Mount Baker Snowshoe, 3.7.23

It has been a rough few months for me in the get out and exercise department. Honestly, I’ve been sick since just before Christmas but to make a long story short I am optimistic that I’m on the mend. Now that I can breathe again without going into a coughing fit I was really happy when my friends Greg and Cindy invited me to join them for a day of snowshoeing.

We drove up to Mount Baker and parked at Heather Meadows which until mid-summer is the end of the road. Our destination was two miles and a thousand feet of vertical up the hill to Artist Point which is driveable in the summer months. This is a very popular place to ski tour and snowshoe. We had seen recent reports and knew the avalanche danger was low and the forecast called for good weather.

Right out of the parking lot the views were expansive, looking across the valley of the Nooksack River to Goat Mountain and the Border peaks, up above us to Table Mountain and creamy snow covered hills all around us. With temps in the lower thirties and sunshine lighting up the peaks we had perfect weather.

Many ski tracks carved up the hillsides but there were still lots of places with clean virgin snow, glistening in the sun as if lit by a billion tiny lights. We followed the main snowshoe track up, mostly easy climbing with a few steeper spots to navigate. In short order we had arrived at the parking lot for Artist Point but you wouldn’t have known it unless you had been there before in the summertime. It was just another snowfield, the bathrooms and signs completely buried under many feet of snow. We made our way up a little higher to the top of a knoll, spread out our tarps and had lunch. Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan were obscured by some cloud cover but there was still plenty to see.

The entire four mile round trip only took us a few hours, but what a glorious day it was to be hiking amidst such incredible winter scenery!