1976 - The Bowren Lakes, Mt. Raineer, Mt. Baker,

The Bowren Lake Chain - Interior B.C.
Location of the Bowren Lakes
My Flickr site for more pictures - 

My uncle Glenn and cousin Rodney

Ken had wanted to paddle the world famous Bowren Lakes chain for some time and so off we went to Barkerville.
I had smoked for about a year and wanted to stop so I thought I would only take one pack of smokes and force myself to quit en route. Why I had started such a stupid habit I don't know, but it was humbling to realize what an addiction it is. This seemed like a good opportunity to get away from it all in more ways than one.
My uncle Glenn and his son Rodney were going to be on the circuit as well, and as it happened we did meet them on our second day on Isaac Lake, but we seemed to be in some kind of rush and only spent a short time paddling with them. I felt badly about that later.

Beautiful weather

We ran the outlet of Isaac Lake fully loaded - kind of daring or stupid in a way and fought off the bears in the campsite lower down on the river. The scenery is beautiful with the eastern side being rather typical of west coast lakes, with the eastern side seeming more interior with its shallower lakes, reeds, and the occassionaly moose!
We ended up getting back to our truck at about noon on the fourth day. Rather quick by normal standards. It is a great place to take your time and do some fishing and even swimming on the western side, if the weather is good.
For any canoe enthusiast, a must trip, although now you have to book in advance and deal with far more bureaucracy and crowds.
That was the last time I smoked a cigarette. :-)

 Mt. Rainier - Washington State
Location of Mt. Rainier

Base camp at 10,000 fit

Chris Cooper, Mike Goetz, and I drove down to Mt. Rainier during the summer for a try at the usual route on Mt. Rainier. When we got to the Paradise parking lot, we hiked up the trail until it got dark and then bivied.
This picture above is from Camp Miur, at 10,000 ft. If going up the "regular" route, climbers usually stay here overnight, and get up early the next morning and head up to the summit. I liked this picture because the clouds gave me a sense of being above my normal world, and entering another world, which mountains often seem to be part of.

Below Camp Miur

The next day we hiked up to the 10,000 ft camp. I remember frying up some steaks at the camp and getting strange looks from some of the other climbers ;-) Envy didn't do them any good.

This picture was actually taken below Camp Miur. We did not take huge packs on our hoped for summit day. The rocks are reddish because like all rocks on this huge mountain, they are all volcanic.

Mt. Tahoma

We got up very early the next morning and by headlamp started up the trail on the glacier and we were just about the height of Mt. Tahoma when the sun started coming up. (see photo)
Climbing with headlamps in the pre-dawn hours is almost an other worldly experience. Your world consists of only what your headlamp allows you to see, yet you know there are things above, around, and below you that can be hugely significant. The sounds of your crampons biting and crunching into the snow, and the tinkling of metal on metal add to the eeriness.

Mike ponders a crevasse

The weather started to turn for the worse by the time we got to the top of Disappointment Cleaver but there were wands in the trail so we dropped the wands we had and carried on. By the time we were approaching the summit it started to snow and a party started to come down taking out the wands! We had no choice, weather wise, or wand wise, but to turn around ourselves. By the time we got back to the top of the cleaver, Chris was feeling the effects of the altitude and thunder and lightning was in the air. Time to get out of Dodge!

Mt. Baker - Washington State
Location of Mt. Baker

Just above the rope up point.

We were Nick Didlick, Neil Baker, Chris Cooper, Chuck McCafferty, and Keith Rajala, and we were headed to the top of Mt. Baker. As with almost any good weather weekend on Baker, there were quite a few other people with the same idea.
The picture above was taken about an hour above the rope up point.

Right hand skyline is the Roman Wall

We camped by the black buttes and enjoyed a wonderful sunset. There's Nick's engeneer's hat again!  Our route the next morning basically went above Nick's engineer's hat to the saddle, then up the right hand skyline to the summit. The Roman Wall, is the upper part of the right hand skyline. It's not very steep, but later in the season when it can be ice, you have to be careful.

You can pick out high rises in Vancouver from here.

I sometimes people ask why we do it! From this point, we could see the silouettes of the high rises on English Bay.

Roman Wall

We got to the summit via the usual Roman Wall route and enjoyed a spectacular view. The picture makes it look less steep that it is. It may be about 30 degrees at it's steepest, so if it's all snow, it's easy. In the left background, are the Twin Sisters. The picture is looking west.

It may have been sumer, but it was cold!

On the summit,even in the middle of summer, it can be very cold in the morning. The picture is looking generally east with Mt. Shuksan between Chris's legs.(red jacket) 

Stay hydrated!

If I remember correctly, someone from another party had carried up some beer but didn't feel well enough to drink it, so offered it to us! Here Nick is begging. Was he of age I wondered? Didn't want to contribute to juvinile delinquicy! 
The picture is looking generally west north west into the Fraser Valley. 

Sherman Crater.

The actual summit of Mt. Baker is on the south-east corner of the summit crater. The crater is filled in with snow and is like a giant white flat field.
Looking off to the south, and very close to the summit, you see Sherman crater, which has a small pond of water and small vents of steam shooting up into the air. 
Off in the distance you can just make out Mt. Raineer.