RHH's photos with the keyword: railroad grade

The trail to Railroad Grade is also for part of the distance the trail to Park Butte, shown here from Railroad Grade. The old fire lookout at the top of Park Butte can just be seen in the photo as can parts of the trail. I hiked to Park Butte last autumn but we were tired and hot and did not feel like more hiking on this occasion.

Usually we see the Twin Sisters from the other side - they are visible from the town in which we live. This photo of the peaks was taken from the Railroad Grade trail on the south side of Baker and the east side of Twin Sisters.

Here again is the Railroad grade trail, this time looking back down the trail, with the North Cascades in the distance.

The Railroad Grade trail is visible on the left of photo and is the trail we followed nearly to the glacier, Deming Glacier. The trail follows a glacial moraine and is named, I suppose for its gradual ascent.

This looks back down the Railroad Grade trail (nothing to do with trains, but a reference to its steady, nearly level grade), a glacial moraine on the south side of Mount Baker. After hiking to the moraine, we hiked its length as far as High Camp, a jump-off point for those who are going to the top of Baker. The mountains in the distance are still the North Cascades with Glacier Peak the dominant peak on the right.

This is where we were last Saturday - my first hike since my surgery! The doctor told me to "push the envelope" with physical exercise and I took that as an invitation to go hiking. It was a bit more than I bargained for, however, and I was tired and hurting when we finally arrived back home. This is Mount Baker from the south and from Railroad Grade, the edge of an old glacial moraine. The Railroad Grade trail (nothing to do with any railroad, but so named for its steady even climb) is a popular climber's route to the top of Baker and we followed it as far as High Camp, the jump-off point for most summiters. The glacier is Deming Glacier.

This is Park Butte from Railroad grade looking across Morovitz Meadows. The fire lookout on the top of Park Butte can just be seen and the trail to Park Butte is visible on the right climbing up from the meadows and then again at the lowest end of Park Butte.

Hiking the Park Butte and Railroad Grade trails, Mount Baker had been hidden in the clouds the whole time, but began to clear as I reached the glacial moraine known as Railroad Grade and was soon completely free of clouds. In the photo, the peak is at the far right with Easton Glacier below it and Railroad Grade curving up from the left. The sharply pointed peaks at the left are the Black Buttes, the more rounded peak near the center, Colfax Peak and the slope between Colfax and Baker the Roman Slope. When we climbed Baker we came from the other side of the Black Buttes, camping there on Coleman Glacier and climbing through the notch and up the Roman Slope, all much steeper than it appears in this photo.

This is another view of the glacial moraine called Railroad Grade. It is on the southwest side of Mount Baker and is a climbers' route for Baker. The view here is southeast and the photo was taken looking back not long after I started hiking up the trail.

After hiking to Park Butte, I returned to Morovitz Meadows and hiked the Railroad Grace trail from there. Railroad Grade has nothing at to do with any railroad, but the name refers to the "graded" climb along the west edge of the moraine left by Easton Glacier. It is one of the climber's routes for Mount Baker.When this photo was taken I had just climbed up to the moraine and was looking southeast.

This was some of the scenery along the Railroad Grade trail. The trail diverges from the Park Butte trail near Morovitz Meadows and after climbing briefly follows the side of a glacial moraine along the edge of Easton Glaqcier.

The photo was taken looking back down the trail which is just visible in the lower center of the photo and looks and was more like a stream than a trail. I had come up from the lowest area in the photo, Morovitz Meadows, and was climbing quickly toward Park Butte. Later I would come back this way and go the opposite direction, up along the edge of Easton Glacier toward Mount Baker, but it was not clear at this point which way the weather was turning. Mount Baker was invisible in the clouds with only the foot of Easton Glacier showing and at this point I was starting to hike through some wet and deep snow.

This area, the location of an old rockslide, was along the Parki Butte trail as it began to climb after near Rocky Creek.

The Park Butte trail beings near Schreiber's Meadows, a wet boggy area full of small ponds. With the early morning light and reflections and the autumn colors it was very beautiful when I hiked there.

This was photographed near the beginning of the Park Butte trail on the south side of Mount Baker where I hiked on one of the few good days we had in October. It is the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, a mushroom that has hallucinogenic properties. I've decided that I'll keep posting photos here until Ipernity disappears, though there seems little reason to do so after all the effort put into Ipernity. At this point I have little desire to start over elsewhere though I've opened an account at 23hq. I'll almost certainly not go back to Flickr, since I hate their interface and despise Yahoo. Thought I had found a happy home here, but I guess it is not to be.

On October 28 the weather promised to be good and I left early in the morning for the two hour drive to the Park Butte trailhead where I hoped to hike not only that trail but the Railroad Grade trail which started at the same place. I arrived before 6:00 a.m. and it was still completely dark so I slept in the car while waiting for daylight, but it was raining hard and I nearly turned around and went home. To my delight, however, the rain stopped at daybreak and I was on the trail at 7:45 and took this photo a few minutes later. Park Butte and Railroad Grade, the latter of which has nothing to do with any real railroad, share the same trail for a half mile before splitting. The Park Butte trail lead to an old fire lookout near the south face of Mount Baker and the Railroad Grade trail follows a glacial moraine up the side of Baker and is part of the climber's route for the south face. These are trails I've always wanted to do and it seemed like I had chosen a good day to do them, but that would change and then change again as I hiked.