Nature Vancouver

Nine of us hiked to Mount Baker’s Skyline Divide on Saturday 16 August. The road in, closed for most of last season, is in good condition now and driveable by any vehicle; a few potholes necessitate caution, especially on the middle section, but the road is very well graded. Until the views open up of Church Mountain across the valley you don’t notice that the car has climbed 3400 feet from the Nooksack River to the 4400 foot trailhead - approximately a kilometre elevation gain in 20.9 km of driving.

With that in perspective, the hike to the ridge is easier as you only have to climb 1500 feet (460 metres) to get through the woods to the meadows. When you reach the ridge, most of the rest of the hike is in open alpine meadows with views north to the Border Peaks, east to Mount Shuksan (dwarfing Table Mountain in front of it) and Mount Baker itself seemingly close enough to touch.

You can choose to turn back whenever you want at any point; gaining the ridge is satisfying enough to make a day, but you can continue along the ridge and up and over a series of knolls above Chowder Basin to see more and more.   

It was hot (30 degrees plus), the heavy snowpack which had recently been reported as lingering in the meadows was reduced to a few small trailside patches, and most of the trail was dry. However, a small patch of Erythronium grandiflorum (glacier lily) on the ridge near Chowder Basin was still flowering, attesting to the fact that, even in mid-August, the snow had not been long gone from this area. A very good wildflower show for this time of year, thanks to the late snow and a heat wave that melted it out just in time.

 

 Bird activity was almost nonexistent on this trip, maybe owing to the heat. The extent of birding for the day consisted of the usual, Gray Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco off in the woods, and one Black Swift circling the ridge just before the last of us started back down the trail.

 

Plants in flower or fruit (partial list):

Anaphalis margaritacea (pearly everlasting)
Arnica latifolia (mountain arnica)
Arnica cordifolia (heart-leaved arnica)
Aster douglasii (Douglas’ aster)
Bistorta (Polygonum) bistortoides (American bistort)
Cassiope mertensiana (white mountain-heather)
Castilleja miniata (red paintbrush)
Claytonia lanceolata (western spring beauty)
Clintonia uniflora (queen’s cup)
Epilobium anagallidifolium (alpine willowherb)
Epilobium hornemanni (Hornemann’s willowherb)
Erigeron peregrinus (subalpine fleabane)
Erythronium grandiflorum (glacier lily)
Geum macrophyllum (large-leaved avens)
Heracleum lanatum (cow-parsnip)
Luetkea pectinata (partridge-foot)
Leptarrhena pyrolifolia (leather-leaved saxifrage)
Lomatium martindalei (Martindale’s lomatium)
Lupinus arcticus (arctic lupine)
Mimulus lewisii (pink monkeyflower)
Mitella sp. (mitrewort)
Orthilia secunda (one-sided wintergreen)
Osmorhiza chiloensis (mountain sweet-cicely)
Pedicularis bracteosa (bracted lousewort)
Penstemon procerus (small-flowered penstemon)
Phlox diffusa (spreading phlox)
Phyllodoce empetriformis (pink mountain-heather)
Platanthera sp. (green rein-orchids)
Potentilla flabellifolia (fan-leaved cinquefoil)
Ranunculus acris (tall buttercup)
Rhododendron albiflorum (white rhododendron)
Rubus spectabilis (salmonberry)
Rubus pedatus (five-leaved bramble)
Sambucus racemosa (red elderberry)
Saxifraga lyallii (red-stemmed saxifrage)
Saxifraga tolmiei (Tolmie's saxifrage)
Senecio triangularis (arrow-leaved groundsel)
Sibbaldia procumbens (sibbaldia)
Silene parryi ? (Parry’s campion)
Streptopus amplexifolius (clasping twisted-stalk)
Tiarella unifoliata (foamflower)
Valeriana sitchensis (Sitka valerian)
Veratrum viride (false hellebore)
Veronica americana (American brooklime)  
Viola glabella (yellow wood violet)