Today we hiked from home again. We did a walk or as I'm calling it a "hike" since my husband had his pack on. It's a copy of our early April hike minus the snow and the coyote. You can read that post HERE.
We stopped for coffee on our return always being mindful of our physical distancing and mask wearing when near others.
My husband properly attired in his mask.
I parked myself a distance from the order window, so no mask.
I'm calling today's hike an agricultural tour because I took photos of the crops that grow around where we live. The skies were a bit dark and we had some rain fall on us on our way home but it wasn't horrible.
Lovely dandelions (not a crop) in bloom.
Blueberry bushes barely visible with the dark sky.
We have been keeping fairly close to our local area for our walking, running and hiking as of late in accordance with the Washington State recommendations. That is until today....
We are members of the Friends of the Forest ACFL or Friends of the Forest Anacortes Community Forest Lands. We got an email notice recently from the Friends of the Forest stating that their forests are open to hiking with limitations as read HERE. I commend groups and departments that are allowing people to still get out on their trails. The city of Bellingham is allowing people to use the parks and the trails as long as people use physical distancing and keep moving while in the park and don't use the areas to congregate or meet up with others. Emphasis on "keep moving" and "physical distancing". You can read the city's guidelines HERE. Our local Whatcom county parks have the same policy, which you can read HERE. I was dismayed to hear that the PCT, CDT and the Appalachian trails have all been closed, but then a bright spot of sanity in the world of current insanity I read that the Arizona trail is indeed open. You can read their guidelines HERE.
The reason I've titled this post "Sanity in a time of Insanity" is because there are so many grey areas in most of the announcements regarding what is allowed and what isn't allowed. What is "essential" to one person, may not be "essential" to another person. Should people in very rural areas be as confined as people that live in very large cities where the person to person contact level is so much greater?
I feel like there should be some middle ground in all of this and common sense used as we go forward. If an activity or business can be performed in a safe way for all involved then I see no problem with allowing those things to be continued. If we all wore masks and gloves and kept our 6 feet of physical distancing, I don't see why some activities can't start in a small scale approach. Test it out and see how effective that would be. The Bellingham Farmers market this past weekend was a wonderful example of this. You can read their standards HERE.
Yes, we drove a ways out of our local area today, We have always considered the Skagit and Island counties as our backyard for hiking etc. This is the procedure we followed for our day: We didn't stop at any business ie coffee shops, stores or gas stations in that county. When we got to Heart Lake we followed the protocol as listed in their guidelines: We made sure there were no more than 10 cars in the lot when we parked, We had hand wipes for touching surfaces in the restroom, I didn't touch any surfaces in or outside of the restroom with my bare hands. We wore our face masks when we came near others. We and all of the other people we saw on the trail made sure that we kept to our physical distancing. We didn't see a huge number of people on the trail, so it wasn't much of an issue anyway.
I just want to put it out there, that I am very appreciative of an area that treats us as if we are thinking adults, that realize that we can be good citizens if given a chance. I'm glad to be a member of such a wonderful group - Thank you Friends of the Forest ACFL❤
Pictures from our day:
Signs posted at the lake
Me hiking with my mask.
A nicer photo of the lake minus me, what a nice reflection on the water.
We are making an effort to stay within the guidelines of physical distancing for our state. Our hikes are taking some creative thinking, hmmm not too far from home and away from other people. We decided to do some field wandering at one of our favorite walking/running areas. Our goal was to walk as much of the perimeters as we could and get in about 8 miles. We figured that if we kept to the edges of the fields we would see less people. Our plan worked! Today's hike was much warmer and I must say more scenic than our last week's hike. You can read about our snow adventure HERE.
We saw many small buds, blossoms and flowers as we made our way around the fields.
We also saw several birdhouses set near the edge of the forest.
A few nice water views.....
and then the wide open fields that we walked around!
We found just the right spot out of the breeze to really enjoy the sun. I even got to hear a couple of chapters from a Patrick McMannus book❤.
I enjoyed the peacefulness around me as my husband read.
We didn't see any animals, but we did see lots of deer trails and prints.
An Eagle flew right overhead, I tried to get a photo of it as it soared overhead.
The views of Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters were fantastic!
Yet again another hike that was good for my soul.
We did a most excellent job of physical distancing today.
