Mt Aix trailhead, 19.5 miles E on Hwy 410 from Chinook Pass, then 13.5 miles up the Bumping Lake road, bear left on USFS road 1808 and go another 1.6 miles.

Inocybe? aka "Little Brown Mushroom". I liked the wavy cap margin. We saw several other species of mushrooms, Hygrophorus alba being the most conspicuous.

Yellow violet (Viola glabrella), the first flower I saw as we started up the trail.

Vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylla), aka "Sweet After Death". Tender nodding leaves ubiquitous in the woods. In flower already.

Big Douglas fir, probably over 300 years old.

Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa). I spent so long photographing these along the first half mile of the trail that Tim came back to see if I'd been eaten by a cougar.

Two Calypso orchids

Tim waiting while I take yet another orchid photo.

We lost the trail under snow around 5300' about a mile and a half from the trailhead so we scrambled up through the steep open woods. Lacking ice axes, we tried to avoid the snow as much as we could.

Glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum). Growing on a muddy (temporarily) gravelly open slope with Springbeauty. Glaciers could be seen in the distance on Mt Rainier.

Springbeauty (Claytonia lanceolata). Abundant on open gravelly slopes recently free of snow.

Mt Rainier from our lunch spot at 6400'. This photo was taken without the polarizing filter.

Same as previous but with the polarizing filter. I couldn't decide which I preferred so I included both so you can choose.

Approaching the crest of the ridge. The trees are probably subalpine fir. AT 6700' this is about at timberline; above this point winds scour the ridge clean of snow and trees other than whitebark pine krummholz.

Alpine flowers not yet blooming near the crest of the ridge.

We thought this might be Mt Aix but no, Aix was another mile along the ridge. We settled for this, called it Mt Fakes. The bump near the summit is Tim.

Closeup of Tim with the real Mt Aix, 250' higher, in the background.

Mt Aix and me.

Looks like a mustard (Draba paysonii?) to me, fourmerous, superior ovary, yellow, early. Growing with Stonecrop here, phlox and alpine buckwheat elsewhere along the ridge.

Ladybugs had congregated on the summit rocks.

The exact arrangement and pattern of spots appears to be unique on each individual ladybug.

Crag in snowfield

Tim starting down the ridge

Tim glissading down a snowfield

Tim hiking down through the woods. We're still above where the trail disappeared under snow.

Coltsfoot (Petastites frigidus) leaves emerging. Common in the woods.

Tim back on the trail, hiking down. Patches of green vegetation are mostly coltsfoot.

Bulbous fir trunk.

Four-level overpass

Fir log about 2' in diameter. Wood in the center is 175 years old.

Doug fir trunks and spring leaves.

New vine maple leaves

Lady fern? beside a snowmelt stream

Trillium (Trillium ovatum) beside the same stream

View of Mt Rainier above the White River from Hwy 410 west of Chinook Pass.