[JimK]

Kim and I were looking for a mostly snow free hike without a very long drive. We settled on the Easton Ridge - Domerie Divide trail to Mt. Baldy. The night before I saw a trip report by Joey that he had just posted. Seems there was little snow before the ridge top. It sounded good. It was overcast as we crossed Snoqualmie Pass. We exited at Easton and followed the dirt roads to the trailhead. The road in was lined with a lot of blooming lupine. I was a little surprised to see another car there. It was a little chilly but I was fine with shorts and a long sleeve shirt.

Lupine Along Road

Lupine Close Up

The trillium at the trailhead were mostly done though we did see a few. We reached the bridge over Silver Creek quickly. I was amazed by the amount of water coming over the small dam. Much more than I have ever seen there. The trail then begins to climb and doesn't let up much. We were alerted by Joey's report and also saw several calypso orchids down low. A few quick switchbacks and we reached the old road. It is really overgrown now. The trail intersection is now very obvious at the corner in the road. The clear cut section did have some flowers but none of the columbine or tiger lilies I have seen other springs. We saw roses, penstemon, lupine, vanilla leaf, and false solomon's seal among others. It felt plenty warm as we motored uphill. Of course this is the gentle part of the trail. We soon reached the Easton - Domerie Divide intersection. I still have not taken the right choice and headed up Easton Ridge. Perhaps some other day.

Reddish Flower

Calypso Orchid

Chocolate Lily

White Flower & Bug

Lake Kachess

Lone Penstemon

The walk along the ridge here is the only somewhat flat spot on the way to the ridge top. We stopped for a break at the overlook. From there we could see Lake Easton, Lake Kachess, and off towards the Cascade crest. Silver Creek Falls was visible too. Some of it was visible that is. The gorge is deep and we could see what looked like 3 or 4 drops in the gap of the gorge. It really is a big falls, it's just not all visible.

Silver Creek Falls

West French Cabin Mt.

From there we had one uphill and a downhill before the trail got down to business. There were several trees down here. Not too difficult to get around but too big to go over. Other than two more trees down by the ridge top the way was clear. There were a few small snow patches before the steep climb began but not on the trail and no more for most of the climb. As we began to ascend again the flowers changed. Now we had balsamroot, lupine, and a load of chocolate lilies. They were hard to spot but they were everywhere. Kim was much better at spotting them. We went from west side forest flowers to east side desert type flowers. The steep part really isn't all that long, it just feels like it. The trail is not straight up the fall line but it's close. the switchbacks are short and equally steep. This is not a route for those who do not like steep trails.

Balsamroot

Spring Beauty Clump

Snow Patch

As we moved higher the wind picked up. It was not altogether unwelcome as the day was warming up. As we reached the ridge top we also reached the snow. The intersection with the ridge top trail had some bare ground but for the most part there was 6-24 inches of snow on the ground. It was noon now and we stopped for lunch. The ridge is forested here so we were out of the wind. Kim was still feeling good and my knee felt fine so we then headed off towards Mt. Baldy. Joey's report said the ridge was 30-40% snow covered. That was about right. We dropped to a saddle on snow and it was deeper there. As we climbed up the other side the snow mostly went away. After that the way was largely snow free. Farther on we had views down to Cle Elum Lake. We could also see over to Jolly Mountain and Mt. Stuart. Up the valley were Mts. Hinman and Daniel. Thomas Mountain, farther north on our ridge, also came into view. Ahead of us was Baldy.

Lake Cle Elum

Thomas Mountain

Ridge Flowers

We saw a lot of glacier lilies and spring beauty along the ridge. It was too early for the balsamroot but there was plenty of color. Usually I follow the trail around Baldy and come up the open meadow on the south side. This time we found snow on the side of Baldy. Instead we followed the ridge up. Most of the way we were on a minimal boot path or animal trail. It went up just fine. It's about a mile from the ridge top to the summit of Baldy.

