[Opus]

Happy first day of Spring! And boy did it feel like Spring on the trail today. Mountain Loop gate open, no snow at the parking lot, plenty of bare ground, and very warm temperatures! Bob, Kolleen, Barry, Joanna, and myself arrived about 9am for the trip. The human-to-dog ratio was 1:1 today, with Team Chihuahua (Luis and Lupe) from Trailpair and Team Whitedog (Emma, Banjo, and Holly) from BadDog. We made it all the way to 4000 ft with only traces of snow. Even better, I was finally feeling healthy for the first time in weeks. Here we hit snow and put on Microspikes. The snow was packed hard and slick, but softening in the sun. Traction was good and the waterfall crossing trivial. Everyone made it easily. Beyond this the packed trail continued but we would occasionally post hole a few inches. We carried snowshoes but would not need them all day. Barry reached the top first, me about 15 minutes behind, and Trailpair just behind me. Joanna turned back when it became to steep for 14-year-old Emma, turning the human:dog ratio up to 2:1 for our party. As we ate lunch another hiker delivered Team Chihuahua a message: Team Shepherd was descending to the cars. We finished our lunch and made our way down in a combination of plunge stepping, glissading, or in my case just plain falling down a lot. With all the sun and warmth the snow was pretty soupy. It was great to reach bare dirt again. About this point another message was relayed from Team Shepherd: they'd all safely crossed the waterfall. About halfway down we caught up with Team Shepherd themselves, resting on the sides of the trail. They'd been slowed by a very large group of Korean hikers who all complimented the dogs! We regrouped and hiked down together. Stats: About 3 hours up Just less than 2 hours down Microspikes useful but snowshoes not needed Human:dog ratio varied from 1:1 to 3:1 Great day to be out!

Tiny dog, tiny stick

Infamous crossing is easy today

Up the gully

Meadows

Ridgeline

The top

Cornices

Summit from false summit

Bob on false summit

Glacier Peak

Packed up dog

Gear, and dog

Heading down

Banjo (German Shepherd) and Lupe (Chihuahua)

Summit panorama

[Cascade Tree Guy]

We were waiving at you from Vesper.

Vesper Peak 046

[the Zachster]

Fun to see a pano with people in it! Looks like a grand day on Dickerman!

[TrailPair]

Here are our photos from the trip. It was warm and beautiful, although we were hoping for more blue!

Bob and Luis with Big Four

Bob and Luis with Sperry, Vesper and Big Four

Cornice

Barry and David on the summit

Mt. Baker from summit.

Glacier Peak and Sloan from summit

Barry, K and David with Team Chihuahua

Barry and David descending, Big Four beyond.

Bob glissading, David below. Scores of hikers on their way up!

[Gabigabs]

Great day indeed. Beautiful pics.

[BadDog]

David, great story telling. You made it sound like an Everest expedition with the two teams communicating with each other. I took advantage of the fact that no-one could possibly mistake the "alpine chihuahuas" and therefore it would be easy to relay messages from the shepherds.

[Hikingqueen]

Love it! I'm going to put my baby on a diet and get him in a pack this year. He's pushing 8-9 lbs and that's too much for a chihuahua. Plus it's just too much for me to carry with gear. I should have got a teacup like you.. much easier. Beautiful views!

[TrailPair]

[Highwalker's Daughter]

Looks like a lovely trip! We were going to do it on Sunday, but the weather was bad - only one car in the parking lot on Sunday for Dickerman plus bcfc53 had asked to do Goat Lake and the ice caves instead so we did both of those trails in the liquid sunshine with some decent views as it cleared a bit in the afternoon. Postponed Dickerman for a month or so - hope there are still some snow covered peaks as in your report!

[Shoko]

Gorgeous Putting it in my list right now!

[beaudaddy]

I love the Pano!!! Thanks for Posting the great pics.