Kris and I hiked this excellent trail through forest to high meadows and a view of Mt. Baker. The trail and the countryside are in great shape, but our big adventure for the day was in returning to the parking lot to find a flat tire. No problem, we'll put on the spare. We have a locking nut and three regular nuts on the tire. When removing the locking nut, the outer portion broke into several shards. This was using a standard jack in the prescribed way. We were now helpless, and just as we negotiated the $150.00 fee for a wrecker to come from Bellingham and tow the car, someone had a can of instant air we could fill the tire with. Thank goodness! We made it home, and right now Les Schwab is banging away at the nut (a several-hour job apparently). Keep this in mind! Thanks to the wonderful people who helped us out with a cell phone, and the air!

We had originally planned on a camping trip this weekend but with all the wild fires, bug reports and a shaky forecast we decided to stick with a day hike. This trail is a real charmer, it’s short, relatively easy and very scenic. It’s the kind of trail that you would bring along a friend or family member so you introduce them to the wonders of hiking. I brought my sister and her asthmatic boyfriend here back in 1998. We got off to a late start and had to contend with relentless swarms of black flies and mosquitoes. We literally ran up the trail non-stop, as any break in our forward motion would result in ingesting a dozen of the nasty pests. We had bug spray but we quickly discovered that the can was virtually exhausted. When we finally reached the ridge we were physically spent and very itchy. The view was incredible but our stay was brief and we hurriedly descended. Needless to say my sister and her boyfriend never went hiking with us again. Not wanting to repeat that experience we came prepared for battle this time around. We purchased two brand new bottles of bug juice, arrived early and wore long sleeve tops and pants. It all seemed to work as we hiked along at a leisurely pace and were completely unmolested by bugs. We reached the first meadows inside of thirty minutes; we were hot but still unbitten. We took a chance and striped off our outer layer, which also contained most of the repellant. It didn’t make a difference as incredibly there were no bugs! We reached the ridge in about an hour, the meadows were lush and green but the mountains were nowhere to be seen. It was one of those partly cloudy days where the clouds are obscuring all the wrong parts. We saw only one other person and they quickly headed down the ridge away from Baker, we went in the opposite direction. We climbed over the first knoll then skirted passed the second whose summit is the turn around point for most day hikers. At this point the trail splits with one leg riding the top of the ridge and the other slicing across the slope. Since it didn’t look like there would be much of a view we choose to stay low and explore Chowder Basin. We were soon rewarded as we noticed that the broad heather slopes were alive with numerous marmots. The trail rounded a corner and entered the broad basin which was resplendent with flowers, marmots and backed by a glaciated peak (albeit Mt.Hadley). The trail seemed to go on forever so we just picked a nice grassy spot for lunch and had a little nap. The clouds never did burn off; in fact they kept pouring in until the ridge itself was obscured. We headed back and upon nearing the second knoll we encountered the hordes. Dozens of people were all packed into a half-mile of trail when ironically marmots and solitude were only a twenty-minute walk away. Upon reaching our vehicle we looked at the trail register to discover that thirty parties had started up after us. Hopefully many of these are just being introduced to hiking and they will learn to spread out. Until then… Happy Hiking

Beautiful trail. We hiked up 4 1/2 miles to the meeting of Skyline Divide with Chowder Ridge. This was well worth the extra time to keep going to the end. You can continue on past this point, but we chose to stop for a break on a peak and turned around. The first two miles are forested and very buggy. The black flies and horse flies didn't even notice our bug spray. I would probably invest in extra crazy strength stuff or do this hike at a different time of the season. The next 2 1/2 miles are all on the ridge with fluctuating hills and dips. The flies were still bad, but better with a breeze. The trail itself is in very good shape. Definitely bring sunscreen as there is no shade once on top and lots of water for the same reason. We also found a Green Trails map of Baker helpful in identifying glaciers and neighboring peaks. Good luck!

Two friends and I hiked Skyline today. It is in good shape. The ranger tried to scare us off with the line, ""There is snow up there."" There is snow, but it is not a problem. A great hike, just go early before the snow turns to slush and make it easier on yourself. Other than that, this is an amazing hike that should not be missed, even if you have to brave a little snow.

We stopped at the Glacier Public Service Center and found out that the Chain Lakes Loop still had a lot of snow on it, so opted to do this trail instead. This must be a popular trail, as there were about 20 cars at the trailhead on this sunny Thursday, even though the access road is 13 miles of unpaved road and kinda bumpy at times. The trail is in great shape, no snow all the way to Skyline Divide, but the big story now is the flowers, which are at or near their peak in the meadows. We hiked up to Point 6563, and sat there an hour soaking up the beautiful views.