Glacier Lilies

Yellow Bell

Mts. Hinman & Daniel

Near Summit

When we arrived we could see squalls all around us. A little rain to the north, some to the south, and some to the west. Easton seemed to be the eastern edge of the moisture. He felt a few sprinkles but never had any real rain. We had a nice break on the summit then packed up for the trip down. The ridge walk was fun again. Lot's of flowers and nice views. From the ridge top intersection it was all downhill. Steeply downhill. We took our time. Kim's knees can be a little painful on steep descents and my sprained one still hurts a little. Slowly and steadily we made our way down.

Ridge

Baldy Summit

Coming Down

Pine Cones

Silver Creek

Small Falls

The folks in the other car must have gone up the Silver Creek Trail. We never did see another person. It turned out to be a very nice day. We saw lots of flowers but no other hikers. It was nice to finally climb to a summit mostly on dirt. It is late June but snow still covers the high country. It was Kim's first time on this trail. I have been up it more than a few times. I'm sure I'll be back in a few years.

[Quark]

This puppy is steep. I was glad the weather was relatively cool and high clouds; even a skosh of rain. JimK says this trail is an unsung hero; I agree. Not well-used, but it's among the prettiest trails; a mixture of westside meets eastside re: flora and views. Silver Creek falls rivals anything you'd see on the wetside.

1 label

Silver Falls from viewpoint

Jiminovich at viewpoint

Avalance lillies with Daniel or Hinman or whatever in the background

1 label

Avalanche lillies & some mountains & stuff in the background

King of the Teanaway_Larger than Life

You can tell just by lookin' at 'im that he's ready to point at sumpin

Lots of flowers; it chaps JimK to mis-name avalanche lillies vs. glacier lillies, so I was sure to use both names on my flower captions. Truth told, I don't know the difference. He told me a million times but it's just one of those things I can't remember. Mainly because I don't give a rat's ass. The names are interchangeable as far as I'm concerned. No offense to JimK, but that's the way it is.

Avalanche lilly

Glacier lilly and springbeauty

Glacier lilly and raindrops

It's a confusing place. The flora is mixed up.

Extremely rare vanilla leaf bracked lousewort

Jim said that apparently people who hike this trail get ice and trees confused, so the trees are labeled to eliminate confusing them with ice.

They don't want anyone confusing trees with all the ice up there

Pretty place. Interestingly, my chocolate lilly photos didn't turn out. It's a difficult flower to photograph. Hard to see!!! But worth it when you do. We may very well have missed them if not for Joey's kind trip report, timely posted for viewing.

Thompson's paintbrush and phlox

Agoseris of some sort

Black desert parsley

Collage

Phlox and a brain

Hooker's fairybells

First ascent of the Mt Baldy Glacier with an umbrella.

Umbrella alpinist

Wonderful trail; nicely maintained, smooth tread and steady grade (steep). We each stepped off the trail to umm...see a man about a horse. After a minute, I yelled out, "Hey! I'll be a minute, I have a photo op over here!" Jim's muffled reply, "Yeah, OK. I have a photo op, too." We compared notes afterwards, and we were both taking a pic of the same subject:

Always take your camera with you when you pee

Couldn't contain his desire to point

[Joey]

Well gee, sorry our joint timing was off by a day. Maybe I'll bump into one or both of you somewhere else along the way. Q, yes, hard to get a decent pic of the rather shy chocolate lily. I kept looking for plants where I could get a good angle looking up. This was the first year I got any keeper pics of this flower. Much of the credit goes to the Joeypod I used when shooting. What - no habla Joeypod? Maybe next time I'm out I'll take a shot of the elusive Joeypod in action and post in the photo forum. Jim, hope to see your pics sometime.

[JimK]

Hey, I'm working on it!

[puzzlr]

"collage" an "brain" are very nice. Thanks for the TR

[JimK]

I have added my photos to the first post in this thread.

[Joey]

I greatly enjoyed both sets of pics. It was just like I was still there. Well, except my weather was better.

[Sabahsboy]

Splendid set of photos. Great flowers to charm the camera into your hands and snap, snap and snap!