Pine and Cedar lakes hike

It was a very dark, and wet day on the trail today. It was so dark that I had to turn on the back-light on my Garmin watch to read it. My husband and I are going to try to make Thursday's our elevation gain training day. We will try to hike "up" a substantial amount of ascent on these days to go along with our long activity days: Tuesdays and weekends (either Saturday or Sunday). So trying to get 3 long/hard days in a week. This hopefully will not only help us in our Spartan races, but also our backpack plans in the summer. 

We decided to begin our winter "gain" hiking with the Pine and Cedar lakes trail. The first mile is nice and "up", just what we wanted.

 After a mile or so of hiking I no longer had anything dry to dry off the camera lens on my waterproof camera, so you'll get a true "picture" of how the day was. 

A lot of trees came down in the fall wind storms this year. The trail crew have done a great job of keeping most of the trail clear.

After we got up the main ascent section of the trail, I took a video to show the conditions of the day. It was breezy and at this point a slushy mix of rain and snow was coming down.

https://youtu.be/c74VDpoURpk

We hiked out to Pine lake first and the bog board trail section.

Again a mix of snow and rain at Pine lake.

https://youtu.be/yWHOU9L6nfQ

We then headed to Cedar lake and hiked around it. We were planning on eating our lunch there but no luck, we didn't even take the time to sit down. It was wet and cold everywhere, we took a standing break and had a quick snack and a cup of hot cocoa. 

It was actually snowing more now and the wind had picked up.

I got a nice video of the snow falling as we left the lake, very pretty.

https://youtu.be/EZutRBjo8pI

As we were heading up the overlook trail, we had to find our way around these trees that had fallen over the trail.

Needless to say there was no view at the overlook.

We continued eating trail snacks that we had in our pockets, as we made our way down the dark trail.

Lunch was to be in our car as drove home. 

A great day on the trail with our bonus snow at the Lakes.

Relive video of the days route - https://www.relive.cc/view/e1039027381
or watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/rOQOqehWIFM

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 7.25

total ascent - 1939 feet

Mon Oeuvre ~ On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt progress 2

The first clue has been released from Quiltville. Each Friday is clue release day. I always print the instructions since the clues will be removed after the Quilt reveal in February.

I was happy that the first clue was easy for me, not too many to make so it went fairly quickly. 

Strips cut and sewn together.

More cutting. Making sure my seams nest. I made one practice patch to make sure I understood how to do it and to make sure it measured to the right size before I continued. I learned a valuable lesson with last years Mystery Quilt en provence. Don't cut up all of the fabric into strips, cut only a few at a time - then calculate how many squares I can get from one strip and only cut out that many strips. I did much better with this years first clue. I only have one cut strip left over.

The first two rows sewn together in a chain to save thread.  

Making it into a 9 patch.

First clue is done ✔

I love my little 9 patch!

"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.)

Picture of the week ~ a well loved tree

The Giving Tree
By Shel Silverstein
Once there was a tree.... and she loved a little boy. And everyday the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest. He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches and eat apples. And they would play hide-and-go-seek. And when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade. And the boy loved the tree.... very much. And the tree was happy. But time went by. And the boy grew older. And the tree was often alone. Then one day the boy came to the tree and the tree said, "Come, Boy, come and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be happy." "I am too big to climb and play" said the boy. "I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money?" "I'm sorry," said the tree, "but I have no money. I have only leaves and apples. Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you will have money and you will be happy." And so the boy climbed up the tree and gathered her apples and carried them away. And the tree was happy. But the boy stayed away for a long time.... and the tree was sad. And then one day the boy came back and the tree shook with joy and she said, "Come, Boy, climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and be happy." "I am too busy to climb trees," said the boy. "I want a house to keep me warm," he said. "I want a wife and I want children, and so I need a house. Can you give me a house ?" " I have no house," said the tree. "The forest is my house, but you may cut off my branches and build a house. Then you will be happy." And so the boy cut off her branches and carried them away to build his house. And the tree was happy. But the boy stayed away for a long time. And when he came back, the tree was so happy she could hardly speak. "Come, Boy," she whispered, "come and play." "I am too old and sad to play," said the boy. "I want a boat that will take me far away from here. Can you give me a boat?" "Cut down my trunk and make a boat," said the tree. "Then you can sail away... and be happy." And so the boy cut down her trunk and made a boat and sailed away. And the tree was happy ... but not really. And after a long time the boy came back again. "I am sorry, Boy," said the tree," but I have nothing left to give you - My apples are gone." "My teeth are too weak for apples," said the boy. "My branches are gone," said the tree. " You cannot swing on them - " "I am too old to swing on branches," said the boy. "My trunk is gone, " said the tree. "You cannot climb - " "I am too tired to climb" said the boy. "I am sorry," sighed the tree. "I wish that I could give you something.... but I have nothing left. I am just an old stump. I am sorry...." "I don't need very much now," said the boy. "just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired." "Well," said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, "well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest." And the boy did. And the tree was happy

