What's Up Dock? Dock Butte/Blue Lake, 8.5.18
I’ve made it no secret how much I love Mount Baker. I have hiked or climbed to well over a dozen different spots on or around the mountain and they were all great and they were all very different. Somehow, the hike to the top of Dock Butte has always eluded me so today was the day. I planned for an early start but ended up with about a half hour delay waiting for a forest service guy with a chainsaw to remove this big tree that had fallen over the Baker Lake Road. The guy was good and made quick work of the tree. I’m glad it didn’t fall on me!
Small obstacle
After around eleven miles of potholes I made it to the trailhead. Several cars were there so I didn’t expect to be alone on a beautiful Sunday. However, I never saw anyone at all until I was passed by a stronger hiker just before the summit. This was an interesting trail. It climbed up onto a ridge and soon the views of Mount Baker began to open up.
Mount Baker and rock gardens
Once up on the ridge it leveled off a bit and then dropped to a meadow. The trail crossed the meadow and climbed another hill to an open ridge where I got my first glimpse of my objective.
The final bit of trail to the summit of Dock Butte
Soon I was on top and the views were just great! There was still a little haze from fires in Russia, Alaska and California but it had rained one day last week and cleared out quite a bit of it.
The Twin Sisters and Mount Baker
Mount Baker
It was a real treat to see such a full view of the Twin Sisters Range. These peaks are west of Baker but seldom can be seen from anywhere on the I-5 corridor.
The Twin Sisters
North and South Twin
Looking back at my ascent route. It went around to the left of the hill in front, down to the meadow on the left, over to the hill in the background and then traversed around to the other side.
After descending almost to the trailhead, I came to the junction to a trail that lead to Blue Lake. I knew it was less than a mile to the lake so off I went. In no time I came to Blue Lake. It looked really nice for swimming and had a few campsites around the shoreline. Hmm...
Blue Lake