The Rambling Writer’s Mountain Hike and Swim at Bagley Lake

Join Thor, Reo dog, and me as we return to the mountains, and I celebrate my recovering energy with a brisk swim in a snowmelt lake.

A couple of weeks ago, I revisited an old blog post of a hike to one of our favorite places — Bagley Lake in the Mt. Baker Forest. After another recurrence of my never-smoker lung cancer this summer, with subsequent radiation treatments, my energy was feeling pretty tapped out, and a recent attempt at a short mountain hike fizzled out. But a couple weeks ago, as we were still enjoying late-summer sunshine, my energy was definitely better, so Thor and I decided to seize the day and return for another attempt at Bagley Lake and higher.

Our usual route was blocked due to removal of an old CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) dam on the outflow stream (barely visible in photo above), so we descended to the lake via the upper route over old lava beds from volcanic Mt. Baker.

We lucked out with a perfect early-September day, and amazingly almost no other hikers — a welcome change from increasing hordes the last couple of years that have caused traffic jams on the trails. Unfortunately, the change might be due to the nasty Trump belligerence driving away our Canadian neighbors.

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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the breathtaking wilderness of Sara’s native Pacific Northwest. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com