9 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain • 1 night
While in Bellingham, Zane and I opened our maps and decided to just pick somewhere that looked interesting. We decided for a somewhat short and sweet overnight, starting at the Park Butte Trailhead, and camping along the Railroad Grade trail. (A popular climbing route for Baker)
Weather was iffy, clouds blocked our views but with a little waiting Baker finally popped out for a short time. We explored up and down the railroad, stopping where the Easton glacier began. The mountain fully cleared as the sun went down. I woke up at 3 am to see if I could see any headlamps going up, but I only saw two groups moving up the mountain.
We had planned on going up to the Park Butte lookout the next day, but the rain came in and didn't let up. We had yet another wet hike out. I watched as weekend traffic headed in from our quiet overnight, the parking lot full of climbers gearing to go up in the heavy rain. For once, I didn't envy them.
