Great rewards for such a short hike. John and I ditched the rest of our tournament playing soccer buddies to preserve our injured legs for next week's hike on the Wonderland trail. Instead, we headed here for flowers and views. We weren't disappointed. After a 2 mile climb through the trees, we hit the meadows and the views, which expanded with every step. We got to a sidetrail, dropped our daypacks, and wandered to the left through fields of flowers. Lots of lupine, some paintbrush (both white and Indian), and tons of other flowers whose names I can't remember. We got back on the main trail kept going to the very end (another 2 miles or so) to Chowder Basin. Sat by a nice waterfall and shared our lunch with about 1 million black flies and mosquitoes. We did not climb the ridge above Chowder Basin because we missed the trail on the way in. For those looking for it, go right at the confusing intersection at the start of the ridge and scramble into the trees -- it apparently starts there. We did hit the knoll on the way back, however. The views were tremendous. Funny thing about this hike is that we had no idea that our first stopping point was actually Skyline Ridge. It was so short, we just assumed that we couldn't possibly be there so quickly. The nice thing was that there were plenty of places to wander!

Skyline Divide is a wonderful hike for views, flowers and birds. The flowers are just starting. Lots of phlox in bloom, valerian, outrageously brilliantly orange paintbrush in rocks, some lupine, some glacier lily's, yellow, white and pink heather, veronica, bistort, willow-herb, partridge foot, lousewort, penstemon, saxifrage, 5-leaved bramble, wild strawberry, queens cup, and more that I've forgotten. The avalanche lily's were over. Our lunch break turned out to be next to the ""bird condo"". Hard to tell who all lived in that mass of low bushes and trees, but American Pipits, juncos were there for sure. Also saw rufous hummers and some undefined finches. I think I saw a yellow rumped warbler and rosy finches. We did pass a grouse (spruce? tame, or ruffed? - gray form at altitude with a slightly ruffled head.) with one adorable little baby. Saw just one healthy looking marmot that didn’t let us get close like the ones at Mt Rainier.

Took my mom up the Skyline Divide today. Snow at 1.7 ish miles, just before you get to the ridge. The trail begins 12 miles up fire road 37 in beautiful, lush forest. The trail, an easily graded one, climbs steadily to the ridge, twice passing through meadows of green grass and wildflowers before switching back onto the ridge, where the views of Baker and Shuksan are i'm sure phenominal. Only, today, they were clouded over and not too visible. Oh well, the great lunch we packed was well worth the hike up and the meadow, which will be absolutely packed with wildflowers here in a couple of weeks, was beautiful. Glad to be away from the crowds on the fourth!

With the great weather, we carried skis and overnight packs up to Skyline Divide on the north side of Mt. Baker Sat/Sun for some views, touring and tele turns. On Saturday afternoon when we left the trailhead you could drive to within about 1/4 mile of the official trailhead at 4400 feet, 12 miles up a gravel road from the Mt. Baker highway. By Sunday at about 5:30 when we got back you could drive right to the trailhead. Trail is in good shape with one major tree about 1/2 mile in that you could crawl under without your pack. Snow starts about 4/5 of the way up the wooded roughly 2 mile trail to the ridge trail. A lot of people have booted up so it's pretty obvious where the trail is although it would be possible to lose track if you weren't paying attention. One of the great things about this trail is the element of surprise - when you pop out onto Skyline Divide at a bout 5800 feet on a broad meadow/snowfield, the views are unbelievable - in all directions. We found a nice tent site in the snow and watched the sunset over Puget Sound, the alpenglow on Mt Baker, the sisters, (Mt. Shuksan incredible view of that!), Ruth, Topmyhoi, Hadley Glacier, and everything in between. Next day toured out the ridge a few more miles. Snow is thinning on south slopes.

With a trip into the Enchantments coming up quick, I decided I best get out and test the ligaments in my ankle which I tore in July. But firt, a warning: I fell victom to car vandals, as many other overnight hikers did at the TH. I got lucky with minimal damage, but others did not. A car from B.C. not only got broken into, but every single window smashed, tires flattened, the hood popped and the engine department completely vandalized, etc. There was no way they would be driving home after what I'm sure they assumed would be a relaxing backpack in our beloved wilderness. I was disgusted, as many others were. Between two rangers, I learned that this particular TH has witnessed vandalism the past 3 weekends in a row. The Heliotrope Ridge TH has been experiencing this twice a week on average. Also unsafe are the Hannegan Pass and Canyon Creek TH. Beware. The good news? The county sherrif's office is now taking advanced action (I am not at liberty to disclose and neither should you be until they are caught) against these perpetrators. With that said, this was an incredible hike with fall colors just begining to show themselves. I suspect we are on our ""October 10th"" schedule for the climax, as coined by another contributor. The sunsets from this vantage are a photographer's delight, and highly recommended to the non-toting camera enthusiast as well. Pics will be posted soon at http://www.mountainscenes.com Don Geyer