This has to be one of my favorite hikes. I've done it twice now and would love to go again. I love hiking through the forest, noticing the mushrooms growing on the logs, the moss that covers rocks, roots and limbs. the smell of moist soil and the sounds of life that rustle through the air. Then all of a sudden you crest the hill, the trees are below you and there you see the Cascades stretching North into Canada, East and South in the US. Mount Baker so close that you feel you can almost reach out and touch it. It dominates the rest of the peaks. The wildflowers on display coating the hillside with color. I feel small.
This time, I took Isaac. He had never been and I wanted to share something with him before he left for school.  Besides he makes a great sherpa. The clouds floated low to the ground and you could see them rise just enough to crest the ridge and then drop down hugging the hillside. Mount Baker poked in and out of view. It was a different feel, a different hike, yet still inspired a smallness in me and an amazement of how creatively beautiful our world is.