A few peaks seen from the trail.Ever since we moved up to the Pacific Northwest, I swore I would “get out and hike every summer.” Well, there are a couple of problems with this idea.
1. I’m a wedding photographer. We don’t actually get a “summer”. And as such, we willingly sacrifice many plans for ‘summer vacation’ or ‘weekend getaways’.*
2. Weather plays a HUGE part in planning any kind of wilderness activity (cold and damp I do not do well).
So, with summer winding down (it is clearly obvious here when this happens), I’d been checking the weather for ideal conditions to take a high county hike in the Cascades. I figured I’d better get while the gettin’s good for fear of kicking myself for letting these opportunities get away. So I found a hike I wanted to take that was close yet challenging on the WTA website. The one I chose was about 50 miles away and had a combination of vistas and berry picking: Mt. Catherine. As it is late summer, the huckleberries ripen in the alpine areas. I didn’t want to miss that either.
This morning, when I saw the the weather forecast announce it was to be “mostly sunny” (as opposed to “mostly cloudy”), I quickly wrapped up the jobs I was working on, fed Mojo, packed up and headed out.
This was a hard hike. I won’t bore you with the gory details of just how hard it was (switchbacks and 1300′ elevation gain in 1.5 miles = steep!). Trust me, it was. However, the payoff was nothing less than spectacular.
The trail was well maintained. I saw few other hikers. It was also fairly dry, with only some boggy spots here and there. The last twenty-five feet of the trail was so steep, I had to climb using the mounted cable for just this purpose. As I pulled myself up and stabilized on rocky top, I almost couldn’t believe the view. It was breathtaking.
This is the view looking east: I-90 and Keechelus Lake. The summit of Mt. Catherine is really small, unlike the older peaks in the Sierra Nevada range which I am more familiar with.
Beautiful foliage atop Mt. Catherine.
Views from the Summit: Mt. Rainer shrouded in clouds.
It was quite literally straight down. In the distance, I was surround by the rest of the Cascade Range. Most of the peaks seemed to be about as high as I was.
Looking North: lenticular clouds forming.
The view northwest: I-90 and the Snoqualmie Ski Area below.
As for actually finding the huckleberries on the trail, there were none. I saw a lot of wild blueberries, some ripe and many still green. So after I finished my summit ascent, I went to another spot about a quarter of a mile past the trail head where I had seen people picking last week.** There were LOTS of berries there. Mostly blueberries, which I ate.
This little pond is adjacent to the famous Pacific Crest Trail. This trail comes up from California and goes all the way to the Canadian border. For those of you in SoCal, give it a whirl. It’s easy to get to.
I’m so glad I took this trip. The price was a lot of sweat and sore legs, but it was worth it. Photographs really don’t do it justice. One just has to live these things. So I hope you get a chance to get out there and do some hiking.
*This is not a complaint as much as a fact for anyone who is a wedding professional. We understand what we give up in order to give joy and service to our clients. So we move our activities with our understanding spouses to the off season. We still manage to get breaks from work, just not when everyone else does.
**I tried to find this hike the previous weekend but failed. As you can see, I didn’t give up.