Aug 16: Day Hike on Ptarmigan Ridge near Mt Baker

Rene a took me on a beautiful hike near Mt Baker on the Ptarmigan Ridge trail.

This was the perfect trail to test out how my shin splints. I’ve learned to expect a lot of up and down on a trail with the word “ridge” in its name, but this trail is has long traverses with short an mild uphills. If you look closely, you can see the trail on the right of this photo and heading to the pass on the right.

The only drawback was the smoke haze that seems to be everywhere up here. At least we don’t smell it.

We saw lots of lupine an other alpine flowers

And we feasted in wild blueberries

We also saw another new (to me) flower: the Western Pasque Flower, or “Mouse on a Stick”

There was still plenty of snow up here

While having lunch we spotted a Mountain goat across the valley, and on the way back we came across a family of Ptarmigan

We heard stories of a flower-filled meadow and a herd of Mountain Goats just around the next rise, but we were out of time.

I’m happy to report that my shin felt fine after our 7-mile hike.

I need to come back here and hike some more!