Church mountain hike

 After our hike Tuesday to The Portals, we looked at the weather forecast to see how it will affect our last Bucket list hikes. Saturday looked the best day with Sunday nice as well but with a few more clouds. So with only a day's rest we decided to go and hike Church mountain. Church mountain is all about the views, so I wanted the clearest weather day possible to attempt this. This was a hike heavy week for us: Hannegan Peak attempt on Monday, The Portals on Thursday and now Church mountain on Saturday. Lots of high miles and ascent for us but we're running out of time in the high country. Snow is predicted midweek so this is probably our last outing in the mountains. We have Winchester lookout & Welcome pass to yet hike, my husband added these to our joint list. Who knows if the weather gives us one more window we could possibly get to the last ones on our list, but that would be a big wish. 

I looked to see if I could find any info. on the history of the old lookout and I found an article complete with photos of the old lookout. You can read that article HERE. I found it very interesting.

We got up at  5am to get an early start as we didn't know how far we would get on the trail and how tired we would be so we wanted the biggest window of daylight that we could get for our hike.

When we got in our truck it was a wonderfully clear night sky, the stars were shining brightly. We got to the trailhead just after sunrise. It was a short drive to the trailhead and the best logging road surface we've had all summer. The fossil creek crossing didn't have much water in it and it wasn't tricky to drive through the dip. Our truck rubbed just a bit, so low clearance cars might have an issue.

It was a warm 47 degrees when we started. I never needed an extra layer all day.

Signing in at the register. It was the first day of deer hunting and several hunters were on the trail as we made our way up. My husband had his trusty orange hat on.

The first half mile is on an old road. It's not too steep and is fairly wide.

It's about 3 1/2 miles to the meadow, so we hiked in the forest for quite awhile.

My husband spotted this Newt/Salamander? along the trail. Scoutina wasn't interested.

Forest view

Finally we made it to the first creek, Scoutina was excited about her chance to get her feet wet and to get a drink of water. We bring her water dish and extra water with us for long dry sections of the trail, so she'd not deprived of water.

Finally we broke out of the forest to the meadow.

So bright and wonderful.

There are a couple of creeks in the meadow. We chose the farthest one with rocks around it and took a break, had some of our lunch and rested for the nearly 1 1/2 mile 1000'+ climb to the top. The last push is challenging after going 2000'+ up through the forest section.

Our lunch view.

We packed up and began our slow trek up the hillside. Thankfully it was switchbacks and manageable.

Our last section up to the top.

My husband and Scoutina began making their way up the rocky steep trail, until I decided I was too nervous to watch Scoutina attached to my husband make their way up the Class 2 scramble area. I could just see her jump and cause my husband to lose his balance and over the edge they go. I voiced this to my husband and he said he would stay at a lower location and I would continue up the rest of the way on my own. So up I went. I followed the horizontal cable route until it turned and went at a vertical direction, at this point I continued on a path that had a bit of scrambling (using my hands) to get up.

I took this photo looking up from the trail.

Finally at the top, with a nice clear view of Baker.

Kidney lakes to the opposite direction.

The peak in the photo below is above Kidney Lakes, I tried to find the name of this peak and found nothing except possibly called Pt 6209, I found that info. in a trip report on NWHikers.net, you can read about it HERE.

The true Church mountain summit.

A selfie bucket list photo from the top of the hikers (or false) summit.

I collapsed my trekking poles and attached them to my pack for the descent and made my way down on what I thought was the trail I'd come up from. It was very steep, but I was making good progress until I came to the cable. There was a spot that my foot just couldn't' reach (short leg people issues). I called out to my husband since he was in hearing range and said "I'm stuck". He said back to me "what are you doing on the cable route? Oops, up I went and found my correct turn for the downhill scramble. I was pleased with myself though for going as far as I did on the vertical cable route.

As I made my way back down the trail I took a photo of the place my husband and Scoutina waited for me.

Safely down to the easier section of the trail.

After getting to the top I came back down to where my husband and Scoutina had waited for me. It was nice to sit down, eat lunch and let my happy thoughts wash over me.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone on the true summit before. I took a photo of some people at the very top.

Fall colors and mountain views as we made our way down.

Always a last look back.

Into the forest we go. 

The forest isn't totally without vegetation, we did see this lovely green patch on the forest floor.

The last section, nearly to the parking lot.

We were back to the truck by 5.

A splash of fall color as we drove out the parking lot.

Trail rating: Hard

Total miles: 10.4

Total ascent: 3691

I was so happy that we were able to complete this hike.

We enjoyed a nice celebration dinner at Graham’s in Glacier before going home.  

