[alexsidles]

On rainy days, I like to do lake hikes rather than peak hikes. You can still enjoy all the spectacle of a beautiful alpine lake even on a rainy day, whereas a peak hike will yield nothing but views of clouds. I am not opposed to clouds. In fact, I quite like them. But when clouds come, I can watch them just as enjoyably from sea level. There is no need to scramble all the way to the top of a mountain. With that in mind, I decided to visit Chain Lakes in the Mount Baker Wilderness, MBSNF. For my money, Washington high country doesn’t get any better than the North Cascades in general and Mount Baker in particular. The Saturday forecast for basically all of western Washington called for steady rain until 10, then intermittent showers the rest of the day. Sunset this time of year is around 4:30, so delaying the beginning of a hike until 10 to avoid rain would really limit my options. I decided to compromise between avoiding the rain and outrunning the sunset, and started my hike at 9. I hoped the weather break would come earlier than expected. The morning rain lived up to its billing. It was lashing down hard in the parking lot, so much so that I changed in the outhouse to avoid soaking my underclothes. Within minutes of stepping outside, I was soaked. I’ve always found the Heather Meadows area disorienting. There are so many vehicle loops, and loops within loops, and hiking trails branching and forking in every direction. I’ve gotten turned around there on past trips, and that happened again today. Thinking the Chain Lakes trail started out northbound rather than southbound, and mistaking Pan Dome Creek for Bagley Creek, I set out in exactly the wrong direction and soon found myself wandering forlornly under the ski lifts. Half an hour and half a mile later, I was back at my car, red-faced at having to check my location on my cell phone. Once I got going down the correct trail—the one that began not ten feet from where I parked—the hike was a lot of fun. The bad weather kept the crowds away, and I saw not one other soul the entire Chain Lakes loop. The lakes themselves were as beautiful in the rain as in the sun, and even the snowy patches posed no great difficulty. I did posthole quite deeply a few times in the boulder field below the Mazama–Table ridgeline, and at one point, I lost the trail and had to thrash through heather on the descent to Hayes Lake. Overall, though, the conditions of the hike were more like autumn than winter. I carried snowshoes but was never tempted to put them on, although I did see someone’s snowshoe track from a day or two earlier. Unfortunately, my weather break never came. Far from ending early at 9, as I’d hoped, the rain carried on heavily right through 10 and into the afternoon. I was barely able to take any pictures, even huddling under the mountain hemlocks that dotted the landscape. As a result of the wet weather, wildlife was scarce. I saw only four species of bird: American dipper, American robin, red-breasted sapsucker, and gray jay.

Despite the lack of photo opportunities or wildlife, it was wonderful to be up in the mountains by myself. The Mount Baker area can be such a circus on sunny days, so it was good to have a chance to be alone with my thoughts in the hills. Clouds don’t ever keep me from having a good time on a lake hike. Alex

[Brushbuffalo]

[Chico]

Very very soon all that rain is going to be snow.

[Hiker Mama]

Very cool! I thought the road was closed up there already! I just love that area.

[Brushbuffalo]

[jbaillie]

Great Attitude