RHH's photos with the keyword: heliotrope ridge

Here's a trail I've done many times and that is also one of the climbers' routes for Mount Baker. This hike was with a group of schoolkids, 6th-8th grades, and we were very near the end of our hike when this was taken. The inset shows Mount Baker from just below the ridge.

This was taken a little over a year ago from the Heliotrope Ridge trail which takes you to the huge rock formation on the left and which looms above Coleman Glacier (not visible in this photo). We were taking a group of 6-8th grade students on this hike and as usual when we do this hike we all had our lunch on the top of the big rock formation

Photographed near the end of the Heliotrope Ridge trail, these are the seedheads of Sitka Valerian or Mountain Heliotrope, the plant for which Heliotrope Ridge is named. As the name indicates it is not really Heliotrope but Valerian. The hike to Heliotrope Ridge was one I did recently with my brother Tim.

A common autumn wildflower, this example was photographed near Heliotrope Ridge while on a hike there with brother Tim.

Grouse Creek is one of several creeks that have to be crossed on the way to Heliotrope Ridge and also on the way to Mount Baker and Coleman Glacier. This is the only creek, however, that has a footbridge. The others have to be waded or a way has to be found by "bouldering." Brother Tim and I hiked the Heliotrope Ridge trail the last time he was in the area for work.

These are the berries of Oplopanax horridus, the Devil's Club or Devil's Walking Stick, so-named for the thorns with which the plant is covered and a common shrubby plant here in the Pacific Northwest. I've posted this, however, for the story that goes with it. I was hiking the Heliotrope Ridge trail with brother Tim who was a bit ahead of me. I stepped up on some mossy (and slippery rocks) to take a picture of these berries and slipped and fell. I rolled across the trail and down the slope on the other side of the trail, all the time trying to protect my camera. My downward progress was arrested by another clump of these plants. Tim, who heard my yell of dismay came running back to help me extricate myself. Apart from a few bumps and bruises I was uninjured except for a lot of thorns in my hands and and arms and legs, thorns I am still trying to get out. Further down the trail I also discovered I had lost my water bottle, a bottle that is merely an old Gatorade bottle wrapped in duct tape (for fixing anything that breaks). Not a great loss in itself, but it has gone with me uncounted years and many miles and I didn't want to lose it. We looked for it and found it in the clump of Devil's Club when we came back down. Even that, however, was not the end of the story. When I was home again and looked at my pictures I had a whole series of blurs among them. I must have had my finger on the shutter as I rolled across the trail and down the hill and they were the result.

Brother Tim and I hiked the Heliotrope Ridge trail while he was in the area for work. The weather was lousy at home but up in the mountains was beautiful. The Heliotrope Ridge trail runs up to Coleman Glacier on the west side of Mount Baker and is also the climbing route for Mount Baker from that side of the peak and the route we went up last autumn. The trail requires crossing several creeks, this one twice, not always an easy thing to do when there is a lot of water coming down from the glacier.

This will be my last post for a few days. Edward and I leave early tomorrow morning for our Mount Baker climb. We’ll be meeting our guide and the rest of the group in Bellingham and will be heading from there to the Heliotrope Ridge trailhead in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Tomorrow we hike with packs two miles and 1000 feet of elevation to the end of the Heliotrope Ridge trail and then another mile and another 1000 feet of elevation to our campsite near Coleman Glacier. Saturday morning we start early (around 1:00 am) and hike another nine miles across Coleman Glacier and up another 5500 feet of elevation to the summit. After spending time at the summit we hike all the way back down (approx. 12 miles), retrieving our backpacks and camping gear on the way down. I’ve been training hard for this and am looking forward to it, but am also somewhat apprehensive, since besides a climb of Long’s Peak years ago this is something I’ve never done before. This is the description of the climb on the website of the company providing our guide: Mount Baker, with its huge glaciers and lofty size dominate the landscape for over a hundred miles in all directions. This fire breathing mountain is home to the thickest sheets of ice in the contiguous 48 states making this climb one to remember. Our climb starts with full packs in temperate rain-forests. The hike then takes us up and up into gradually changing ecosystems until we reach the sub-alpine Hog’s Back. Here we bathe in views of the Coleman and Roosevelt glaciers with the Canadian Coast range to the North as we set camp. On summit day we rise early and rope up. From camp to the top the climb is spent entirely on glacier. We climb the Coleman glacier while traversing under the steep rock walls and ice cliffs of the Black-Buttes. This takes us to the Roman Slope where we gain big views to the south and climb the last 1,500 feet to the summit which is 10,770 feet of elevation.

This picture was taken on a recent hike to Heliotrope Ridge and then part way up the Mt. Baker Climber's Route in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. These are falls on Kulshan Creek which apparently are unnamed. They are along the trail to Heliotrope Ridge. I should have had one of my fellow hikers stand at the base of the falls for comparison, since it is not evident from the picture that these are about seventy-five feet high. Oher pictures and the story of the hike can be found at: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/08/heliotrope-...

Photographed on the Heliotrope Ridge Trail: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/08/heliotrope-...

I've been meaning to post this picture for quite a while. It was taken last autumn on the Heliotrope Ridge Trail and is the fruit or seed capsule of the Star Solomon's Seal, Maianthemum stellatum, a single flowered plant in the Lily family. The leaves had already been hit by the frost, but the fruits were still hanging on the plants.