Great day for a good view of baker only people on the trail for a while had the top to ourselves for almost 30 minutes. Perfectly easy day hike 

The start of Forest Road 12 has recently been graded and it is now much, much better than several weeks ago. The only bugs I noted were patchy swarms of very tiny flies in the forest which seemed to be harmless despite outnumbering me by trillions. The best berries near the trail are higher up (hungry humans or hungry bears??). Fall colors are fantastic in many places. The uppermost about 10 feet of the trail (where the actual scramble route reconnects with the main trail) is a curious little bit of a scramble across a sloping flat slab.

Another amazing little outing in luscious sub-alpine surroundings. Babbling brooks, ground clothes made of partridge foot.. or heather.. or brilliant green, luxuriant mosses. Small tangles of bedrock and krummholz poking up here and there, and in the distance, brilliant white majesties of Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) and Shuksan stealing the show.

We stopped by this short little hike this morning to stretch our legs and visit this former fire lookout. The air was cool and ice still lurked in the shadows. Blueberries were fat on the bushes with autumn’s red cresting the leaves. We ate our fill and explored the quiet little camp spots along the way.

All too soon we scampered the last few switchbacks through once flower strewn cliffs. The summit and it’s amazing views were ours. The names of the lookout’s creators were left stenciled in a small cement pad. The horizon was packed with summits in all directions; Baker dominates to the north, the Sisters’ jagged ridgeline taunts to the west. To the south is Glacier, Sloan, White Horse and many others, while to the east is an endless sea of the Pickets, and the North Central Cascades. Even the Olympics, on a clear day, dare show themselves on the distant horizon.

Owing to time constraints we skipped visiting Blue Lake on our way down. We’ll leave that for a warm sunny afternoon…

This was to be the first day of the abatement of the forest fire smoke with partial areas of clearing. Dock Butte looked promising even though visibility was still going to be limited. I dropped down to Blue Lake first to take in the morning light and then backtracked to the Dock Butte trail head and headed up. The first part of the trail has most of the elevation gain and is through the forest so it was hard to tell if there would be any clearing skies. Once on the ridge I was delighted to once again, after two weeks of smoke, to see blue in the sky, not clear, but the color blue instead of thick yellow. That was enough to make my day, even others on the trail commented on it. I did not expect to see any of the surrounding peaks but I could make out a fuzzy Sisters and Loomis Mountain. But then for just a few minutes, Mount Baker's upper portion cleared and was visible.

After hiking along the ridge through the long narrow meadows the trail splits for the the final steep section to the top of the butte. I went to the right to take the switchbacks but you can take the trail to the left that is shorter but straight up. Which ever way you go the trails meet at a short narrow area that is a bit of a scramble just a few feet below the top.

The blueberries are in season so you can forage your way through the long meadow.

The trails to Blue Lake and the butte are in good condition. FR-12 is very rough before the first bridge. After that FR-12 and then FR-1230 are in very good condition.