Blanchard Mtn. and Easter weekend

 Saturday's hiking choice was Blanchard Mtn. and hopefully North Butte. 

My foot (plantar fasciitis) seems to be on the mend as long as I keep doing the things that make it happy: Stretches and exercises. I found Toe Yoga and Scraping particularly helpful.

We drove to the upper parking lot, which since I'd been here last has been blessed with a bathroom, Yay!!

We walked up the logging road, past the Alternate incline trail and up to the British Army trail. Since I'm a PNT fan, I'm always excited when we get to walk past the PNT signs, emblems and Blazes when we hike on these sections.

Me, excited to not only be on the PNT but to be done with the uphill road walking. Now for uphill trail walking!

Always love when I find heart rocks on the trail. This was a nice sized one.

The top of the British Army trail is a nice fairly flat trail corridor with less ferns and more Salal bushes.

We walked along Lizard lake until we came to the North Butte trail junction.

We saw an Eagle way across the lake, but it would take a camera better than my cell phone to get a good photo. Here's my attempt at a photo zoom. Pretty blurry right??!! Zoom in on the photo above and see if you can spot where the Eagle is.

Before we headed up to North Butte, I felt like I needed to take a break. My legs were feeling the incline we'd already done. After a sit down, some water and a snack I was ready to march on up the hill.

Our adventure dog checking out the scenery.

We sat on the rocks at the top for lunch, our faithful adventure dog took a "very short" rest.

View of the Salish sea from the top.

After lunch we headed back down towards Lizard lake and enjoyed the many Skunk cabbage blooms in the wet areas along the trail. Their pops of bright yellow were a welcome sight to my eyes after our monochrome season of winter.

Lizard lake view again.

My husband wanted to show me the views at a new trail just to the left before the Alternate incline trail junction. First we had a discussion about how I felt, since my body and my foot hadn't hiked much beyond 7 miles for quite awhile. Our choices: go on the new trail and on down the road for a much longer hike, go to the view area then turn around and then head down the alternate incline trail. The second option would make it a shorter trek. I declared all was good so on we went.

He was right, the views were great. Worth going out if even for a peek and turn around. We could see Mt. Baker, the Twin Sisters, Lake Samish and Lost lake. Even though the new trail is designated for hikers, it is shared with mountain bikers and horses, so everyone needs to practice safe yielding. Just as we left the trail and joined the logging road for our descent we got to step aside for a group of bikers. They were glad to hear their uphill journey was over.

Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters.

Samish lake

Making our way down the nearly 4 mile descent.

It was a great hike and by far my farthest last June.

Total miles hiked: 11miles

Total ascent: 1844 feet

I'm happy to say I wasn't sore on Sunday and my foot feels fine. So it seems we can take on most any hike we want again. I'm excited to hit the trails more regularly. I go back and forth with if I want to re-join the Trailblazers again, but it is very nice to be able to pick our own days, our own hikes, our start and end times, adjust our routes on a whim and best of all to be just the two of us on our outings. I guess you can see where I'm leaning.

We spent Easter driving up to Mt. Baker, stopping along the way for our favorite Chorizo Burritos at the The Waken Bakery Shuksan was spectacular with a beautiful Easter blue sky.

The Ravens at the lower ski area were ready for Easter too!