And A Sauk To Hike A Block

Snow levels were low, but not too low - or so it seemed. Precipitation was tapering off - or so it seemed. I had my sights set yesterday morning on the Baker River Trail. I wanted to capture some images of fresh snow on the surrounding hillsides and mountains, something a snow level of about 1500-2000 feet should have enabled me to do. Alas, my plan went awry. On the access road - barely 1000 feet in elevation - snow appeared suddenly. A couple inches of slushy stuff. I pressed on at first, but as the snow on and around the road increased, I pulled over into a parking lot to consider the choice before me. I decided to turn around and find another trail.

It wasn't as though I couldn't drive in the road as it was, mind you - my car was just far enough off the ground to clear the snow, and there were nice bare/slushy tire tracks most of the way. The parking lot where I stopped was tricky to negotiate, but I managed to do it with minimal delay or frustration. Two possibilities worried me, however. The first was the possibility of more snow that day, as I knew snow levels were forecast to remain low. The second was the fact that I had twelve miles still to drive along the access road, and conditions had been deteriorating as I'd been driving and could have very feasibly continued to do so. Either of these possibilities could have gotten me into trouble in my low-clearance, two-wheel-drive, tire-chain-lacking, experienced-driver-lacking car.

Undeterred - or, rather, quite deterred, but defiantly unwilling to finish a Saturday empty-handed - I made an impulsive decision to turn head toward the Mountain Loop Highway, which I knew had some low-elevation hiking possibilities. En route, I saw a few nice views of snow-clad hills, but I didn't stop at all to take any pictures. I'm very picky - I don't like obvious clear cuts or human creations in my images, and these were present along the way. When I arrived at the Beaver Lake Trail on the Mountain Loop Highway - a trail I had never visited before, but of which I had read promising descriptions - steady rain greeted me. And continued to greet me the rest of the afternoon. Instead of trying to find yet another destination, I stuck it out there.

But I had a good time in spite of the deluge. The trail is very pleasant, mostly through airy deciduous forest, passing views of the Sauk River frequently enough to keep things interesting. "Beaver Lake" is not really a lake; it's more of an extended swamp, with lots of mossy trees growing out of it. But it's nice, both because it's pretty in its own right, and because while a lot of trails divert hikers around wetlands and such, the Beaver Lake Trail cuts right through them for an up-close look. Finally, the end of the trail features some old-growth cedars and a wide view of the Sauk.

Unfortunately, despite the agreeableness of the trail, the steady rain meant that I was not able to take very many pictures. During lulls in the rain (it never stopped; it only lightened up), I made only a few images. At the trails'-end view of the Sauk, the clouds never lifted enough to make a good images that included the snow-covered hillsides in the distance. The rain became heavy and turned to sleet, and I returned to the trailhead. And that, it seemed, was that. The photo trip was over, and though I'd acquired a couple semi-interesting images from the trail, the day's objective remained unfulfilled.

But as I left Darrington and drove homeward along Highway 530, the clouds began to thin a bit. Perhaps luck would be with me and I would get a good view of snowy hills or mountains. But where? As I said before, I'm picky. I remembered a pullout with a view of the North Fork Stillaguamish River, and there it was! A visible snow-clad hillside, some ribbons of cloud, and a bit of fall color. Finally, at the last moment, I had achieved my goal!

Below is the result. F/16. I like it, generally; I would ultimately need to adjust the white balance to give the image a more bluish color cast; the clouds were very bluish that evening.

Below are my two images from the Beaver Lake Trail. The first is of the Sauk River. I was initially attracted to the way the mossy alder branches swept across the frame, and the different layers of color in the background. The yellow-leaved tree in the foreground was at this point an obstacle, and I started to seek a vantage point that did not include it. I decided to try including it, though, and I'm glad I did - I think it adds some depth, and more interest to the foreground. I used f/18 to get everything in focus; the corresponding shutter speed of 1.6 seconds blurred the river. This posed the risk of the foreground foliage blurring due to even a slight breeze. I waited until the air was still and took several exposures; this was my best result.

This final image comes from near the end of the trail. The exposure settings presented a bit of a dilemma - I wanted to blur the background (wider aperture), but wanted a lot of the moss to be in focus rather than just a little bit of it (narrower aperture). I found no satisfactory compromise; the image you see below privileges detail in the foreground, meaning that there is not as much background blur as I would have preferred. F/8.