and they crawled along it to get to the other side. They thought it was great fun and are good climbers. I saw a couple of older folks having trouble with it and I wouldn't want to cross it with a very young child that needed to be carried. It looks like someone tried to put a couple of boards in to walk on but those have washed out. The wildflowers were lovely and there were lots of beautiful peek-a-boo views along the way. We saw quite a few small white butterflies and heard lots of bees around the blooming blackberry bushes.