Anderson Lakes

During a retreat to Baker Lake, a friend & I decided to hike the Watson/Anderson Lakes trail on the south side of the Lake across the dam. Our drive up to the trail head went past several lookouts that if the sky was clear would have given us a fabulous view of sunrise on Mt Baker. We also passed several patches of snow along the road, evidence that just a few days before winter had remind us that she is returning.

The trail meandered through the woods and slowly wove its way up the hill. The colors of the leaves had started to yellow, nowhere near the vibrant green seen earlier in the spring. large mushroom peered out from beneath the yellowing foliage. I need to work on mushroom identification. There seemed to be several varieties but I have no idea what they were.

It wasn't too long before the trail opened out to a meadow and we passed the junction to Anderson Butte. Here we found blueberries, sweet & juicy. Who needs GORP when you've got blueberries? At this point, R.L. and I debated what blueberries n the wild taste like. He's often heard the taste described as woodsy. What does woodsy taste like? As we reached the pass, Mt Baker came out from behind the clouds to wink us a good morning. We rested there a while waiting for the sun to light up the foreground for a more picturesque scene. But the sun wasn't rising quite fast enough and was also being periodically obscured by clouds.

We continued on down the other side of the pass to the junction with Watson Lakes & Anderson Lakes. Here we had to make a decision - Watson or Anderson? I hadn't been to either lake, but R.L. had been to Watson Lakes a couple of times, so it was off to Anderson Lakes for us this morning. Anderson Lakes are smaller than Watson Lakes but we were undisturbed as we explored the shoreline for fall color. We didn't have far to go and we were soon on the ground taking pictures of heather, blueberries and fungus.

On our way out, we came across leaders for the WTA trails crew who had been working on building stairs and raised trails through one of the meadows. They had sent their crew home after waking up earlier in the week to two inches of snow. We discussed their work with them then watched as their llama team came to pack out their supplies. The temperature dropped a little as clouds once again obscured the sun. After we left the WTA crew and their llamas, it wasn't very long before wee reached the trail head and found hot lunch waiting for us back at the lodge.