Oyster Dome from Barrel Springs Trailblazer hike

Oyster Dome is generally approached from the Chuckanut drive trail head. Our fearless leader "Pat" had other plans for our Thursday hike, we would hike from Barrel Springs road.

20 of us headed up the Lily and Lizard lakes trail for our Oyster Dome hike 

& ever upward on Max's Shortcut trail.

We were hoping for some great views when we got to Oyster Dome for lunch,

but this is as good a the view got -

While we were there a Coast guard helicopter buzzed by a couple of times going quite fast and fairly close to our side of the hill. A little distracting, but if you like to get buzzed by large, fast helicopters you would have been thrilled.

As our group walks along we like to hear the names of the pretty or unusual plants we see near the trail. Our "chief botanist" is Penny. She can usually come up with not only the common name of plants but their scientific name as well.

This time as we were hiking along, Penny was a bit ahead of the group I was with so we couldn't tap into her knowledge bank. Jean, Owen and I were having a discussion about some plants we had noticed and voila Jean whipped out a flower identification book. I was thinking that if I were to bring along all of the various identification books I own for the out of doors, my pack would be very full indeed.

A couple of the pretty flowers we saw were the Twin Flower -

and the Ginger flower,

both were very small and delicate looking.

Just as we were nearing the end of the hike there was a Cedar tree beside the trail, that had a large area of the bark removed from it.

I had been to a museum in British Columbia a few years ago and had watched a video on Native Americans relearning things from their past and trying to keep their culture alive. This tree reminded me of a short video I had seen there on the practice of bark pulling. The bark is then used to make baskets and hats by weaving the Cedar strands together. I searched on YouTube and found this video on the activity. I hope you take the time to watch it, I found it very interesting and informative. If the video doesn't work for you, here is the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95rPwCDHOCE.

I don't really know if the tree we saw in the forest had been pulled in this way, but it sure looks like it had.

I am very thankful that I am able to be a part of this caring and fun group. They are ever watchful of each other and eager to help in whatever way they can. 

Water, snacks, first aid: we are well supplied, along with a smile and maybe a good joke or two ;-)

Endomondo stats:

Total miles hiked - 9.85 miles

Min. altitude - 831 feet

Max. altitude - 2126 feet

Total ascent - 3180

Total descent - 3247