Wild Goose, Chain Lakes Loop & Bagley Lakes — Friday, Sep. 2, 2016

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

We arrived at the lower trail head around 9:30 to find a light to medium rain had settled in. There were only two other vehicles in the parking lot. After donning our rain gear, including a rain jacket on the beagle, we set off on wild goose trail to get the steep uphill portion out of the way. The berries were ripe along the trail and delicious. There were some spur trails which made us hesitate a few seconds before choosing the path that went upward toward artist point/ paralleled the road. Overall, wild goose trail was marked by wild goose tarns. Some of the dirt on the ~150 log steps had eroded, making a few of the steps tricky. A ptarmigan ran by into the underbrush. The rain came down harder, but we pressed on to the artist point parking lot. There were no views from artist point. We were going to hike table mountain first, but realized dogs were not allowed, so we instead proceeded on to chain lakes loop. There were approximately 15 people heading the counter clockwise direction and quite a few people out doing trail maintenance (Thank You!). Slightly after the junction with ptarmigan ridge, the trail was a little confusing: head toward the saddle and then stay to the middle of the saddle. There were still a few snow fields at iceberg lake. There were quite a few active pikas and two marmots around in the rocks. There were two different ways to cross bagged lake: a twin arched cement bridge or a former spillway bridge. We chose the spillway: it was interesting to see the substructure exposed and lots of water flowing. Other than the rain and clouds, a good day.