Why I miss the NW:

Living in Upstate NY is definitely nice (at least in the non-winter months), but there are things I acutely miss about the northwest. Such as the mountains. The following pictures are all from a hike I did today, summiting Vesper Peak. (about an hour drive from my parents' house to the trailhead) The day was perfect... it more than made up for that rainy Pilchuck hike on Monday.

Approach to Headlee pass through a beautiful valley surrounded by jagged ridges

Just past Headlee pass, crossing a talus field (loose rock)

Ptarmigan near the summit

View of still-frozen-over Lake in basin approaching Vesper

Outlet of above lake. VERY clear, blue water (its probably 10 feet deep here!)

360 degree panorama from the summit (click to enlarge). Enough mountains for you? Ranier, Baker, and Glacier peak (3 of 4 volcanoes in WA) are visible. Mt Pilchuck is also visible (See Monday post). It's on the horizon of the left side, halfway between Copper lake and Spada Lake.

One of the prettiest view from the summit: Copper lake, right beneath Big Four (reddish). I've climbed the leftmost peak on the horizon (Three Fingers) and Mt Baker is right above left flank of Big 4.

Vertical panorama of Three Fingers and Copper Lake

It really doesn't get much better than this. It was actually only about 4 miles one way (and 4000' up). However, the trail itself was steep and rough, and there was a lot of scrambling in places, which made things a little more strenuous.