The Mighty North

As the NW explorations continue, I'm enjoying finding new places and seeing new landscapes.  Last year my uncle gave me a book entitled "The Seven Summits" of which there was one I didn't know. Mt Shuksan.  I had to look it up last year, saw it was way up almost to Canada and a ways east of Seattle.  Figured it probably wouldn't happen anytime soon, and yet there I was on the train up to Seattle last weekend with hiking plans for Mt Shuksan. Low and behold, some Seattle friends knew of a great hike to the base of the mountain that they wanted to try out and it sounded perfect for me.

The drive from Seattle early Saturday morning was great.  Leaving the cityscapes behind we turned off the 5 freeway and drove a couple hours on country roads, through small towns with names like Acme and Glacier, with great views of towering snow-covered peaks in the distance.  So nice and exciting to look at, knowing our end goal might be one of those mountains in the distance.  We were seeing a lot of the North Cascades National Park, which is full of all sorts of glorious peaks.

Parking by a closed visitor center and passing many masked day hikers, we headed up 800 feet, to get to the Lake Ann trailhead, our end goal.  From there it was another 800 feet down to the valley floor, full of open meadows, creeks and some good views all around.  Kind of like a Yosemite Valley vibe, minus the large rock monoliths.  Pretty soon we could see parts of the jagged Shuksan and cloudy bits of Mt Baker.

Zig zagging up snowy rockfall, we made it to the lake which was almost as frozen as an ice cube.  Snow and ice all over, but the best part was the view of Shuksun from there.  Just an open expanse of a view, which a half mile from the lake, we made our view, as we set up camp in an open flat spot overlooking the mountain, hills, valleys and peaks in the distance.  A winner of a spot with a creek nearby as well.

The rest of the time was spent exploring the climbers trail and talking to those who were coming down/heading up to climb the 9100ft mountain.  We turned around at the spot where you needed ropes, but got a great view of Baker from up high.  Hiking around Lake Ann and above it, offered new perspectives and entertainment.  Just an all around good spot for an overnighter and day trips.

In the night, we were treated to two planets, multiple stars and an epic moonrise that was so bright it cast shadows.