The road was a little rough but my low clearance car got up just fine.  Had to go slowly in a few places, but I've been on worse.

I'm very surprised this trail doesn't get more use!  It's not that hard and the views of Baker are amazing!  Still a few blueberries left to snack on, though the best ones were once you get to the ridge.  Yum!  Lots of cool mushrooms out now too!  Only saw one group of 4 going up as I was about 3/4 of the way down.  There was one tent near the top, but never saw the person it belonged to. 

This is a hidden gem in the Baker area. On a beautiful day there were only three hiker groups and two backpacker/climber groups to be seen. Haze from the fires was noticeable to the east/southeast but Baker and Shuksan sat under blue skies.

The road has some potholes and grooves but should be doable for sedans. There was even a roadster at the trailhead. After a warm-up on the old logging road, the switchbacks through the forest are very manageable, despite some overgrown spots and rooty areas. You reach your reward soon enough, with berries along the way.

I went beyond the NPS boundary, following the very obvious trail up to the trees and next ridge. The trail is rocky and requires a few handholds, plus poles would help, but it’s very doable for non scramblers. At the top you get nice views down into the other side of the ridge and further into the North Cascades, but just a heads up that Shuksan becomes entirely blocked. You can keep going through a boulder field with some exposure and a much more faint trail. I tackled some of it, going around the bend hoping to see Sulphite Glacier but nope, that would require more effort and trail finding than I was willing to put in.

In any case, it’s great up there, but also plenty beautiful if you decide to stay at the NPS sign clearing. Hopefully the photos will help you decide.

We got to the trailhead around 9:00am to find about a dozen or so cars. The trail starts out fairly easy, wild flowers blooming in abundance. Some areas of the trail become very narrow with overgrown plants on either side. Still perfectly manageable but would have worn pants had I known. Around the two mile mark, the incline becomes more steep and stays this way basically until the top. There are areas where you’ll be climbing up large roots that cover the trail so watch those ankles. We saw a couple groups on the way up, each clearly intending to overnight and do some climbing on Shuksan.

 Views from the top were stunning - even with Baker being shy and hiding behind clouds, we were in a proper state of awe when posting up near the NPS Boundary marker to eat lunch. We hung out for a couple hours taking in the scenery with quite a bit of peace. Not crowded at the top like so many trails in the summer. I’ll definitely plan on doing this one again. Garmin clocked in at 9 miles if you go to the boundary marker and back.

Beautiful hike with very few people. Views start around 2.9 miles but had wildflowers on way up.  Opens up to ridge with great 360 views of baker, shuksan…. Snow started about 3.4 miles with intermittent and then more patches.  Bugs going up but not bad but mosquitos in force at ridge when got to snow.  Very clean and well stocked privy and garbage cans.  Followed with paddle board at baker lake.  

We hiked up as far as we could go before hitting solid snow on the trail at about 3600'. It was rainy and overcast.

There are some downed trees on the old logging road section of trail that should be cut, also a couple of eroded bank stream crossings from a huge washout that looks like it happened a couple of years ago.

Had an unexpected view of a wolf crossing the road as we drove out.