[polarbear]

All the trail descriptions about Mt. Dickerman usually include rave reviews about the views at the top. For some reason though, I never wanted to do this hike, and probably wouldn't have if some others hadn't invited me along. The foggy overcast that blanketed Seattle Saturday morning had me thinking that the views from Dickerman might be similar to the views from any knoll in Seattle that day, but I set out anyway. Somewhere along the road the fog broke and I had to stop at Big Four and take some pictures of that glazed peak. What a great day it was turning out to be--blue skies and sunshine and snow covered mountains. Stripes of frost ran up the road and ahead loomed what must be Mt. Dickerman, though I'd never recognized it in the past. I had brought snowshoes along, but talking with a person at the trailhead he said the conditions were such that day that I probably wouldn't need them. It turned out that all I needed was my boots. From descriptions of the trail that I've read, parts of the trail can be tricky or dangerous depending on the winter conditions. The beginning of the trail reminds me of Mt. Si, only smaller switchbacks and maybe twice as narrow. . There is some ice and snow on the upper switchbacks. I met up with the other 3 members of our group right before we broke out of the trees. The views over to Big Four, Monte Cristo, and even the Olympics were spectacular and if you only make it this far, the hike is worthwhile. The remaining section of the trail is a joy to hike, the snow being crystalline and sparkling in the sun and the views all the while growing. But the top takes the cake. 360 degree views to Baker, Shuksan, Glacier Pk, and of course everything else you've already seen on the way up. It is an awesome viewpoint. Watch out for the snow cornices, though. It's easy to forget that the large overhanging edges of the snow have nothing beneath them but a several hundred foot drop to the canyon below Looking back to Seattle, we could still that it was still covered with fog--how could we have been so lucky? It was a good opportunity to thumb your nose at the weather gods We sat down and ate our lunch soaking in the views and sun. At this point Steve asked if anyone wanted some cider or hot chocolate. I couldn't believe he had lugged a stove along with him, but he denied having a stove, so I wondered what was up his sleeve. It turned out he had a large thermos of hot water. This was a welcome treat as we were cooling rapidly up there, and breeze was picking up. I was glad I had my nylon wind pants with me. The hike back was alot faster, though the switchbacks seemed even more endless than they had on the way up. Yes, it seemed that someone had cut and pasted several additional switchbacks into the trail We stopped in Monroe and ate at Mi Tierra, a Mexican restaurant. Good food and service.

[#19]

Nice TR pbear. Dickerman is a really nice doable winter summit. Two questions: 1) Aren't you tempting fate with the "paragraph police"? 2) How do you end up in Monroe after a Mount Loop trip?

[polarbear]

Pappy, I think you raise a valid point. It scares me that the paragraph police did not contact me. But it scares me worse that the reason might be that they are working on more worse cases Note that I did put in a few stop signs and speed bumps in my singlegraph. But I believe my 5th grade teacher would have given it an N/A as in Not Acceptable. I wouldn't normally eat in Monroe but that's where we met since one of the party lived there so we stopped there afterwards for chow. And since he was the person that brought the hot spiced cider and heavy thermos, I have to say now that Monroe is truly a world class city teaming with 5 star restaurants, streets paved with gold, a well read populace, and a spitton at every storefront.

[polarbear]

Here are some photos from the hike.

distant baker

distant 3fingers

more 3fingers

glacier peak1

glacier peak2