A beautiful day at Blue Lake and Dock Butte. We had a small team, just myself and Andrew, the crew leader. The rain held off all day and we had occassional views of Mt. Baker from the South. There was fresh snow on the rocky crags to the West of Baker -- it must have snowed last night!! We dug drain dips, rebuilt trail tred and did other minor trail maintenance. We saw one deer and a few grouse. It was a great day! My first WTA experience. I will definitely be back. THANKS!!

Great views on a sunny day. Our group of a dozen hikers enjoyed a great day in the North Cascades. We hiked to the site of the former lookout at 5,210'. The building was built in the mid 1930's, but was gone by 1964. After leaving the lower forest area, you hike through upper meadows with Mt. Baker only about five miles away. The last part of the trail is steep in places and even had a little scrambling. When we got to the top a large swarm of gnats was there to greet us. After taking some summit photos we elected to go down a 1/4 mile for lunch with no bugs. They were only on the top of Dock Butte. From our vantage point you could see all of Baker Lake, south to Rainier, White Horse and Three Fingers, over to Shuksan and many north Cascade peaks, and the Olympics too. After lunch we headed back down to the junction with the trail to Blue Lake. The lake is only 1/2 mile from the main trail and has a few camp sites. Two from our group decided to test the water, but didn't stay in to long. It was a little on the chilly side. Check out Dock Butte, as you get some wonderful views and only 2 miles up to the summit.

Great trails for huckleberry hunting, usually! Alas, it appears to be too early or the bushes didn't get pollinated, because there were none to be found. Very quiet with no one else on the trail, I forked to the right down to Blue Lake. Still blue with the back wall in snow. As I ascended toward Dock Butte, the clouds above descended onto me. Caught one full glimpse of Mt Baker and the yellow/ochre colored Twin Sisters before the mist enveloped the silent sub-alpine forest. Lost site of the top, which was an old fire lookout site, and the last switchbacks appeared to be in snow. Found some huckleberry bushes on the road down about 3000'.