Today my husband and I hiked a trail that we had hiked almost exactly one year ago. I didn't realize this until I went to look at the last time we did this hike. What do you know?!, we did it April 6, 2018. You can read about that day's hike HERE. On that day we included a wander along Whistle lake, today we just circumnavigated Mt. Erie.
We began our journey at the Heart lake parking lot. Today our plan was to hike all the way around Mt. Erie. Mt. Erie is at the left in the photo below of Heart lake.
As we made our way around Heart lake we noticed some great improvements. The trail is no longer a mud hole at the start but is raised and has a nice edge log along it.
The bench that has been "in" the lake in our last few hikes here, as in this photo I took in March of 2017
is now rebuilt and is high and dry near the lake's edge. Possibly the low rainfall this last month has helped the lake level, but I really appreciated how dry it all was.
The trees are magnificent along the lake trail. Here are the bases of a couple we walked by.
Below are two photos of just how tall these trees are, Spectacular!
We went through one of the "no" motorcycle fences as we made our way towards the road crossing.
Have you ever seen a tree with an "elbow" before?
The Skunk cabbage was in bloom several places along the trail.
Crossing the road so that we can hike around Mt. Erie. The trail is near the large tree on the left side of the road, by the orange caution cone.
When we hiked this last year I videoed the water dripping off of the mossy rocks. this year I just took a photo.
Currants in bloom
If you zoom in on the two photos below you'll see climbers bolts attached to it's surface. This is just one of the many rock climbing areas on Mt. Erie.
We stopped and had lunch at the same place we did last year❤
A view of Lake Erie and even farther out you can see Burrows Bay.
More Currants in bloom.
A view of Mt. Erie.
Looking towards Campbell Lake and even farther in the distance to Ala spit county park aka Ben Ure spit near Deception pass. The Hoypus and Ala spit areas are also favorite hiking destinations of mine.
Beautiful Madrona
Oregon Grape in bloom.
A larger view of Campbell lake with a peek at the Ala & Ben Ure Spits beyond it.
At our trail junction, trail #22.
A trail sprite peeking out from the forest.
We checked out the map below and decided to turn right and head towards trail #27.
There's nothing prettier or greener than new spring grass. What a lovely lane to walk along❤.
A couple other sure signs of spring:
My first sighting of the year, of what I call our "Pacific Northwest icon", the Pacific Banana Slug.
My first Trillium sighting of the year❤
I love this circumnavigation trail of Mt. Erie, so many beautiful areas to walk through and to view.
Relive video of today's route:
Garmin stats:
total miles hiked - 8.63
total ascent - 1568 feet
total descent - 1473 feet
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