We left on Tuesday, Sept. 14th and had great flights - hurrah Southwest Airlines! (Particularly since they flew our 4 loaded duffles for free :-) Met Miah and Leslie, friends of Gretchen's at the car rental place in Kent and they graciously took our Hawaii luggage and the empty duffles and then we'll switch out when we fly to Hawaii Oct. 13th (Delta isn't as kind in their luggage fees!!) to see Jill's family. Ah, I digress.
We then...headed north on 405 to 5 to Bellingham and a quick trip to REI to get fuel for the little stove and some freeze dried food for the ugly nights and then Costco for trail food and then a quiet nights sleep in a motel.
After a trip to Fred Meyer's grocery in the morning we hit the road to Mt. Baker. It started out cloudy and was threatening rain when we arrived at the Glacier Ranger Station to get info. Headed to Douglas Fir campground and put the tent up in the sunshine - sweet! Then off to the Artist Point at the end of the Mt. Baker Rd. It was a beautiful ride up with broken clouds and tall tall Douglas Firs lining the road and little peeks through the pines at snow capped peaks ahead!
Mt. Baker, here we come! On the way we stopped and took a short trail around Picture Lake and got a stunning picture of Mt. Shuksan, below.
When we got to Artist Point we took the Artist Point trail and had gorgeous viewpoints of Mt. Baker and Shuksan among lots of other peaks. A wonderful happening. Headed home and had rain by the time we got there...fortunately there was an unoccupied shelter two sites down where we fixed dinner. But...we stayed dry and toasty in the tent all night. What a great start to the trip!!
