Tag: mt shuksan

Welcome Pass – High Divide Trail Near Mt. Baker – Looking For A Good Workout?

On By Sean BerryIn Day HikesLeave a comment

Wow, if you are looking for a way to really test your body this trail is for you! According to Gaia, this was 2.88 miles from trailhead to top and the ascent was 3,136 feet. What that doesn’t tell you is about .88 of the trail is a gradual ascent, so you gain most of that in about 2 miles. Get ready to huff and puff on the way up, and possible blisters and jammed toes on the way down.

Having said that, this is really an amazing hike – the road to the trailhead is short, but there are a few really deep potholes to navigate past (a few are nearly 2 feet deep!). It’s sad that there isn’t funding to get these smoothed out, as it would likely only take 4-5 hours to fix them. Heck, I’m tempted to grab a shovel and do it myself!

The trail starts gradually over the first 2/3 of a mile or so and then the switchbacks start. There is a small stream before the switchbacks – if you are low on water fill up here, as there is little to no water the rest of the way. The switchbacks are steep and unrelenting – they will kick your butt! Pace yourself and take breaks – after a while the views start to open up, you’ll see the valley far below and the anticipation of getting to the top makes the last 1/2 mile go by quick.

Once you get above treeline it’s pretty mind-blowing – you can see everything all at once. Instead of taking the High Divide we took a right at the junction, heading up a steep knoll to the east, which opened up nearly 360 views – Mt Larrabee, Yellow Aster Butte, Goat Mountain, Shuksan and of course Mt Baker. You’d be hard pressed to find a better lunch spot – then again, any of the trails in that area are pretty amazing.

While the reward was worth the steep hike up, I may put off a return trip – you can get a similar view with the Yellow Aster Butte trail, and it’s definitely a more “pleasant” hike. Still, I’m glad to have finally done the Welcome Pass trail, and doing it with good friends and trail beers at the top, it made for quite a day!

Solo Overnighter To Lake Ann / Mt. Shuksan

On By Sean BerryIn Overnight HikesLeave a comment

I was finally able to do a Mt Baker hike that I’ve always wanted to do – the Lake Ann/Mt Shuksan trail. It’s just over 4 miles each way from Artist Point, which you start by losing about 1000 feet of elevation in a mile, then leveling out for 2 miles in a beautiful creek meadow, before finishing with a 1500 foot or so climb in the last mile through boulder fields and a small patch of snow. Found a great camping spot up an obscure trail above Lake Ann, with great views of Mt Baker on one side and Mt Shuksan on the other.

I got a late start, hitting the trail at about 5:30 pm – it was a bit of a race to get to the end, since it’s getting dark around 8pm or so this time of year. I figured I could do 2 miles/hour, which would leave me about 30 minutes of light to set up camp at the end. Thankfully, that’s exactly the way things worked out. I arrived at the ridge above Lake Ann right at 7:30 and had a choice to make. I saw a few tents around the lake (but just a few – this was a Tuesday evening), but I had read reports saying that above the ridge (just north of the lake) there were some great campsites with a view of Mt. Baker, Mt. Shuksan and the lake. There wasn’t much of a trail, but after 50 yards or so I did see a faint path up towards the campsites. I passed one level site and took the second one, which did have a great view. The next morning I explored a bit and found even better sites further up.

After a great night of sleep I woke to a sunny morning with the occasional sound of crashing rock on the steep face of Mt. Shuksan. After coffee and breakfast I packed up and went down to the lake to check out the view from there, and walked a 1/4 mile or so down the climbers trail towards Mt. Shuksan and Curtis Glacier. While the trail does go all the way to the glacier, from reports I’ve seen it’s steep and narrow, with a washed out area towards the end. I didn’t have time to go all the way this time, but hope to give it a shot sometime in the future.

The hike back was pretty uneventful – it was a warm day but my pack was lighter so it wasn’t bad. There were tons of people on the way up though – even though it was a Wednesday, the parking lot was full by the time I got back. Overall this hike did not disappoint, and was maybe slightly more difficult than I thought it would be.