Saturday Adventures : Twin Lakes/Mt. Baker

The Saturday of Labor Day Weekend (two weekends ago) we had another adventure. We (Nana, Bapa, Cooper, Maria, Marco & I) headed east. This time we went to Twin Lakes & then just continued a few more miles until we reached Artist Point up at Mt. Baker.

Now... the road to Twin Lakes is something else. To those seasoned outdoor enthusiasts with a Subaru it's probably nothing... but to me, who does not have a Subaru and could hardly claim to be an outdoor enthusiast let alone a seasoned one it was quite the drive. We went up in my Dad's Hummer, which is NOT a Subaru. (FYI- we probably saw a dozen Subaru's up there... thus the references... ) The Hummer is W I D E R than most cars, so maneuvering it up a one lane gravel road that pretty much drops off on one side and is a vertical on the other makes you want to squeeze your eyes shut and say a prayer. Now I don't think I am exaggerating much at all... I wasn't the only one trying not to pee my pants. But we made it to the top & back down again and have lived to see a whole 'nother week.

It was absolutely beautiful up at the top. Worth the drive. So green and fresh. It was COLD though, so we didn't stay too long. We walked between the lakes, took some pictures, lost the keys, found the keys (oops... didn't look in that pocket). There were quite a few people camping... crazies, do you remember me mentioning that it was COLD. September, and there was still snow on the ground. Maybe it's the mom in me that thinks that those people were crazy.... then again I didn't see any toddlers or infants hanging out up there. Maybe camping in the freezing cold wilderness is something you do when you don't have kids...

Even though it was cold Maria had a great time. At one point she was bundled up in a towel running around. She slept most of the drive up so she was a little ball of energy when we got to the top.

Cooper slept most of the way too, so once we got to the top he could only handle so much before he wanted to eat.
Here is the first switchbach going down the mountain. When I was a kid we attempted to get up the road in my Dad's king cab truck. We had to stop and do the forward-reverse thing to get around some of these switchbacks. Even in the Hummer, which is a lot shorter than that truck was & has a much better turning radius, we still had to reverse a couple of times.
Here is the view. After those wildflowers it's pretty much a drop off. See the road way in the distance. We saw people who had parked down there and were hiking up to the top. It sure is beautiful.
Here's a shot from the visitors center near artist point up at Mt Baker. My parents had never been all the way to Artists Point, so it was a treat to show them something. It's been two years since I last went (just after Maria was born) and it is still as pretty now as it was back then.

When we were teenagers, my brother TJ was working on getting his Eagle Scout, and one of the Merit badges that he was doing was bike riding. He had to do two 50 mile bike rides. So he along with my mom & some friends rode bikes from our house to the lower lifts at Mt. Baker (over 60 miles... the last dozen uphill) My mom has always been a little sad that she didn't go the extra few miles to the very top (but it was 4:30, they had been riding all day, and they had places to go that evening). While we were driving from the upper lifts to the top we passed a guy on his bike, he got to the top while we were up there. My mom being the outgoing person that she is did a little interview and found out that he is from just across the border and this was his (i believe) third weekend in a row riding from his place up to the top. He starts early in the morning, gets up to the top early evening... takes a picture, then heads down the mountain to the first town (Glacier), stops for dinner and a few drinks, and then rides the rest of the way home and gets there about3 in the morning. The guy was 63 years old. The ride is over 70 miles long.So, it was another wonderful Saturday Adventure. Hopefully this is a tradition that keeps on going.