Railroad Grade, August 2022

Railroad Grade -- complete album

We hadn’t been back up to the Railroad Grade area on the southwest approach to Baker in a couple of years, so we braved the usual crowds and less ideal weather in hopes we could find a spot to call our own for a night.

We found a decent spot to car-camp not too far from the trailhead for the first time our new-to-us 4Runner. Glad we had the chainsaw with us to clear the road on our way in, ensuring an unoccupied area for the night. Next morning we drove up to the busy trailhead, dozens of cars filling the lot and lining the road. The well-groomed trail starts out easy, which is great for now-blind Boomer, but switches to very challenging river stones for him.

Becka soon picked him up, carrying him across the temporary bridge that’s in place for the season after the spring melt-out and removed before the fall rain sets in.

Once we finished the climbing into the persistent fog, we wandered around a bit before finding a moderately-acceptable campsite away from the folks along the Railroad Grade trail. Once in our soggy camp, and fog lifted enough for us to watch the near-constant train of hikers and climbers make their way up and into the high camps for the next morning’s Mt. Baker climb.

We retired early and had a comfortable night, waking up early for a pre-sunrise hike back to the trailhead. Boomer had a comfy ride through the boulders again.