Hinds Feet on High Places

The drive up to Mount Baker is a pretty amazing one. The road is narrow, has many curves, following much of the North Fork of the Nooksack River. I enjoy most of the drive, but when a slow car gets in front of you, it just seems to ruin everything. Ironically, on the way home we got stuck behind the same car. The road goes up past the ski area to Artist Point, which yields beautiful views of Shuksan, Baker and the surround Cascades. There were quite a few people up there enjoying the sun and many bicyclists resting from the cycle up. Jenny and I found a shady spot to eat our lunch before embarking on our hike. We decided to summit Table Mountain and then walk up its ridge to the other end. To get to the top is a steep mile hike up a cliff. The elevation gain is amazing. All of a sudden you are on top, looking down at the miniature version of your car below you. The mountain is correctly named, as the top is mostly flat. The trail across the top is much less traveled. We finally got to the other end and were looking down that side and saw these little alpine pools. After a short break we started descending this cliff to get to this hidden oasis. The trail was pretty steep and we had to do a little rock climbing at places, but we finally made it down. The pools were well worth our trouble. Secluded from the crowds we relaxed by one of these pools for much of the afternoon. I named the “High Places” because they reminded me of the book “Hinds Feet on High Places.”
On the way back to the car we watched this family trying to climb down this snowfield. The summer melt had revealed many rocks littered across it. As we watched this little girl slipped and started sliding on her back down the slope, screaming the whole way. She got turned around and ended up heading backwards, headfirst. She nearly hit some big rocks, but I imagine there was no way she missed all of them. After about a hundred feet a guy from their party grabbed her. She seemed to be all right, besides being a frightened, but it was quite the ordeal to watch.