Rainbow Ridge, 08/13/10-08/15/10

After a long hiatus, I decided that if I’m to do a proper year-end post, I should probably first make a brief mention of a one-night backpacking trip we took in August with our friends Cameron and Casey.  They’d never been backpacking, and it was something we really wanted to introduce them to, so we’d long planned to go out together on the peak weekend of the Perseid Meteor Shower. With Nicole being pregnant—yes, that is why this summer was a little quieter on the site, here—and with a couple newbies along for the ride, I wanted something short, quiet, and with big skies.  Rainbow Ridge sounded like just the thing—if perhaps a little more adventurous than some participants might be expecting.  It’s a non-maintained trail…

A rewarding view from atop Rainbow Ridge.

Since we’re all now months-removed from the event, I won’t recount how we pulled off to the side of the road late Friday night to throw up some tents, only to find I’d forgotten the majority of our food.  Or our search for that side-of-the-road location.  But the skies from the side of the road that night were beautiful, and softened the blow to my ego a bit.

After a brief but steep hike in—delayed by an hour or two to make a trip into town for food—we found a suitable camp among the heather.  We couldn’t see the trail from camp, and we saw almost no one the whole weekend, but definitely none near our camp.  The ninety-degree weather and inescapable flies unfortunately sequestered us to our tents for much of the daylight, but when the sun went down and the stars came out, we were able to lay outside and watch the sky for hours.

Nicole on the outskirts of camp.

Shuksan near sunset.

More Shuksan.

The night sky from Rainbow Ridge.

Up and out the next morning.  If it weren’t for the bugs, it could’ve been a perfect trip.  As it was, I still found it very rewarding…

The crew turns toward Mt. Baker on the way out.

Stats: perhaps 4-5 miles in total, and I can’t imagine it was more than 1000’ of elevation gain.

As always, a few more photos at Flickr.