Hiking Three Fingers 2006: Hiking In

My hiking buddy Rex called me up to see if I would go with him to Three Fingers. It was a good idea, so on the weekend I got up at 4:30 AM, picked him up at his house and we were at the trail at 7:30.

I tried to make my pack fairly light this time. We were planning to stay overnight, but I didn't take a tent because we would be in the lookout.

Three Fingers is a tough 15 mile round-trip hike. But the views and the lookout cabin at the end really make it worth while. The trailhead is in the Verlot area near Granite Falls, WA.

A couple of miles into the hike we could see the lookout peak on top of the third finger on the right.

The territorial views on the way in were beautiful: deep woods, colored meadows and tarns.

Some flowers were in late spring bloom.

We also saw several brown bears. (See the one in the upper left?) In this area first we saw a mother with two cubs. Then this one went bounding in their direction.

All were far away from us and we were in no danger. They were out eating the plentiful mountain blueberries.

I am in awe of the twisted mountain trees. The living ones are so tenacious. And even the dead ones show real character.

The Goat Flats area was very beautiful. The meadow leaves had such rich colors. The lookout can be seen as a distant peak in the gap on the right.

There was not much snow, but we had to climb this snow field near the end. It was at almost a 45 deg angle.