Mt Baker July 3rd, 2009

Miles and I both had the Friday off in honor of Independence Day and Miles and I went on a day hike up to Mt Baker. We made it to the lower parking lot but could not go on because the road leading up to Artist Point was still closed due to snow/ice accross the road,. A huge snow plow blocked the entire road. We found out later that next weekend they were plowing and so we were off only by one week. Dang it! So we followed the windy straight up road to Heather Meadows. Lots of people with special snow boots and ice picks and cross country ski sticks were climbing up the side of the mountain through the thick ice....we did not have that kind of equipment nor are we even close to that talented- so we just walked along the road. So adventurous. Actually it was because we were not sure exactly how long we were going to have to walk to find our destination and there were no mile post markers which indicated on our maps where our trail heads began. Well we felt stupid later as we realized that you just have to follow the road several miles up but it was covered in snow still and we could not see that. We did however make it to Heather Meadows and it was beautiful. there were several huge streams of water pouring off the mountain in melting snow. At 10:30 in the morning it felt like 90 degrees and the patches of snow we walked through felt so good as it fell over our ankles into our boots as our feet sunk into the deep snow. NICE. Natural way to cool off for sure. The lakes we found were melting but quite solid and patches held this extreme ice blue color that was out of this world beautiful. The pictures and the scenery around us took our breath away. We were both sun burnt and tired after our day of hiking but we had another adventure together and discovered a beautiful pace we are looking forward to discovering more of ...after more snow melts of course.