Hello all, I would like to share with you the hike from a special location in my part of the world. This hike is located in what is referred to as the Skagit Valley, tucked away between the border of Canada and the USA.
I have completed this hike a few times myself, and each time it has been an unbelievable experience. The hike is approximately 9.5km (6miles) and 700m (2100ft) in elevation. Its not a particularly hard for the area, but it is very steep!
The hike starts at this otherwise ugly parking lot. Its a very rough drive getting up, and usually only jeeps or trucks can make. In fact, many of the vehicles at the lot had damaged bumpers from the drive up. You can see the start point in the bottom left of this image... and if you look closely you can see my buddy hiking far off along the starting section of the trail.
The hike then climbs steeply into the mountain meadows with views on all sides opening up immediately. This is one of my favorite parts of this hike. There are small mountain flowers and these lush wide leafed shrubs all around you. Its incredibly beautiful. Small gnats and butterflies can be found here as well which really surprised me.
As you reach higher into the climb views of the epic Mt. Baker can be seen far off into the distance. Mt. Baker (left) is across the border from Canada in the Washington State. Off to the right more is Mt. Slesse (right), most famously known for a tragic plan crash from the late 1950's.
Further up in the hike you spend your efforts climbing some light scree rock as the trail fades in and out of the worn mountainside. Although this is where the views really get exciting, this is my least favorite section. You're already quite tired by this point, the air is cold and wind starts to beat on you as you leave the treed and protected areas below. Plus, you can see the summit, but you know you have further to go still.
Once we reached the top we setup our tent for the night. You're not supposed to camp here, but technically there is no rule against it. Plus, who wouldn't want to stay up in the mountains for the night?
Dinner was a nice soup with some crackers we brought. Washed down with a swig of whiskey we settled in for the night... well. Not quite.
You see, the point of hiking up this weekend was to capture the milkyway. I'd done the math months before and I'd been checking weather reports for the weeks before. I had two weekend opportunities to capture the Milkyway over Mt. Baker - a bucket list shot for myself to achieve. While the rest of the group got into bed I prepared for a long and cold night. My buddy stayed up with me as well, he'd never seen the milkyway before but desperately wanted to.
After hours of cold and dark, and hundreds of frames later I got my shot... this shot.
For many seeing this shot will only take a moment of their time. But for me this shot represents hours of planning, learning camera techniques, software techniques, and of course the hours spent climbing and shooting the frames used in this image. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
For the technically inclined, this image was stitched from multiple images taken from blue hour through midnight. The foreground plants were shot in blue hour, and later when it was too dark to see them the milkyway was shot. On the computer I've merged the two together to create this image in a way that both can be appreciated.
As sunrise lit up the earth again and warmed us up, we took a quick nap before waking our other friends, packing up, and heading back down the trail. Mission accomplished, tired, and full of excitement.
I hope you've enjoyed these images, the story that accompanies them, and I hope I've inspired you to go enjoy nature where you live. And if you ever get to visit Canada, maybe you can hike this same mountain!
Pinmapple: [//]:# (!pinmapple 49.146083 lat -121.749574 long d3scr)
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