Thursday, December 7, 2017

Fragrance lake loop hike

Today's "uphill" training hike was the Fragrance lake loop. My husband and I have begun our 2018 Spartan race/Summer backpacking training. We parked at the Lost Lake parking lot on Chuckanut drive. We then walked up the Interurban trail and past some fallen trees that had been cut up and moved off of the trail. I spied this cute face on a log that had been fashioned I believe by a chain saw. PSE is doing some line work on the Interurban trail and we were able to walk around their work on our way to the Cleator road.

Then it was up the Cleator road about a half mile to the Two Dollar Trailhead.

I found this heart shaped rock on the trail. I love to find hearts in nature.

Waterfall along the trail.

We continued on the Two dollar trail and went past the Fragrance lake turn off. We hiked on up the trail and along the ridge before dropping down to the lake. If you've ever hiked around Fragrance lake, the upper trail we were on is above the rock wall that is on the lake's loop trail.
I took this picture of the Lake looking down from the ridge trail.

We then joined the Fragrance Lake trail that originates from Larrabee state park. We hiked around the lake till we found a sunny spot for lunch.



After lunch we hiked down the Fragrance lake trail to join the Interurban trail again. On our way down we stopped at the Overlook and looked out over Bellingham Bay. The morning fog was still hanging around the islands in the distance.

On our return trip on the Interurban trail the PSE work crew were still at work, but this time with large vehicles on the trail so we walked across the Interurban trail and down to the road. This is where the trailhead parking lot is. We walked along the road to the secondary trail that leads up to the Interurban trail, it's short and steep. It stayed a little chilly while we were hiking, but it was so refreshing to hike with a blue sky overhead.

Garmin stats:
total miles hiked - 8.50 miles
total ascent - 1690 feet

Click on the link to watch the "Relive" video of our route

or view on YouTube https://youtu.be/8W640MWPIrs


Monday, December 4, 2017

Mon Oeuvre ~ On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt progress 3

This week's Mystery Quilt clue is Flying Geese. I'm happy, as I've done them before in my Sampler Quilt. Bonnie Hunter listed several methods for making the flying geese and said to make them however we want to, they just need to match the finish measurement. When I made them in my quilt class for the sampler, we used the no waste 4 at a time method. This time I thought I'd try one of Bonnie's suggested methods. I'm using her Essential triangle tool. 
I have all of my strips & pieces cut.
Some of the cut strips

Sewing the right sky to the wing of the Flying Geese.

A bit of chain sewing done along with all of the cut pieces.


The rest of this week I'll be finishing the assembling and pressing/trimming.

"Oeuvre" (the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively: "the complete oeuvre of Mozart" a work of art, music or literature: "an early oeuvre" ORIGIN late 19th cent.: French, literally "work" - Oxford Dictionary.)