Welcome back! Baker lake, round two. I think our plans must have changed 3 times before this trip - from Mt St Helens, to Langley, and finally to Baker Lake. The weather called for rain/snow all weekend, but we didn’t let that deter us! Sara made the final decision, she wanted to see snow. Baker lake had some obvious advantages - clear roads (to support the Dam there), I knew the landscape, and the hike I was planning (Baker Lake trail) was in the trees so, theoretically anyway, it shouldn’t be as windy/stormy - as it likely would have on St Helens.
We left on Saturday morning and made it up to Baker Lake just before noon - found our campsite (Kulshan Campground is open all winter and is free during the off months) and headed off to the trailhead (which was about 3 min away). I was looking forward to a long hike and took Sara’s backpack - to make sure she stayed warm and allowing me to make some distance while she rested between hiking. Overall we went just short of 14 miles in just less than 6 hours - with Sara hiking about 2.5 miles of that.
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Sara got a new snow outfit for this winter (we are planning to teach her to ski this winter) and she was very proud. Thankfully, Sara is finally over her “No jackets” rebellion and she wore several layers plus a hat and loved it.
It was even more fun once we got on the trail. Learning all over again how to hike on snow/ice. The trail was in good shape, most of it was clear with some snow on the sides of the trail. It wasn’t until much later that we discovered snow on the trail itself.
Sara’s narations are always amusing.
And Sara, of course, ate her fill of snow. It ended up being a bit of a recuring theme - eat some snow, get a little cold, go for a ride in the backpack, repeat.
Riding was fun.
And but very tiring - 20 min of riding would put anyone to sleep.
There were several campsites along the 14 mile trail (28 if you did it round trip). We saw two of them and I think there were 2 more on the second half of the trail (we only went halfway). They seemed super nice - here’s the sign for one of them. In the summer, this would be a great place to take Sara backpacking. The trail was relatively flat, campsites were nice, and it looked fun to camp right on the water. Will need to do some more research, but kayak camping might be in the cards as well.
The trail went right along the water in places, even though it was overcast - it was quite beautiful.
Just some more snowy pictures along the way…
At 7 miles we took a bit of a longer break and ate a snack. The sun sets around 4p this time of year, so I knew from the get go that we were doing 2-3 hrs of hiking by headlamp. This was our recharge break before we started the epic journey back to the van.
Once the sun set and I put my headlamp on, Sara was fascinated (she has seen headlamps before, but I don’t think she computed how much fun they could be :). I had to let her out of the backpack for one last hike on her own (which maybe lasted 0.5 mi at most) with the headlamp. Then she was back in the pack and telling me how much she wanted a headlamp from santa, more than anything else she had asked for. Looks like a headlamp might be in her future.
We got back to the van around 6:30p and back to camp at 7p. Cooked up a nice dinner of biscuits and gravy and ate in the van to stay warm. It ended up being a cold, but not super cold, night and both of us slept well. This was also the first time with the new van TV - we watched John Carter (or part of it before we fell asleep) and the quality is so much better.
See you in the new year!