13 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •
Did something really different this day. Joined up with a group hike sponsored by the Friends of Mount Adams, led by a well-known local historian who'd spent a lifetime crawling all over this mountain. The bugs were simply horrendous! But the scenery and good company made up for that, and more.
We started at Divide Camp trailhead, and hiked up to the PCT from there. Shortly after the Adams Creek crossing, we diverted off-trail and up-hill enjoying alpine meadows peaking with massive amounts of lupine, paintbrush, and more. We continued up into the tundra zone, and the floral display became all the more dwarfish, but still abundant.
The snowfields provided easy passage up through and beyond Glacier Basin to our lunch spot at Glacier Lake. Beautiful! After soaking that all in for awhile, we just wandered back in roughly the same direction we'd come, again just soaking up the alpine goodness all around us. Another great day on the mountain!
Comments
Karl
August 13, 2014
Although I climbed it last summer, this was really only my first real exploration up there on Adams' flanks. It's incredible! So much younger, it seems, than other nearby volcanoes. Far easier to ramble without encountering the terrible erosion barriers. I think a new goal of mine will be to wander entirely around the mountain "one of these days." :-)
Jen
August 14, 2014
You visited Equestria Lake! Sure is pretty up there. Looking forward to a return to the area soon myself.
Karl
August 14, 2014
It's an interesting question, Jen! I can't tell for certain, but it almost seems like Google Maps is the original source for that name. I say "almost" because the few other references (eg, Allison's TR, another post here, even one mention on Wikipedia) seem too few and far between for a place with an actual name.
I was hiking with a well-known local historian, who's been crawling all over that mountain for 70 years, and asked him about that. He had always called it Glacier Lake, and the rangers in Trout Lake knew it by that name as well. And the google-love for Glacier Lake is great.
The only map it shows up on as Equestria is Google's. Neither name shows up in the USGS Geographic Names Information System. (Although there are three other Glacier Lakes in WA!) I suppose it's the local recognition, or lack of, that sways me the most.
Whew! That got much longer than I anticipated!
Yes, it is a stunningly beautiful place! I hope to spend many more days high on Adams' myself. :-)
Roman
August 12, 2014
Wow Karl - we got so similar hike idea, surprising we didn't run into each other! Mt. Adams simply meant to be explored off-trail, so easy terrain and so much more scenic (at least on the west side) than simply staying down on Round the Mountain Trail.