Checking out the snow at Mt. Baker/Artist Point

Decided to drive up and check it out for ourselves, since we've been hearing so much about the snow pack at Artist point and the fact that they decided not to plow to the parking lot this year. The parking lot at the ski area is open and snow free. The road that continues up is barricaded. We heard a volunteer forest service person say that the next parking lot up should be plowed out possibly next weekend and probably will be open by two weeks. That is the parking lot that the old "slush cup" event used to empty into. That was fun to watch, anything and everything was skied into a little pond in the early summer. Here's a quote from the History of Mt. Baker website.

"On July 4, 1948, the Koma Kulshan ski club organized a giant slalom race and promoted the event as the only ski tournament in the country during the month of July. This was the unofficial beginning of a long tradition of spontaneous and merry July 4th "Slush Cup" events that lasted into the 1980"s until the U.S. Forest Service alleged damage to the alpine environment and shut down the Slush Cup."

We walked past the barricade up the road to see how far the plow was.
(Remember just click on the pictures to enlarge them!)

                                                               Not very far -

Table mtn. in the distance with a cute little snow hat on top.
This photo was taken at the first parking lot looking towards
Bagley lake.

This photo was taken on Canyon creek road
(which is closed to vehicles because of road damage)
Wonderful example of "goats beard" on the trees.

Just a side note update on my calf injury -  Regular walking is fine and this last week I was able to do a "very" short hike and a 13 mile bike ride without any twinges. Yay, no running yet, but at least "some things" are possible!