Hannegan Pass Trailblazer hike

Hoping for a sunny Thursday and hurray it was another beautiful day
in the Pacific Northwest! 

12 of us headed from Bellingham to hike Hannegan Pass. I was especially excited because I had invited my dad to join us as my guest.

The trailhead

The info. board with the typical bear warning and identification postings.

The views were spectacular!

We had lunch at the campground just before the pass. When we sat down to eat our fearless leader "Pat" had said we probably wouldn't go to the pass since we had stopped a little later for lunch, 

Lunch spot - my dad :-)

Lunch spot - my dad (again) :-)

but after we'd eaten it was agreed we would hike on to the pass. 

It would have just been a shame to get so close and not go on up.

Almost......... everyone

ooh aah

The view from the pass.

So glad we continued to the pass, it was another wonderful hike with the Senior Trailblazers 

& my dad :-)

Thanks for the picture, Nobuko!

Endomondo stats:
9.35 total miles hiked
3107 Min. altitude
5106 Max. altitude
7980 Total ascent
7331 Total descent

Chain lakes Trailblazer hike

The magic number is "12".

The wilderness regulations state that the maximum hiking group shall be 12, exactly the number in our group today!

We began our Chain lakes hike today at the Artist point parking lot.
(Reminder - click on the pictures to view them larger)

A beautiful if not a little warm (mid 80's) day of hiking.

Every direction I looked was breathtaking, I obviously could have taken way more pictures.

We stopped for lunch at Iceberg lake.

my husband couldn't resist a cooling dip!

after lunch we walked a little further enjoying the many blueberries along the trail. 

Jean put hers in a container for her pancakes tomorrow morning!

We saw lots of different mushrooms along the trail. Here's my favorites - by favorites I mean to look at, I have no idea if they are edible or if they should be eaten.

As I said earlier it was a warm hike, whenever we found shade we stopped to cool down a bit.

I saw these bees and a butterfly in the flowers beside the trail.

In a word, the day was "Glorious"

Endomondo stats:
5.48 total miles hiked
4643 Min. altitude
5266 Max. altitude
3943 Total ascent
3800 Total descent

Mt. Erie Trailblazer hike

Only 7 of us decided to show up and see where the weather would take us. We were scheduled to go and hike Yellow Aster Butte, but the forecast was for an increasing chance of rain, thunder and lightening later in the day. We headed towards Anacortes instead! The Anacortes area is usually a dryer option when it's rainy here in Bellingham. Fragrance lake and Mt. Erie were mentioned as possible alternatives and since it was Fred's last hike with us this season, we agreed with his choice of Mt. Erie.  Sorry the picture is a little blurry, but I wanted to show this one with Fred in it helping Carol with her rain gear.

We chose wisely there really wasn't too much rain to suffer through!

The sun filtered softly through the trees off and on during our forest walk.

We went on alot of different trail numbers: 302, 305, 21....etc., till I was very confused. I really didn't think I could retrace our route if it were left up to me. So thankful that Pat knows his way around so many trail systems as well as he does.

Owen's remark to the following sight - "He's really out on a limb"!

A welcome sign -

When ate lunch at the top, not much of a view.

but by the time we left....

ahhhhhhhhhh 

Pat showing us just how extensive the trail system is.

A wonderful alternative hike, and we didn't see any sign of the trail bullies.

Endomondo stats:
6.67 total miles hike
281 Min. altitude
1328 Max. altitude
6638 Total ascent
6759 Total descent

Anniversary Celebrating!

As I said in this post "42 years - Together" we would be celebrating our Anniversary. My husband took some days off & we enjoyed some of our favorite local places together. Tuesday we went on a drive to Whidbey Island and ate Fish & Chips at Keystone cafe, right next to the Coupeville ferry landing. We then drove leisurely around the Island stopping here and there to enjoy the area.

The best around - (stock photo)

Yes, we brought the beast with us :-)

Then on Wednesday (our day of love) we drove down to Arlington to begin our bike ride. We rode north towards Nakashima barn and back.

Our start in Arlington

have I said before that I love this trail!? 

Thanks to my husbands alert eyes, we saw this pond turtle beside the trail.

Pond turtle

Nakashima barn

We stopped at the barn for a late lunch and discussed whether we wanted to ride to hwy 9 where the trail ends. From the barn to the hwy it is still grass and hasn't been finished yet. As we were riding towards the grass path I spotted this sign right before the bridge crossing. We didn't see one, but it did make it a bit more exciting.

We rode for about 1 1/2 miles on this path, it was really beautiful. We then rode the hwy back to the barn to return on the paved trail. We rode about 20 miles total, afterwards we cleaned up/changed our clothes and went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Such a great way to spend our special day together.

Thursday it was raining but that didn't stop us, we put on our boots and rain gear and went for a walk at the BP public access area. We really enjoy walking here with our dog Lexis.

On Saturday we went to the Fragrance garden at Tennant Lake.

42 years - Together!