Picture of the week ~ Lake Cassidy

Relive video of our Run/Walk to Lake Cassidy and back.

https://youtu.be/7ObNRyP7PSA

Cedar, Pine, Mud, Lost lakes and Raptor Ridge viewpoint hike

Yes, that title is a mouthful.

 We covered a lot of territory on this overcast and drizzly day.

We started at the Pine and Cedar lakes trailhead parking lot and made our way up to Cedar lake. 

Today's hike will be our last "long - up" before our April Super Spartan race. After this week we will begin a slow taper of distances and workouts until the event weekend. Our goal on these Thursday hikes has been to go long and hopefully finish with a good ascent total.

We then headed towards Pine lake.

We bumped into the Half-Fast Senior Trailblazers at Pine lake while they were stopped for their lunch break. I used to hike with them many moons ago. I started hiking with them in April 2011. It was fun to see some familiar faces still there in the group.We walked on down the trail and found a spot for "our" lunch break with a nice view of the lake and a bit out of the drizzle.

After lunch we hiked to where the trail intersects with the West Mud lake road. We walked the road to the Mud lake trail. On our way down the road I found a "Heart" rock.

I didn't get a photo of Mud lake on today's hike, but here's a photo of it from a past hike. When I read that days hike post I was surprised to read that I had found a "heart" rock on that hike too!

As I said in the beginning of this post, it was an overcast and drizzly day. Here's a photo of my husband down the road from me. Doesn't it look like a perfect day for a hike??!!

After enjoying the view at Mud lake we continued walking quite a ways down the West Mud lake road, we then turned onto another road (I'm not sure what road name is) until we found the East Burnout trail.

This trail connects with the East Lost lake Fisherman's trail. My husband is a great trail guide, he knows most of the little connector trails on Chuckanut mountain. The 4th and last lake we passed was Lost Lake.

After walking along the North Lost Lake trail for a ways we headed up the hill via switchbacks to Raptor Ridge.

 There was no view at Raptor Ridge as you can see.

We walked down the trail a ways and had a snack break and finished the rest of our hot cocoa. We sat in a rock cave of sorts. Too bad it has graffiti on it. It did shelter us from the rain while we ate though.

We then made our way back down to the Pine and Cedar lakes Trailhead. 

What a great day,!  Just what we wanted: A four lake tour, a viewpoint with no view and lots of miles with lots of ascent.

Garmin stats:

 Total miles hiked - 14.37

Total ascent - 3314 feet

Relive video of our route -

https://youtu.be/phrrVaxa2JI

Mon Oeuvre ~ My Mystery quilt, sneak peek

I started with a concept and tried to plan around it. I gathered fabrics that I thought would work with my idea.

I have it all together now and am starting the binding. 

I had lots of "after" revelations like: oops I didn't plan that out very well and oops I forgot about that and I wish I had done that differently. It looks pretty rough in places, not at all what a "great" quilter would approve of, but it's together now and it was a fun learning process for me.

Maybe next week you'll get to see the whole quilt😉.

Picture of the week ~ Moving on

Samish/Lizard Lakes loop hike

Rain and Snow that was our day today.

It was raining when we started at Lake Samish county park and it didn't let up all day. We hiked up the gravel road across the bridge from the park.

We spent some of our day on the gravel road and part on a trail. The forest was beautiful to walk along. It was very open around the trees, the ferns were abundant. We saw 4 deer as we hiked along.

 We continued up the road until we came to the British Army trail, which connected with the Lizard Lake trail.

Lizard lake was still partially frozen over. It began to snow as we were walking along the lake looking for a sheltered spot for lunch.

Our misty view of the Lake.

We tried to get out of the wind and rain/snow in our sheltered location. We ate in the forest just behind these trail signs. It was a quick lunch as we were both beginning to get chilly.

We hiked down the incline trail to the Blanchard mountain road and walked up it as we needed to head back towards Samish lake.

The higher we went on the road the more it snowed. It was very beautiful.

"Snowing" video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8jhloXcWbU0

Of course as we made our way back down the hill the snow amounts decreased. I took one last snow photo, it blurred a bit but I kindof like it that way. I checked my Garmin and it was still snowing at about the 500 foot level.

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 11.63 miles

total ascent - 2306 feet

Relive video of the route:

https://youtu.be/jom5HMri5Jk

Thank goodness for Gortex and Fleece!

Picture of the week ~ National Quilting Day

A day to Celebrate quilts and those who make them.

The quilts I've made: Sampler,

Dogs in sweaters, En Provence and On Ringo Lake.

