Beneath The Looming Mountain

The consensus was, "What Grand Country" we had stepped upon.

7-14-2001

photo of Ken J. McLeod © Mark Boyle

The mountain loomed heavenly in the near distance as we (Mark Boyle, Glen Lee and I) trudged the Mt. Baker Park Butte Trail ever upward, in the Mt. Baker National Recreation Area surrounded by the Mt. Baker Wilderness Area. The weather was warm and sunny but clouds were out, especially shrouding the mountain most of the time from view. Surpassingly, we encountered No Bugs! Snow patches lingered here and there around 4,700 feet. Near 5,000 feet at Baker Pass we left the intermittent trail after a refreshing, breathtaking view of the Sisters Range with the Park Butte Lookout well in view, too. I could feel the mountain pulling at me, soon I was off with the others following. The pull felt like that of a magnet is to steel, and I was not pushed upward, I was drawn.....

Further on up, we traversed up what is called the Railroad Grade Way Route to about 6,300 feet onto the flanks of Easton Glacier, so named for Charles Finley Easton who was an early climber and Koma Kulshan historian. Climbing parties and their tents were numerous on the last bare-ground-rib of the grade. And some were seen further on up the mountain climbing, but most were just milling around by their camps probably knowing of the present weather changing, thus making attempts to summit less desirable. At any rate, we took off cross country doing some glissading (with climbers probably wondering what in the hell we were up to) heading towards the Mazama Ridge/Deming Glacier area just under the Black Buttes. There, we spent some time just loafing, taking photos, and snacking on the food we had, occasionally hearing huge ice blocks falling from the mountain. The consensus was, "What Grand Country" we had stepped upon. Sometime after 4:00 PM we made a slow descent down, hooked up with the trail again, and found ourselves at the parking lot around 6:00. As we neared the lot, a beautiful blue-eyed blond young woman carrying a large pack hiked by smiling and saying "Hi" as she went (the eye contact was very nice and well remembered) probably enroute to meet up with one of the climbing parties still camped on the mountain.......

KJM