Guided Field Trip on Mount Baker: Fire and Ice in Morovitz Meadow

Dear friends,

Trailside volcanic ash deposits Morovitz Meadows

I will be leading a day-long hike for North Cascades Institute on July 22. The all-day hiking field trip explores the glacial and volcanic geology along the trail to the Railroad Grade moraine on Mount Baker’s south slope. Registration is $95.

 

Full information and registration at the NCI website: http://ncascades.org/signup/programs/geology-fire-and-ice-in-mount-bakers-morovitz-meadow

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you!

Morovitz Meadows on Mount Baker’s south flank. The Railroad Graqde moraine is the sharp green crest in the center, with Easton Glacier beyond.

Dave Tucker

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Mount Baker Geology Guide Book by Dave Tucker

Dear friends,

Glassy margin of a 300,000-year-old dike along the Ptarmigan Ridge Trail.

I am working on my next book, a road and trail guide to Mount Baker geology. The book focuses on volcanic geology. Most of the road and trail description drafts are done. Now I need VOLUNTEERS before the snow flies to field check distances, descriptions, and get back to me with your comments. It would be helpful if you had a GPS receiver but not essential. To volunteer, leave a comment or email me:  dtchico    at       gmail     dot    com  to request a pdf of one of these:

Middle Fork Nooksack Road and Ridley Creek Trail to Park Butte Lookout

Mount Baker highway to Heather Meadows and Artist Point.

Trails in that area: Bagley Lakes Trail [1.3 mile loop]; Chain Lakes Loop starting in Heather Meadows; Chain Lakes Loop starting at Artist Point; Heather Meadows to Herman Saddle; Ptarmigan Ridge to the end [11.2 miles]; Artist Ridge [to Huntoon Point. 1 mile round trip]; Table Mountain [2.2 miles]; Lake Ann

Glacier Creek Road and the Heliotrope Trail to Survey Rock and the Hogback;

Volcanic ash layers along the Chain Lakes loop.

Baker Lake Road [driving trip].

Road to Schreibers Meadow, and the hike to Park Butte.

Rainbow Ridge Trail [unofficial trail]. Also known as Lava Divide.

I am still working on geologic descriptions of the Skyline, Scott Paul and Railroad Grade trails. I have a guide for Cougar Divide but the road is damaged and currently closed.

 

 

Sign up for Geology Field Trip: Easton Glacier on Mount Baker

A field trip to the Easton Glacier terminus.

ONLY  SIX SEATS LEFT ! (August 7)

Sign up for a Mount Baker Volcano Research Center field trip to the terminus of Mount Baker’s Easton Glacier.

The date is Saturday, September 10, 2016 and the trip will occupy most of your day. Meeting times and places are given below. The cost is $75, payable in advance. This covers your transportation by 15 passenger van, a paper describing features likely to be observed, and the leadership and spilling-over knowledge of not one but TWO guides!

ONLY  SIX SEATS LEFT! (August 7)

This is an intermediate level trip that

The approach to the glacier moves through the deglaciated area along the stream. No trail.

involves hiking partly on trail but also traipsing along a braided stream channel, which means walking on loose boulders, cobbles, and up (then down) a moderate rocky slope that can be a bit unstable for your footing. The total distance walked will be approximately  6 miles and the elevation gain is about 2,200′ (same loss).

What will you see?  The Easton Glacier is one of the big ice streams on Mount Baker and has been studied fairly extensively.  It has advanced and receded like all glaciers do, and you will  be able to see ample evidence of both processes. If conditons warrant it, you will be able to go right up to the terminus to touch the ice, although don’t expect it to be pristine clean ice! We will see lava flows from two volcanoes, and tephra from three volcanoes, Little Ice age glacial moraines, and a Sherman Crater lahar.

Hiking cross country to the glacier terminus.

To register: Make payments to MBVRC via our PayPal page . Send an email to mountbakerresearch  at   gmail    dot   com to reserve your seat(s). As a nonprofit educational and research organization, these field trips are our primary means of raising funds. MBVRC is an entirely volunteer organization. We will also have our popular tee shirts for sale ($20 each). Once you have registered, you will receive rendezvous information.  This trip will likely fill up in a couple of days, so if interested, don’t hesitate!

Your co-hosts are Doug McKeever and Dave Tucker, both of whom are board members of MBVRC and geologists with considerable knowledge of Mount Baker.

What to bring: daypack, lunch, beverage, sunscreen and sunglasses, repellent,  clothes for the weather (our trips go rain or shine☺) , sturdy shoes or boots. Recommended are trekking poles, camera, perhaps binoculars.

This trip will fill up, so if interested, don’t hesitate!

Mount Baker Volcano Research Center subscription website

A field trip to the Easton Glacier terminus.

Expanded trip but only  EIGHT SEATS LEFT!

Sign up for a Mount Baker Volcano Research Center field trip to the terminus of Mount Baker’s Easton Glacier.

The date is Saturday, September 10, 2016 and the trip will occupy most of your day. Meeting times and places are given below. The cost is $75, payable in advance. This covers your transportation by 15 passenger van, a paper describing features likely to be observed, and the leadership and spilling-over knowledge of not one but TWO guides!

Expanded trip but only  EIGHT SEATS LEFT!

This is an intermediate level trip that

The approach to the glacier moves through the deglaciated area along the stream. No trail.

involves hiking partly on trail but also traipsing along a braided stream channel, which means walking on loose boulders, cobbles, and up (then down) a moderate rocky slope…

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Dickerman Mountain geology guide posted

Hi friends! Remember me?

Stacked lava flows below the summit of  Dickerman Mountain. Click to enlarge.

