Forum Index > Trip Reports > Railroad Grade & Rainbow Ridge - Mt. Baker
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David & Karen
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David & Karen
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PostTue Aug 09, 2005 8:35 pm 
The R&B trio TLC once sang “Don’t go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and lakes that you’re used too”. Had they been into hiking they probably would have said ‘Stay on the trail!’ The reality is that off trail hiking can often be more rewarding than just plain old trails but things don’t always work out. Bad luck it seems comes in one of three forms. First there are things you can’t control like the only bridge to our home in Maple Ridge being closed due to an accident, which then results in a three-hour detour. Secondly there are bad choices that are not your fault like picking the wrong lane at the border, which results in another long delay. Lastly there are the choices that in hindsight you come to regret. Things started out good – we arrived at the south side of Baker by 9am, just in time to snag the last site at the Boulder Creek Campground. Having only hiked here once, up the Railroad Grade six years ago we had unlimited options. After some debate we settled on a quest to find Mazama Lake, ironically this meant doing the first part of the Railroad Grade again. Once above the tree line there were a number of side trails with ‘trail closed’ signs on them so we didn’t start our traverse over to the Demming Glacier until we reached High Camp. There were a number of gullies to cross and we climbed above each one to where the grade was easiest. Still there were a lot of boulders to cross and that made for a very taxing experience on such a hot sunny day. If you have ever wondered why there isn’t a ‘round the mountain’ trail on Mt. Baker one just needs to look down into the chasm created by the Demming Glacier and up at the Black Buttes, which make up the far wall to understand why. We followed the lip of this canyon down a ways until we finally gave up on finding the lake. On the traverse back we encountered the same gullies however this time they were far shallower but had near vertical walls, getting back to High Camp became tediously slow. Seeing the waterfalls pouring off the Demming Glacier was cool and discovering a small meadow that was still in bloom was neat however the ten buckets of sweat required didn’t seem justify it. Oh well on Sunday we were taking it easy.
Rainbow Ridge isn’t so much off trail as it’s not an official trail however you will find it in a number of guidebooks. The stats on it – fewer than five miles & just over 1000ft of gain put it in the range of a three-hour hike. We got off to an early start & by all estimates we should have been at home relaxing by 3pm – Karen joked about getting home at midnight – it turned out to be prophetic. Things started out real good – the view of Baker from the trailhead is incredible – so much so it makes the whole hike kind of moot. We went anyway and other than a few obstacles, (a mud hole, one big blowdown) the trail was pretty good and we were out of the trees for good in less than an hour. Now all the guidebooks all say that the trail eventually dwindles to a goat track – what they don’t say is that the dwindling is very gradual and takes place over several miles. This is where we made our big mistake – you see hiking along a ridge you go up & down a series of bumps – you see a small 30ft rise and you think if you just get to the top of that the views will improve. The problem here is that the views get WORSE the farther you go – and you find yourself three hours away from the vehicle facing yet another 30ft bump and the trail has dwindled down to that goat track. Actually there were two goat tracks in front of this 30ft band of rock – we chose the right fork which ascended a near vertical gully that required veggie belays. Two more modest bumps followed that and we reached the end unfortunately lava buttes on either side blocked off large parts of the mountain. Another ridge below us looked promising but you needed to cross a 20ft snowfield and we were not equipped with crampons. The view here was a little better that when we first crested the ridge but again was it really worth all that extra effort?
As documented earlier the drive back was a nightmare and we didn’t stumble in until 10pm. I think the experience of this past weekend has certainly tempered our desire for off trail exploration. All I know is this weekend we are going to focus on giving our feet a little TLC.

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lookout bob
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Joined: 12 Apr 2005
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lookout bob
WTA proponent.....
PostWed Aug 10, 2005 11:53 am 
when you look back on this experience in 10 years, you'll remember it as a good time..... lol.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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