*This is a work in progress. Enjoy anyway!*
A 60 year old dad & his 20 year old daughter go on their first hike together in nearly 4 years, just the two of them without any other family & friends. Double selfie shot on Thursday 30 June 2019.
They take the Ira Spring Trail up into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to Mason Lake. The guidebooks & WTA site say 6.5 miles roundtrip.
Mason Lake is one of many in the ALW. At one time proposals were forwarded to make the Alpine Lakes a national park or part of a larger Ice Peaks National Park in 1937 and as a National Recreational Area in 1975. With conservation, energy, and environmental battles dating back to those with the railroads in 1864, the region was eventually set aside as a Designated Wilderness Area within the National Forests in 1976.
Kathryn posing for Dad on the bridge over Mason Creek. We usually called her Kate. Sometimes, tho, she’s Katie, Kato, & Kathryn the Great!
A section of the Mason Creek Falls & Cascades.
More falls cascade down the mountainside. Mason Creek pours forth from Mason Lake to eventually flow into the South Fork Snoqualmie River.
I love this young woman. She’s my second of 3 daughters & my 1st adopted child. Her parents & stepparents often called her, “the Wild Child” as Kate proved fierce, headstrong, …& fun!
McClellan Butte in the distance across the Valley of the North Fork Snoqualmie River. I-90 heads east towards Bellevue & Seattle, west back up into the Pass.
I hiked it once with Kate’s mom Gwen back in the 1990s, but we didn’t summit. Attempted it to climb it one snowy December day back in 1993 with my buddy Tim, but the flurries turned into a windy blizzard and the couloirs began to avalanche down. We turned around and had to leap across steep chutes of sliding snow shooshing towards cliff bands in the trees below.
McClellan Butte is in the National Forest but outside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Both are separated by a corridor of roads & rail. The peak stands at 5,162 feet or 1,573 meters tall.
Cruising along the flanks of Bandera Mountain on the Ira Spring Memorial Trail towards Mason Lake. The tip of Mount Defiance peeks out of the morning fog ahead.
Mt. Defiance rises above the surrounding lakes to 5,584 feet or 1,702 meters high, taller than both McClellan & Bandera. I’ve only been to its summit once, back in 2015, but plan to return eventually. Maybe later this year!
Kate adjusting her daypack.
There was a time Kate hated hiking, tho she loved to camp. As a little kid we grownups could barely get her out of the parking lot and onto the trail. Now she chugs on ahead faster than her 60 year old Daddy-O.
Now she goes & goes & goes!
Well, Kate did stop to take some pictures of her Daddy.
Goofin’ along on my first real hike of 2019! Heck, I’m having a self-aware spiritual experience! Being back out in nature on a mountain trail to an alpine lake feels like the best medicine. These 3 fotos of me by Kate.
Pausing to rest a sec. Catch me breath, y’know. I’m only 60 & even tho I feel outa shape I know I’m still in better conditioning than many younger than me. Aging still takes a toll no matter what. For me aging is the accumulation of injuries from illnesses & trauma over time, including to neuromusculoskeletal systems and skin. Now my daughters all zoom uphill faster than me. I’m so happy for them, and slowing down gives me time to reflect and pretend I’m wise. My intention is to get outside and hike these mountain trails as long as I can. Hell, it’s only 30 more years before I’m 90!
Mason Lake captivates even in the bright harshness of early afternoon sun. We had crested a 4,320 ft. high open rocky ridge a short time before dropping down the northern flanks back into forest before reaching the lake. Mason Lake sits in a bowl at about 4200 ft.
Kate finds herself in the sun. Almost immediately she does, too.
Sharing with the world.
Kathryn the Great surveys the Wild. I just hope all of my kids with Gwen of Virginia eventually appreciate growing up way out here on the edge of the Continent far from their parents’ families of origin.
Mason Lake with the summit of Bandera Mountain rising towards the right out of sight to a steep but mellow 5,241 feet or 1,597 meters.
I love hiking up to these high mountain lakes.
Katie scowls at something insider her bottle.
Gazing across the lake at Bandera Mountain. I love seeing snow in these mountains any time of year. One reason I moved out West from Virginia & the Carolinas.
Timeless yet everchanging.
A few nice camping spots exist down & left of picture amid boulders & talus.
Ragged old tree stump still so erect above the water reminds me of some guardian forest creature. With antennae!
Back on the Ira Spring Trail.
Kate of the Woods!
Last of the snow from the Winter of 2018-2019.
A little bit of history here. This plaque is on a boulder & faces south just below the open crest of the ridge.
Upper Cascades of Mason Creek Falls.
Lower Cascades of Mason Creek Falls.
Father & Daughter. William & Kathryn Bass back on the bridge thru the Falls on the way back down to the trailhead.
Yes, we finally did our own hike together!
Goofy times! For Kato up on stage!
¡LOL!
We made it back to the car in time to return to Seattle so Kate could complete two important errands before those businesses closed for the day. One one hand our little adventure was simply another short dayhike, but it was a ramble into a beautiful area so close to Seattle many take the Alpine Lakes for granted. We’re only a few decades removed from sometimes bitter struggles to develop the area for logging, mining, and worse. Besides, this day was the first time since July 2015 Kate and I hiked together as just the two of us bereft of family and friends. One of my favorite ways to spend time with my daughters is being with them outside in the beautiful, wild, and dirty backcountry.
William Dudley Bass
Sunday 2 June 2019
Monday 1 July 2018
Seattle, WA
Cascadia
Earth
P.S. Kate takes off into the mountains
Kathryn & her close friend Madeleine took off for North Cascades National Park at the end of the month. I didn’t even know she’d gone until she texted me a foto after she’d returned to Seattle. I felt great delight and joy in knowing another one of my “city girls” had rediscovered the great outdoors. She was already getting into rock climbing and now was getting into backpacking and exploring mountaineering. Once upon a time she used to hate carrying anything into the backcountry. Then as a kid she discovered the joys of skiing and paddling. One thing at a time. For I also felt some fear when I realized she wanted to pursue alpine mountaineering more seriously, but didn’t know how to properly use an ice axe, put on crampons, tie her prusiks, etc., all things I had attempted to show her ages ago but to no avail.
Well, she’s a young adult now, and responsible for her own choices. I’m more of a mentor, I suppose, still eager to show, teach, and demonstrate. If she lets me, of course. Another difference now is I am older now. While I am in better shape than many younger than me, I do feel the accumulation of injuries and low-grade but chronic health issues across the passage of time. My intention is to keep getting out and about for many, many more years, and I can feel those grains of sand whisking their way thru the narrow throat of the hourglass.
Ahhh, well, no matter. So much I’m grateful for anyway. I’m blessed to have children and to parent them when once upon a time I didn’t expect to ever have any. I love my kids, aye, I do. Proud of them all. Part of aging and evolving as a parent, however, is to practice letting go and letting go again. My intention was and still is to introduce them to so many different things and allow them to go to so many different places in life so I may have a positive and constructive contribution to their lives and those they touch. Love wins in the end.
Kate about to head down after a sunrise breakfast at Hidden Lake Lookout (6,890 ft./2100+m.), Hidden Lakes Peaks, North Cascades, Sunday 30 June 2019. Foto by Madeleine w/ Kate’s fonecam.
SOURCES:
“Ira Spring Trail – Mason Lake,” Washington Trails Association: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/ira-spring-memorial.
“Ira Spring (Mason Lake) Trail 1038,” Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, USFS: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/mbs/recarea/?recid=17992.
“Mason Lake via Ira Spring Memorial Trail,” AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/mason-lake-via-ira-spring-memorial-trail.
Copyright © 2019 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.