Mt.
Dickerman
8-02-14
A crazy
weather forecast made it tough to choose a trip. Partly sunny with a
chance of thundershowers in the afternoon. I chose an early start to
hopefully be down before the lightening starting flashing.. I was last
up Dickerman in November 2012. That day it was 24 degrees on the
summit. This day I arrived at the trailhead at 7:55 am and it was
plenty warm. Starting up the trail I quickly noticed the humidity. We
seldom have much and it makes hiking a lot more difficult for me. Even
with shorts and short sleeves I had sweat pouring off my brow.There
were only half a dozen cars in the lot when I began. I quickly passed
one person.
The trail gains elevation at a consistent grade. Not much flat trail.
After two miles the grade does have one flat section. A long traverse
to the left leaves forest and has a few views to the south. Big Four
came into view then Vesper and Sperry Peaks. The gray sky did not make
for the best photos. It suddenly began to rain along here. Since the
chance of rain in the morning was zero I did not bring an umbrella. It
was way to hot and humid for a jacket. The best plan was just to get
wet. After only a few minutes the heavy rain stopped. I found
wildflowers at this elevation were mostly beyond peak. A few dried out
columbine mixed in with some tiger lilies. I found three Indian
paintbrush. There was some fireweed and some thistles in bloom. At the
waterfall/creek crossing there was water falling but it went
underground at the crossing.
A few minutes later I reached the meadows. There was a lot of heather
and Valerian in bloom. Some yellow flowers too. Not much else. One
hiker had zoomed by me earlier and I passed two others.. I had seen
several groups already coming down and now I met a third group
descending. I had accounted for most all the cars in the lot. A view
opened up across Perry Creek to Mts Forgotten and Stillaguamish. Not
much snow left at all. On the traverse over to the meadows
below the summit I did notice lots of small green berries. It will be
at least a month but there are a lot of them if they ripen. I had
almost forgotten all the big steps from the meadows up. I have long
legs. It must be a lot harder for folks with short legs.
The last switchbacks up to the top were better. The humidity had
lessened. I had heard a boom of thunder at 9:30 am and now it was past
10:00 am. The sky looked okay so I continued up. I reached the top in
2:23 minutes at 10:25 am. That was 10 minutes longer than it took me
with icy snow near the top on my 2009 October visit. I guess humidity
slows me down more than an icy trail. The one fast guy was the only
other person on top. All the peaks were out of clouds but the gray and
white sky was a little disappointing. Not the best photo conditions. It
was much darker to the south. I could see rain to the west
too.
Bangs of thunder occurred off and on. I never did see any lightening.
The sky remained lighter overhead. After awhile other groups began to
arrive. I spent nearly an hour on top. The dark clouds to the south
were moving to the northwest and missing us. Just before I left the
edge began to near Dickerman. Not wanting to test my ability to outrun
lightening, I started down at 11:19 am. Starting down the slope I met
more and more folks coming up. My early start did provide a lot of
solitude on the way up and on the summit. On the traverse back to the
lower meadow the rain started coming down pretty hard. Hard enough that
I stopped to pull out my jacket. Ten minutes late the rain stopped for
good.
The trail down is fairly steep and rocky. Not the easiest on the knees.
Still it went by fast enough. By 1:15 pm I was back at the trailhead.
Nine miles with 3900' of gain is a full day and it was still early
afternoon. The drive home was more interesting. Torrential rain in
Everett brought me down to 45 mph on the freeway. It was in the low 80s
back in Seattle. A wild weather day for sure. I heard a lot of thunder
and saw some very interesting clouds on the hike but thankfully I did
not have to deal with lightening. It was a fun day in the mountains.