Railroad Grade — Monday, Jul. 31, 2000

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

At the trailhead (which was a little confusing to find, since road #12 isn't signed or marked at all as far as we could tell--just turn left on gravel road immediately after the bridge) there were signs claiming a bridge washout which lead to a detour along a very muddy section. On the way back we found out that the detour is completely unnecessary as the bridge has just been repaired. There is no snow for first few miles. The ""railroad grade"" is a spectacular narrow ridge with views of the Easton glacier, the edge of the Mt Baker crater, and the San Juan Islands, and above it one can continue across snow fields to see the Deming Glacier icefall. A couple of members of our party were hiking in tennis shoes which is not recommended as their feet got completely soaked from the soft snow on the upper part of the Park Butte trail. Otherwise the trail is in pretty good shape and we saw 8 year old kids handling it fine. Surprisingly few bugs.