Lake Ann hike

 Our son's fiancée is on vacation this week and said she would like to accompany us on one of our adventures. Since we're ticking off our Summer "high country" bucket list hikes, we stuck to our schedule and chose Lake Ann from our list of remaining hikes. I hope she didn't feel like it was more that she'd bargained for. I also misrepresented the hike to her and said it was not very rocky. There was concern because she had a long recovery after a high ankle sprain this year. I'd only hiked it twice and both times were a few years ago. My memory of the trail was definitely not correct. There are rocks and rocks and rocks. Oops sorry. 

You can read about that first trip in 2015 here: Senior Trailblazers hike to Lake Ann and then on a backpacking trip from Chain lakes in 2019 HERE.

Monday was the day she picked for us to do our hike together. After looking at the weather forecast we decided not to rush away in the morning yesterday as it was supposed to get a bit better later in the day. When we began our hike the clouds were low and I wasn't too hopeful for any views.

The clouds were moving in and out, so I was hopeful for views. This was the theme of the day in my head "hopeful for views".

It's nice to have someone else along who takes pictures.

Me after pausing to retie my shoes.

The fall colors were beginning to show.

The first Swift? creek crossing.

Choosing my steps carefully

The trail crosses Swift creek again at the Swift creek trail junction. This is where the PNT hikers turn. We saw a PNT hiker on our way up to the creek. A friend of his was hiking with him to help him to connect one of the sections he'd had to skip because of fires. 

The creek here is a wide shallow creek in an open area, you can see it here in this video.

I thought this rock was interesting as we made our way by it.

After the creek crossing the route becomes uphill and much more rocky and the clouds thicker.

There was a slight break in the clouds and we could see the saddle.

After going over the saddle, we kindof had a view of the lake for my bucket list photo.

Making our way to our lunch destination that again we hoped would give us a view.

Here's our view of Shuksan

This photo taken in 2015 shows what our view should have been.

Scoutina enjoying the views.

Mel B with a view of the lake after the clouds moved out for a brief time.

As the clouds moved in and out we did manage to get some peek a boo views. A waterfall from a glacier came into view.

Two tents below us and at the base of the Shuksan trail. As were were hiking uphill near the saddle we passed several climbers that were making their way down the trail, some had summitted some had not. We also passed a woman that was hiking barefoot. She did the whole hike barefoot. We were amazed and mystified by her.

The glacier began to be visible.

I also spotted a snow heart shape on the side of Shuksan. I zoomed in for the photo.

After eating lunch and waiting on the views we began our trek back.

We got more and more views as we made our way down, letting us see some of what we'd missed on our way up.

The Pika were calling all day in the rocky areas aka everywhere😄. We saw two Pika, but I was only able to get a photo of one.

I saw another snow heart in the distance as we made our way back to the trailhead.

I liked how these fallen trees had framed my husband and Mel B as the hiked in front of me.

A look back before we began the last uphill in the forest.

Finally the last stretch before the trailhead.

A view from the parking lot.

Heart rocks on the trail. Surprisingly few or I was concentrating on not falling on the rocks I was walking on. The rock on the right was found under the flowing water of Swift creek.

As we drove by the ski area, this wonderful view of Shuksan appeared.

We got our mountain view afterall💓

Even though it was in reality a very rocky surface, she did great. Now to get her up there on a clear day & better views.

Trail rating: Moderate/Hard

Total distance: 9.4

Total ascent: 1986 feet

Goat Mtn. Overlook hike

 Yesterday (Friday's) our hike was the Goat mtn. overlook. I kept thinking I'd done it with the Senior Trailblazers, but I guess I hadn't, I have no blog record of it. The only time I'd been there apparently was in September of 2014 with my husband. We had tried to summit that day but the trail or lack of trail was sketchy at the upper meadow and I didn't feel comfortable continuing, so we turned around before summiting. You can read about that day's hike HERE. The skies were clear on that day and we had some great views.

It was cloudy with a chilly start for our hike yesterday. We parked and the upper lot near the restroom and walked down to the trailhead.

My husband and Scoutina at the sign-in trail register.

Did you know that slugs like to eat mushrooms?

As we were hiking along my husband showed me a wire he had noticed on some hikes he had taken before. It appears to be left from when the Lookout used to be in the area. The wire and the insulator are visible between the two trees.

We found the old Lookout trail, it takes off to the right as you are hiking up the trail. You can see a large broken tree branch on the ground paralleling the trail in the photo below. There is no sign informing what the side trail goes to. I found a great article that includes photos of the old Lookout site. 

You can read the short article HERE.

There were a few heart rocks along the trail

The vegetation free forest broke out into these wonderful little green areas here and there.

Our Scoutina savoring a prize stick.

Boardwalk section of the trail

We then came to an area where there was more light and the forest changed to Alder and Vine maples and lots of vegetation. The trail was quite brushy.

Thimble berries and Blueberries made an appearance, along with some early signs of fall color.

The clouds were in and out with some peek a boo moments from the sun, so we were able to get some views off and on.

Looking northwest towards the Welcome pass trail area.

The top of Goat mountain in the distance. 

Blueberries were plentiful

The trail has been uphill most of the time but now in the open it really goes up. 

There were many rock steps until our lunch spot.

Mt. Sefrit visible at the overlook. Hannegan peak is to the left of Sefrit and Shuksan is to it's right.

I took a screenshot of the peaks that my iphone's Peakfinder app showed. 

Enlarge the photo to better read the peak names.

We could see the Mt. Baker ski area across the way.

The zoomed in look at the ski area.

The view looking up from the overlook

My Summer hike bucket list verification photo.

There was a very chilly breeze blowing at our lunch stop. So on came the jackets.

The clouds tried to clear a bit for a view of Shuksan.

Scoutina and I enjoying the views and the welcome short window of the Sun's warmth.

As we made our way down the trail, I turned and took one more look at the mountain. It was bittersweet because I know I'm not fit enough to hike to the top as it was quite the effort for me just to make it to the overlook. Someday??? Who knows.

Back into the forest and the nice soft fir needle surface of the trail for the ever downward trek.

The wilderness area sign attached to a tree.

I forgot to take a photo of it on our way up, so here it is now near the end of our hike.

A very hard day's hike for me. I questioned my Summer bucket list quest as I worked on the last uphill before lunch, but as usual as we were making our way back down my energy reappeared and I was filled with satisfaction for meeting the challenge of the day. As the season is changing and the daylight hours are less each day, I'm hoping we'll finish the hikes on our list. We are running out of days where we can hike in the high country areas of the mountains. We had 14 hikes on our combined Summer hikes bucket list, one more was added last night😄. Now our bucket list has 15 hikes on it! We've completed 10, we have 5 to go and hopefully enough nice weather days to complete them. I need at least a couple of rest day in between hikes so we'll see if we finish the list.

Trail rating: HARD (yes, all caps for my added opinion)

Total distance: 8 miles by my Garmin

Total ascent: 2711feet

Track of our route