Picture of the week ~ 85 miles on his 85th birthday

My dad completed his 85 mile run to celebrate his 85th birthday!

So inspired by his determination and grit. He never stopped putting one foot in front of the other. He began running 7 minutes/walking 3 minutes intervals, but at mile 60 he developed severe back pain and was forced to walk the remainder. I was so impressed with his perseverance to continue on with the pain he was having. 

Click this Link to read his blog (He blogged his 80 miles on his 80th birthday on this blog as well)

Picture of the week ~ Fall colors on the Chain lakes loop trail

Our "long" day walk on the Centennial trail yesterday:

Relive video of our route

or view on YouTube

https://youtu.be/4tIA-_A6f5E

Garmin stats:

total miles walked - 8.5 miles

total ascent - 164 feet

Bellingham walk/run tour

I love my walk/runs in Bellingham, (I walk 3 min.'s/run 7 min.'s, using my Jeff Galloway timer), but there are some areas that I will no longer feel comfortable running alone. This makes me sad. There's definitely some sketchy areas in this beautiful town now. I'm so glad my husband was at my side.

 Relive video of our route from Wednesday.

or view on YouTube

https://youtu.be/4Zd8-T-_izU

Garmin stats:

total miles - 8.68

total ascent - 354 feet

Mon Oeuvre ~ On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt progress 1

"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.)

It's mystery quilt season. I have decided that I will attempt it again this year. The theme and color chips have been released on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. I went to Lowe's and got my chips.

I then went to two fabric stores to pick out my fabrics. Even though Bonnie Hunter sews primarily scrappy quilts, that is too mind boggling for me, so I'll be sewing with one fabric from each chip color. I have my blue/green (her color choice for the boat), the coral/melon (her color choice for the sunrise). I found a textured looking fabric for the neutral (cream/beige) and a dark mix for the chocolate (contrast).

It took me a couple of trips to find just the right blue/green to suit my taste, but I'm happy with what I found.

Here's the inspiration photo she had for picking the name and the colors this year.

I'm ready to take the dive into "On Ringo lake"

The next clue will be around the end of November, so lots of time for deep breathing practicing.

Picture of the week ~ Mystery Quilt is on!

Colors revealed

Railroad trail run

I have a new motto "go long, work hard, get strong". 

We've added another long day activity to our week. We now are trying to do 3 long day activities. Today my husband and I walked 3 min./ran 7 min. intervals on the Railroad trail.

It was raining when we started and it let up a little during the run but came back hard at the end. When we came to the section by Lake Whatcom the wind picked up, and I was cold. So to sum up the day, it was chilly, it was wet and it was beautiful.

Relive video of the route

or YouTube

https://youtu.be/popv0WpdPjw

Garmin stats:
Total miles - 7.77
total ascent -568 feet

When we got home, "I" was extremely happy to see our first snow of the year! 

Falling snow video on YouTube link.

https://youtu.be/v5xV4wQgktI