September 15, 2013 Mt Baker scenic highway

They predicted  rain last night, but it did not come. Nice sunny morning.

Clouds started moving in in the late morning. We went to the visitors center and here is Suep with douglas fir stump that is 8 feet 2 inches in diameter. They logged out most of the old growth trees here, but there are a few left.

I labeled this relief map to show Mt Baker, Mt Shuksan and our campsites last week and this week.  We are pretty close to last weeks, but we had to drive a long way around to get there. The CCC built the visitors center in the 1930’s.

The pink salmon are spawning now in the rivers. The first photo is the live salmon swimming up stream and the second photo are all the dead ones that have already spawned. It is pretty amazing to watch the fish swimming up river. At the talk last night we learned that the salmon don’t eat during their journey and it can take 3 months for them to get up here. They are pretty worn out by now. They say that the fish don’t taste very good at this point since they have used up most of their reserves.

Ropey moss hanging from the trees. Some of these strands are 6 feet + long.  We hiked on the horse shoe bend trail, it leaves from camp and follows the river up. John talked to a couple kayakers that were going to boat this section and  take out here. They said it is a class IV section. John decided not to join them, his back is bothering him. Here he is hiking on the trail. Very green and lush area.

Cedar trees on the trail and fall color of the vine maples on the river. We saw some salmon in this too, it is beyond me how they get past all the rapids.

Mossy branch archway over the trail. The big leaf maple are dropping their leaves. They are so big you can hear them when they land.

We saw this kayaker at the end of our hike, he was doing laps carrying his boat up the trail and running the last couple rapids over and over. Pretty impressive. John decided he was glad he did not go with those guys, he said it is a solid class V section. Very difficult.  We had dinner-left over steak that John cooked last night and baked sweet potatoes-outside under the tarp on the picnic table. It finally started to rain at dinner time. The paddle upright on the table is holding the middle of the tarp up. There was thunder and it was echoing up and down the canyon. Really loud and very long. Really cool to listen too.

tiny orange mushrooms on a log, dried ferns, a tree ear, big spider, more tiny orange mushrooms, a coral bells leaf with leaflets growing out of the center of it, I used to grow these in my yard in Denver, they carpet the forest by the trail here, some kind of fungus on a dead log and a herd of mushrooms.