Hannegan Peak

June 20- 2024 -- Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Stats: 18 km / 1017m gain / 1848m high / 4:35 hours MT

What beautiful views, right from the get-go, Ruth Mt being the most outstanding of the peaks. But the dangerously hot temperatures that hit the 30s, made this a challenging day.

Our plans for an early start to beat-the-heat got squashed when it ended up taking almost an hour to cross the border. Then when we arrived at the Glacier Public Service Center, the rangers said they ran out of day passes! Thankfully Pramila, who'd been waiting for us for an hour, managed to get one. She left her car parked there and we used her pass. There was a long line of vehicles parked along the FSR road that led to the trailhead. We didn't start hiking till 10:00am and all of us were back by 4:30pm.

The first 6.4 km of fairly level trail ran alongside Ruth Creek valley. The Indian Paintbrush did not grow at the higher elevations.

Within 10-minutes we got these open views of Mt. Sefrit & the Nooksack Ridge -- south.

Mt. Ruth (2166m) to the right. Hannegan Peak is to the left, not visible from the valley.

There were four significant creeks along the valley trail. I took 3-litres of water along and drank every last drop.

The junction to the backpacker's campsite is just 15-minutes before Hannegan Pass (1554m).

We did not linger long there because of the pesky flies. The pass has a 3-way junction. We took the first trail to the left. The second one goes down to the head-water drainage of Chilliwack River and to Copper Ridge. The third one goes to Ruth Mt.

Water-blinks Pacific Valerian

Yellow Arnicas & White Valerians dotted this first meadow.

In only 1.6 km we gained 341m. There was no relief from the hot sun.

Ruth Mt. remained a constant throughout the day.

northwest

Nooksack Ridge -- west.

As we climbed our paces were getting slower and nearing the summit, constant count-to-ten stops were made to catch our breath and keep our engines from over-heating.

Coulter's Fleabane Columbines & Arnicas

Mineral Mt, Easy Peak & Whatcom Peak -- southeast.

Destination in sight.

Inching our way upwards during the final slog to the summit -- south.

Shuksan Mt (2652m) in the background.

Top two pics: from south to northwest.

These next six photos were taken next to eachother. Mt. Ruth -- south.

Mt. Shuksan in the background and Nooksack Ridge in front.

Mt. Baker (3300m) in the haze -- southwest.

Mt. Sefrit -- west

Goat Mt (1981m) is the pointed peak in the distance. The trailhead is on the same FSR that we'd taken earlier.

Slesse Mt (2160m) to the right -- north.

John insisted on taking this photo of the "unknowns".

Group shot: me, Lori Y, Pramila N, Peter F, John McL, Gayle Corah (new), Lonja B + Iraj F

Missing from this photo is Johnny G who almost passed out from the heat so he decided to join two other hikers sitting in the shade about 15-minutes from the summit.

Heading back down. I like this cluster of alpine evergreens.

The trail to Mt. Ruth skirts along the base of the scree slope of the lower knoll to the left, before following the ridge to the summit. Apparently that's the most exposed part of the climb.

Looking back at our group coming down.

Met up with Johnny again -- southeast.

Pink Spirea added yet more color to nature's garden.

Views of the valley once again.

Approaching the pass.

Common Bistort Monkey-flower

Even descending became challenging in the scorching temperatures. We kept stopping at the creeks along the valley to scoop our hats into the cold water and plop them on our heads.

Ice-cold martinies went down well at El Nopal's, our favorite restaurant to go to after a hike just across the border. This photo was taken with Iraj's phone.