Thursday, January 7, 2016

Teddy Bear Cove Trailblazer hike

It's been awhile since I've hiked with our Trailblazer group. The last hike I was on was the Fragrance Lake hike on Nov. 5th. Before I share today's hike, I'll update you on why I've missed so many weeks. I've had what I thought was a cold since October. I've had the same symptoms 3 years in a row now, starting in October and lasting till early January. My naturopath has finally decided that it really may be a seasonal allergy instead. So next week I'll go in for some testing to determine if that is indeed the case. Seems mighty suspicious doesn't it? I'm beginning to agree with him that a fall allergy may be the culprit.
Anyway........back to today's hike. Our destination was Teddy Bear Cove. The last time I hiked there with this group was in 2014, you can read about that hike HERE.
18 of us met at the Bellingham Senior Center. The parking lot was a bit slick from a coating of ice on the pavement. It was a bit chilly, in the low 30's for our hike.
We began at the Cleator road parking area and walked north on the interurban trail.

You can see it's a bit frosty for our start.

We had a nice view of Clarke's point through the trees as we walked along the interurban trail,

After crossing Chuckanut drive we connected with the trail.

We ate our lunches at the beach. I took the photo below near someones beach fort, you can see our group tucked in near the large rocks.

It was nice to feel the sun's warmth as we sat enjoying the view of crystal clear water and the bay.



I was away too long, it felt wonderful to be back with these great people and my hiking pack and poles :-) 
If you enlarge the picture below you can see the silver star on my pack. Ed gave it to me after he found it on the beach. 
My welcome back star?!

I loved this picture of Anne as she made her way up the stairs towards the road, capturing the very essence of why I love to hike.

Endomondo stats:
Total miles hiked - 4.55 miles
Minimum altitude - minus 31 feet?
Maximum altitude - 314 feet
Total ascent - 485 feet
Total descent - 339 feet