We started out from the Shannon Creek trailhead at 10 AM under mostly cloudy skies. The warm, humid air along with our heavy packs made the hike up the rough trail extremely sweaty, and soon a plague of black flies added to our misery. As we neared treeline (quite low here, near 4800 ft), the skies cleared and the balck flies dissipated, and we were rewarded with a fine view of Mount Baker (10778 ft / 3285 m) a few miles to the west.