A new geology field guide has been posted on this website. This one gives you something to do while you huff and puff your way up through the 45-million-year-old Barlow Pass Volcanics on the Dickerman Mountain Trail. The mountain rises above the South Fork Stillaguamish Valley, and is reached by the Mountain Loop Highway east of Verlot and Granite Falls. The trail is a steep mother, gaining 4000′ in just over 4 miles. The summit gives spectacular views into the Monte Cristo area peaks and Glacier Peak. I hiked the trail on July 3, 2016 with my friends Charlie and Scott Linneman. The views weren’t great due to clouds, but I got to examine some North Cascades rocks I wasn’t familiar with. The story is online, here.

Guided geology walk at Point Whitehorn this Saturday

Glacial erratics litter the beach at Point Whitehorn. Maybe you recognize this photo from my book, Geology Underfoot in Western Washington.

I am leading free geology walks at Point Whitehorn in Whatcom County  this Saturday, June 4, as part of Whatcom Land Trusts annual “What’s the Point” nature walks. The walks are at 10:00 and 11:30 AM, and will start on the beach. Each lasts an hour or so, and lots of time for questions. BRING THE KIDS!

Getting there: From I-5 Exit 266 (north of Ferndale), drive west on Grandview Road 8.5 miles.  Follow the road as it curves left and becomes Koehn Road. Continue 0.5 miles to a parking area on the left. There is a 3/4 mile accessible trail through lowland forest, including a sizable (by modern standards) grove of large spruce, to overlooks atop the bluffs, with nice polished dunite benches. The trail then switchbacks 75′ down to the cobble beach.

The geo walks will look at beach rocks and glacial till in the bank along the shore. I wrote about the geology at the beach in one of the first posts on this website: https://nwgeology.wordpress.com/the-fieldtrips/point-whitehorn-whatcom-county/

The rest of the program: (http://www.whatcomlandtrust.org/ for more info)

All-star Naturalist Team:

Bob Lemon, Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve Citizen Stewardship Committee (Native plants, intertidal life, seaweeds)

Lyle Anderson, Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve Citizen Stewardship Committee (Native plants, birds)

Doug Stark (Marine Resources Committee) and Casey Cook (Marine Life Center)will lead tidepool tours for kids at 10:30a and 11:00a

Michael Kyte, DNR

Marie Hitchman, seaweed expert

Victoria Souze, Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network

 

 

WASHINGTON ROCKS- new geology guide book

Washington Rocks by Eugene Kiver, Chad Pritchard and Richard Orndorff

Published by Mountain Press Publishing. 130 pages. $18

Review by D. Tucker

Here’s a fun new geology guide to the entire state of Washington, hot off the press. Washington Rocks! takes you to 57 sites and provides a 1-3 page description of the geology of each. The Introduction  is a brief overview of the geologic history of Washington State. In a way this book is a ‘geo-light’ version of  Geology Underfoot in Western Washington. You won’t get much ‘meat’ here but it is a fun glove box guide to keep handy when you are traveling; in a way it is an upgrade to way-out-of-date and frustratingly vague Roadside Geology of Washington. Some of the sites are described for the first time [that I know of], and would remain forever obscure if the authors hadn’t revealed them in this book; examples are Turtle Rock north of Wenatchee and Dishman Hills near Spokane. Other locales are much better known, such as Mima Mounds and Ape Cave; some are interpreted in much greater detail in GUWW. Nearly all the sites are on the roadside, can be seen from a road, or are an easy walk over trails. A few are longer hikes. I have one rather serious bone to pick. There are few to know directions to see some of the points of interest in the photos. For instance, on page 57 is a fine photo of an ice-rafted erratic ‘on the flanks of the Rattlesnake Hills’ but there is no indication of how to find such an erratic. Similarly, page 15 shows some fine rounded granite tors ‘at Gleason Mountain in Pend Oreille County’ but the whereabouts of this mountain is not shown on a map nor described in the text. I would love to know how to see the feeder dikes pictured on page 6 but alas, only somewhere ‘along WA 410’, and how to get to the intriguing-sounding Abercrombie Mountain described on page 18. You’ll need to search the web to find out how to do that, or how to find the Dishman Hills. Apparently the authors are expecting readers to be able to find features on their own, and in a book of this size there must be limitations. However, another page or two to be sure that directions to all sites shouldn’t be too much to expect. Also please note that while Washaway Beach north of Willapa Bay is included, there is no legal access and you will have to walk past dire warning signs to access the beach at this wonderful  site. I left this site out of Geology Underfoot in Western Washington for this very reason.

Sign up for Geology Field Trip: Schreibers Cinder Cone, Mount Baker

THIS TRIP IS FULL!

Mount Baker Volcano Research Center subscription website

The Schreibers Meadow cinder cone, south flank of Mount Baker, seen from the north. Click to enlarge.

The North Cascades Institute is offering a one day geo field trip to the Schreibers Meadow cinder cone on the south flank of Mount Baker. The trip is on Saturday, June 18, and is led by Dave Tucker, one of MBVRC’s directors. The trip includes bus transport from Sedro Woolley and a trip hand out.

Registration: http://ncascades.org/signup/programs/geology-cinder-cones-and-crater-lakes

The cinder cone is the best-preserved in the northern Cascades, a complete, isolated little hill containing to lakes in the unbreached, double crater. The hike to the cinder cone is 2 miles round trip, with little elevation gain until the end. Just up the trail from the parking lot we hike 1/4 mile cross country through the boggy huckleberry-covered Schreibers Meadows, then steeply up through the old growth for 100 feet or so to the forested…

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