Backpacking Fail #2: Somewhere Near Mt. Baker

We decided to give backpacking another try. I found an area, called up the ranger station, they gave me a recommendation near Baker Lake. There wasn't snow, it was relatively flat, and about 4.5 miles in to the camp spots. The weather was supposed to be clear for the weekend. We had just bought a new, 3-man tent. The trip was going to actually work and it was exactly what I wanted. We packed our packs, loaded our car, and drove towards Mt. Baker. (FYI, Mt. Baker is a volcano, just like Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams--all of which are here in Washington. Mt. Baker is in the northern part of the state, though.)

We got to the road and it was closed! Thank you for telling me, ranger station. I was not happy with the rangers. The road being closed because of construction is definitely something they should have known about! So we decided to drive up a Forest Service road, find a new trail, and camp there. This place should be crawling with trails.


Mt. Baker's tippy top


We reached the snow. No backpacking up here!


We found a trail (finally) and followed it for a ways without our packs, just to check it out. We reached a raging river of death and no campsites. No backpacking here!

We were getting tired of this, as we had been driving for about five hours and had not found a place to pack into. So we found a pull-out and pitched our tent. Backpacking fail.


But our  new tent is very nice. There is room for us to play Skip-Bo in! And there will be room for a few babies, too.


And then we lit a fire and ate our dehydrated food and I peed in the middle of the night and did not get eaten by animals and our tent didn't leak. I'd say it was a successful camping trip--just not a backpacking trip.

In the morning, both Andrew and me were happy. Yay! We slept well!


And then we went to look for some hot springs we heard someone mention. We found them!

They were more like warm springs, but it was still nice to soak our legs in sulfury water. (Do you like Andrew's legs? I told him he looked like he was naked in the picture, but he really did have on his clothes.)


See, Andrew has pants on. :) If this blog were inappropriate, I would say, "Darn." But this is an appropriate blog, and I don't ever say inappropriate things like that.


Me in the warm springs. I wished we knew about these before and brought our swim suits!

And then we went to check out Baker Lake.

It was pretty. It is actually a reservoir. I think we are going to plan a fishing trip to here sometime.

On our way back home, we went on an interpretive trail with signs. Andrew had to pick some berries.

He wasn't supposed to get off the trail. Oh well.


Me: "What kind of berries are they?"
Andrew: "I don't know. You have a fifty percent chance with red berries."
Conclusion: These were not poisonous but not tasty.


Me by a huge old tree. Don't let it fool you, it is actually bigger than 62 inches (my wingspan and height). This is just the perspective fooling you. Don't you remember that from art class? It was probably at least seven feet wide.


The sign identified this berry for us! Red huckleberries! Yummy and tart! Don't you just love Andrew's silly face?

In conclusion, this was a much more delightful experience than our first backpacking trip. However, it was more of an impromptu camping trip. I cannot wait to see what our next backpacking fail trip will bring.