Here's my mantra for during this "quarantine" life we are living:
We're still trying to sort out how we're fitting in our "outdoor" time while complying with the Washington State mandates about the Covid-19 virus. We are very fortunate that we live in a rural area. We are within driving distance of larger towns so we're not too remote, but we can use the roads for our activities as there just aren't many cars on them. We joke that the roads in our area were paved just for us to bike, run, walk etc. We are re-thinking where we'll be going for our running, walking and hiking days. For now we're trying to just do our activities from our front door.
On Tuesday we walk/ran (we walk 5 minutes and run 10 minute repeats throughout our activity) to our Post Office to check on our mailbox, instead of driving there. It was just over 8 miles, so my husband said why don't we use that activity as our hike today. To qualify it as a hike, it has to involve the wearing of a daypack with water bottles etc. So "hike" it was.
Our friend the Northeast wind had been blowing a bit again. Yesterday's shorter walk/run distance had us running with and against 20 - 30 mph wind gusts. Even with the sun out while we were running it was chilly.
It was cloudy and breezy today when we left so we had rain gear and layers with us in our packs.
We didn't get very far before I was asking my husband to reach in my backpack back pockets for my wool gloves, and then for my lightweight buff for my ears.
Looking towards the east the clouds were a bit dark and the wind had picked up more since we were now in the open. If you enlarge the photo below you'll see the pink blossoms of the flowering Plum trees.
As we made our way farther up the road, I got colder so again I asked my husband to get my larger fleece Buff out of my pack. Here I am layered and much warmer, wearing mostly fleece layers for the day. I brought a rain jacket and rain pants that I could use as a windbreak if I needed them for that, but I stayed pretty comfortable in just these layers.
I took a panorama photo of a blueberry field with Sumas mtn. in the distance.
We turned a corner that had us walking directly into the northeast wind. My husband stopped to add on a wind jacket.
We passed by a flock of Canada Geese.
We also walked down to the river to see how the winter's flooding had affected it and it's channels.
As we walked across the Nooksack River bridge I saw a nice reflection of the trees on the river.
As we made our way into town we noticed a few snowflakes in the air. A person in a truck actually rolled down his window to proclaim to us that it was snowing. I think people are looking for ways to connect in this quarantine time, even if it means you yell conversations at people from your vehicle. On our Tuesday walk/run someone also visited with us from his truck and thanked us for talking to him while we were exercising. You can see the first small flakes falling as my husband makes his way down the sidewalk.
The park is officially closed in town. Bathrooms are hard to come by, we did find a sani can with sanitizer and toilet paper in it! It's amazing how our "thankful/grateful" list has changed.
The snow really started coming down as we neared the Post Office. I love snow and this unexpected "late season" lowland snow was a wonderful treat❤. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk through it and to feel it on my face again, so bear with me as I over-share my snow flakes.
We decided to support our local economy, so we stopped by one of our local coffee shops and ordered coffee and breakfast burritos for lunch at the drive through window.
The warm coffee and breakfast burrito were very nice to hold in our hands and equally nice to feel inside😁.
A look back at the snow falling on the hills in the distance.
Even though today's weather felt very much like winter, this tree declared otherwise.
So beautiful.
As we were making our way back home we stopped by the river again. Quite a bit of carnage from the winter's floods and windstorms.
We were once again treated to another snow shower!
Another video to click on! You'll see the snow falling onto a very green field.
We saw many birds on our walk: Robins, Varied Thrush, Canada Geese, Mallard ducks, and an Eagle. We also saw something unexpected (besides the snow). Out of my left eye I saw a coyote running along the field beside us. It was running very fast, by the time I pointed it out to my husband it had already ran out into the road in front of us and across the field to our right and headed into the trees towards the river. I never even had a chance to get my camera up and try to get a photo of it. So much excitement on our walk/hike today. Who would have guessed a simple walk or hike as I'm calling it today to the Post Office would have been so visually entertaining.
In the photo below you'll see the field the coyote ran through. It ran right past these geese and into the bushes and they didn't even fly away.
Today's stats:
total miles - 8
total ascent - 354 feet (I'm suspicious of this ascent amount, but thems the facts from my device and I'm sticking to them)
Exercise outdoors is an “essential” activity.
Movement is medicine.
Our “physical distancing” activity today was good for my soul.