My Summer bucket list has been completed✅:

Park Butte Lookout

Excelsior peak

Yellow Aster Butte

Hannegan Peak (just short of the summit)

Church mountain

Lake Ann

Heliotrope Ridge

Ptarmigan ridge (The Portals)

Sauk mountain

Watson lake

Boundary way/Cowap peak

My husband's add-ons completed✅:

Scott Paul loop

Chain lakes loop

Goat mountain (overlook)

Not completed, husbands add-ons🚫:

Winchester mountain

Welcome Pass

I've been to the top twice, you can read those trip reports from June 2015 HERE and from July 2019 HERE.

The Portals hike

The Portals keep calling to me, especially as the end of high country hiking season is approaching. The weather report for yesterday looked good and the road to Artist point was still open so we drove up an hour earlier than our usual start time and hoped we could hike to our destination and back before nightfall.

My husband and I had made it all the way to the end of the trail to the Portals in 2016, you can read about that trip HERE.

I did the hike by myself in 2020, you can read about that solo hike HERE

Photo of how far I got in that trip below.

The last time I was there we backpacked to Goat lake and did a day hike to the Portals in 2022. I wasn't blogging during this time period so no post to share. I really wanted to get to the Portals again but my Cancer treatments and Plantar fasciitis had really changed how I was hiking. I was in an immunotherapy treatment program during the time of this hike. I was done with chemo and radiation treatments, but a recurrence was discovered. After some genome testing results found that I was msi-high my Dr. suggested we start immunotherapy. We began that in May. I had a positive response to immunotherapy, it was successful in destroying my inoperable tumor and by July I had a clear scan. I continued receiving Ketruda infusions as a maintenance routine every 3 weeks. As a result of all of these health issues I was much slower and we believed I wouldn't be able to get there as a day hike again, so he sweetly planned a backpacking trip so we could split the distance up and have success getting to the end of the trail. It was bittersweet as I really wanted be able to do these longer hikes as day hikes and that didn't seem to be my future. A photo collage of that trip is below. That was a great trip and I'm very thankful that he planned that for me. *note: I stopped receiving Keytruda infusions in Dec. 2022 and have had clear scans ever since.

Yesterday the weather forecast was correct, it was a beautiful day. Our starting temp. was 38 degrees.

My husband signing in at the register.

Mt. Baker is in view for this first mile of the trail.

Entering the wilderness area. We've seen goats before in the green area below, but not on this hike.

At our trail junction. The chain lakes hikers take a right turn and the Ptarmigan ridge, Goat lake, and Portals hikers continue straight.

We ascended through fall colored blueberry bushes and rocky areas.

Nice views of Shuksan as we made our way up.

Baker with Coleman Pinnacle.

One of the long rocky sections

Basalt Columns

Happy Scoutina got to roll in snow. 

At Goat lake there is a nice full view of Baker and the Portals.

Looking down at Goat lake.

Love these full expanse views of our mountains.

Making our way up and past Goat lake.

The trail leading to the climbers camp and the Portals beyond.

After going up a steep rocky section we made it to the climbers camp.

A nice view of the Portals. 

Heave frost at the climbers camp.

We spoke with hikers coming towards us as we made our way up the trail and asked them what the conditions were for the last section of the hike, most said there were sections with snow and ice. Going up wasn't bad but coming down was tricky with the ice. We chose to stay put at the highest point of the climbers camp area and have our lunch. A strong cold wind was blowing so we put on our layers. I ended up with 4 layers to keep me fairly comfortable. We found some shelter behind some rocks to help keep the wind away. I was strangely content to call this our ending place for the day, but It's a tricky ascent and descent on a good day so I was ok to not test how we or Scoutina would descend with ice, remember she's always attached to my husband with a waist leash bungee harness. Hiking the trail seemed easier than I'd remembered. It had only taken us 3 hours to get there. I was filled with emotion as the last journey we'd had here I was thinking I'd never do this as a day hike again, so the happiness I felt at being there again was very large. We stayed and enjoyed the views and the area for about an hour until the cold got to us. 

Scoutina enjoyed the views during lunch.

As we started down the trail we spied a herd of goats. They grazed above us as we walked by. I made a collage of the photos.

Making our way towards Coleman pinnacle.

Back to Goat lake with it's wonderful green color.

My husband was visiting with someone we know that we happened to see on the trail and I loved how he looked with Baker behind him. I joked with him that his fuzzy white hair with the sun shining through it reminded me of the goats we had seen on the trail😂

Almost back to the parking lot and a view of Shuksan as the evening shadows were beginning.

A grouse was flushed by our dog. Thankfully she was leashed and no harm was done. Scoutina was very excited about it though. The grouse seemed to not be very upset by her, after it was flushed out of the bushes it just stayed on a log and watched us.

We took our time hiking out since we'd gotten there so quickly. Even with our slow poke pace going down we were still at the car by 6pm. I was pretty dissapointed after not summiting Hannegan peak on Monday so yesterday's hike helped my spirits soar. My dreams and hopes were filled 100 fold.

Yes, pizza was had at Chair 9 on the way home.

Trail rating: moderate (I guess because this trail is at a high elevation to start)

Total miles: 11

Total ascent: 2078 feet