Henry & John Backpack near Mount Baker

On a steamy Saturday in late July, Henry and John went backpacking near Mount Baker in the northern reaches of Washington. 

We drove up on Saturday morning, about a three-hour drive, the last forty-five minutes of which was down an unpaved forest road up into the mountains. We parked at the trailhead, loaded our packs on our backs, and started up the trail. 

After about three miles, and two hours, we reached Excelsior Pass, which crested to a beautiful view of Mt. Baker, Mount Shuskan, and lots of other mountains. We followed the ridge for another mile or so, and camped at the top of a knob with an amazing view all around. We were about four miles north of the summit of Mount Baker, and two miles south of the Canadian border.

We setup our tents, cooked dinner, and swatted away countless bugs who were, unfortunately, all around, preventing us from enjoying it as much as we could. It got quite chilly overnight, and in the morning we packed up and hiked back down the mountain. All in all a great outdoors adventure!

At the trailhead

Walking by an alpine lake

Hiking through a slope of wildflowers

Our campsite

Mount Baker in evening light

Our campsite was on the knob on the right

Sunset from our campsite

Joseph Completes the San Francisco Marathon !

On Sunday, July 24, Joseph completed his first marathon, a hilly course in San Francisco! He started at 5:40am, and was done just after 9am. Mary Jo and John were able to follow on an app for the race.

Joseph crossing the Golden Gate Bridge around 8 miles in to the race

Running through Golden Gate Park, close to his apartment

Final stretch!

Mega-Hike to Pete Lake and Beyond!

On Saturday, Henry and Dad took what wound up being one of their longest hikes in recent memory, a 15-mile hike to Pete Lake and beyond.

The Pete Lake trail is a somewhat obscure hike east of the Pass north of Roslyn. It was about an hour-forty-five minute drive to the trailhead, and then a relatively flat hike to the lake, which is a big backpacking destination, so most of the other hikers were toting large packs. (We also saw a few horses on the trail, as it's a somewhat popular horseback-riding destination.)

The trail was well-maintained, with several shallow streams to be forded. And the lake was beautiful, with snow-capped mountains beyond it. We made very good time to the lake, so decided to go on beyond it, on to a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. We wound up hiking to a nice clearing with some waterfalls coming down that was stunning!

Hike to Talapus and Olallie Lakes

On Sunday, July 17, Henry and Dad took a hike on the near-side of the pass out I-90 to a pair of alpine lakes, Talapus and Olallie. The trail was fairly crowded, but it was a very nice hike as both lakes were nestled in the mountains and were beautiful!

Cougar Mountain Trails Completed !

On July 16, 2022, John and Mary Jo completed their 18-month quest to hike all the trails in Cougar Mountain when they did a final 5.5 mile stretch filling in the gaps they had remaining!

We had started on January 1, 2021, and, with a bit more than 35 miles of trails in the park, expected it would take us a while to complete. Taking a hiatus later in 2021 for MJ's Chemo, we picked it up again in early 2022, with one of the larger challenges piecing together an approach so as to not leave big gaps of trails needing to be done far from trailheads, which would require very long hikes. The last few hikes we did as one-way, meaning we'd park one car at one trailhead, and another car at another trailhead, so we could maximize our hiking miles rather than having to loop back to the car. 

We completed all the trails at 'Shy Bear Pass' and took a rare selfie photo to mark the occasion!

Our completed hiking map!