Burnout loop hike

We started today's hike at checkpoint India, I know, sounds exotic doesn't it. We weren't on a vacation to the Orient, we were just parked at a local trail head off of Chuckanut drive. Checkpoint India is the emergency station located at the Larrabee State park - Lost Lake trail head parking lot.
What a day it was for our hike. 

Our plan today was to hike the old logging road up to Burnout point and continue along our way till we made a large loop. The junction to Burnout is about a mile up the road from the parking lot.

This was the view looking to the west, at the first viewpoint along our journey up the road. We could just see the Olympic mountain range in the distance with the low clouds.

 We stopped at the first view area in the Burnout area. There were small spots of snow here and there in the shady areas. I took a few photos of the view looking out at various directions.

Looking west towards the Olympic Peninsula

Looking towards the San Juan Islands

Looking south towards Skagit Valley

 We hiked up to the highest section of the road to checkout the view that overlooks Lake Samish before we ate our lunch. You can see our lunch destination in the photo below.

 As we were hiking up the road to the Burnout area, we had hiked through the burned area from last summer's fire. The trees in the area are marked for cleanup. We visited with some workers at the top, they filled us in on what will be happening to the area that was burned.
We had a nice view of Lake Samish and Mount Baker in the distance from the higher section of the road.

Finally lunch.
This area is very special to me. This is where I celebrated my 60th birthday. You can read my post about that day HERE.

See my new pack leaning against the log?? Thanks to my REI dividend and a $20 gift card, I now hike with my new Osprey Sirrus pack. 

I've been using one that my husband loaned me when I started hiking with the Trailblazers back in 2011.  I took this photo of it at the Fragrance lake trail overlook on a hike with the Trailblazers on June 2, 2011. After 7 years of faithful service I have returned it to my husband.

After lunch we made our way to the Rock trail. The Chuckanut 50k is this coming weekend and we passed their trail signs all along our way.

My husband making his way to the Rock trail.

After climbing the stairs on the Rock trail we came up to the Gates Overlook parking lot. The road was closed, so there were no cars. We were surprised by a layer of snow at the lot.

We walked down the road till we got to the Fragrance lake trail. When we got to the lake we followed the trail that goes around the lake. In the Fragrance lake reflection photo below I found it interesting that the sky and the water are such different shades of blue.

We then hiked down the Fragrance lake trail to the overlook. Remember the photo above where I shared my old pack. This is the same place. The sun was very brilliant when we got there. It was difficult to get a photo with so much glare, but here it is.

 Such a good day on the trail today. There was just the touch of a chilly north wind off and on throughout the day, but the sun was out, the birds were singing, the frogs were croaking and the sky was blue: perfect!

 Relive video of our route -
https://youtu.be/s1QY7Psg3Ss

Garmin Stats:
Total miles hiked - 12.14 miles
Total ascent - 2687 feet

Picture of the week ~ Mason Bee chalet

Heart, Erie, Sugarloaf Hike

We tried to escape the forecasted wind and rain by heading to Fidalgo Island again. I know, it's becoming a habit isn't it!? We watched our local (Seattle Q13 Weather guy Walter Kelley's forecast last night. He said north Whidbey Island would be getting less wind and rain, and since our goal is to hike "up" for our Spartan race training and our local hill are still abit snow covered we opted to head south again.

We started at Heart lake crossed the road and began hiking on trail #312. The trails in this area are a crazy maze, but are all numbered and "if" you go with a map and a trusty map reader like my husband you WILL get to your destination! We headed toward Mt. Erie first.

I noticed some first sightings of "SPRING" along the trail.

Skunk Cabbage starting to bloom

Trees and bushes beginning to leaf.

Most of the trails were moss lined and I felt like we were walking on Hobbit trails through the forest.

 

There was a bit of drizzle and wind on our hike today, but we were dressed for it. Of course when we were looking for a spot to sit down for lunch it was at it's worst. It took a bit of looking, finally we sat in a semi-sheltered spot. We still felt some wind and a few raindrops but it wasn't bad. There's my husband sitting in our dining room, doesn't he look cozy?!

Then it was onward and upward to the top of Mt. Erie.

Despite the overcast sky, we still had some pretty good views from the top. It was really windy on the top of Erie. 

At the Sugarloaf trailhead I spied a trail "Sprite", it was so nice to be welcomed to the trail. Yes, we do have fun hiking together!

We even had some nice views from Sugarloaf. The photo below is looking back at Mt. Erie., where we had just come from. The wind was still blowing here as well.

My "proof" I was on the hike photo from Sugarloaf with Mt. Erie behind me.

Time to cross the road again and hike to Heart lake where our car was parked.

Relive video of our route -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiikMaYB8q8

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 11.42 miles

total ascent - 2874 feet