Little Cranberry lake from Avenue A, Trailblazer hike

As I packed my things last night for today's hike, I put in my rain gear. It was pouring outside and the forecast for today was looking pretty wet.

I was shocked to see 15 people at the Senior Center for the day's hike to Little Cranberry lake. After some discussion one of our members decided it was too wet and went back home. Frank and Marjan decided to hike Fragrance lake instead. So our group of 12 headed towards Anacortes, and yes it was very wet when we left.

Wet drive looking down I-5 south

We were cautiously optimistic about the weather, many times it is drier in the Whidbey Island/Anacortes area than here in Bellingham. The sky did lighten the farther south and west that we travelled.

We started our hike with a few showers that soon gave way to just a cloudy sky.

As with last weeks hike, the mushrooms are plentiful along the trail.

We were treated with the appearance of the cutest little Salamander.

We found a nice little knoll with a small view of the lake to eat our lunch.

Of course now that we were in the open and settled down to eat the rain decided to come down. 

You can see the water running in a small stream down the trail....

and then the sky opened up to......SUNSHINE!

Enjoying the view

We went a bit off our route and enjoyed going in to an old Copper mine.

Joe (thinking optimistically) came prepared for today's viewing of the partial eclipse of the sun that was supposed to happen today. He brought a piece of cardboard with a hole in it and a sheet of paper for us to see the eclipse.

Joe and Owen working together

I cropped the above picture, so you could see the image of the eclipse better. If you click to enlarge the below photo you will be able to see the partial eclipse crescent image.

What a day, I would never have dreamed we would have had such glorious weather for today's hike. Then as I turned into our driveway at home....behold, the frosting on the cake!

I know I have an abundance of photos in this posting, but can you blame me considering what we left in Bellingham this morning ;-)

Endomondo stats:

Total miles hiked - 6.95 miles

Minimum altitude - 226 feet

Maximum altitude - 528 feet

Total ascent - 829 feet

Total descent - 797 feet